This stuff about CATS suing Parsons because the South Blvd. light rail line is over budget is smelling more by the minute.
Back in April 2005 (no link anywhere I could, find just a Lexis-Nexis record of a story by former Observer transportation reporter Dianne Whitacre) a city audit found that Parsons had overcharged the city by some $357,000. This on what was then just $21 million in work for CATS, not the $38 million line-item CATS chief Ron Tober trotted out last night.
The story continues:
“I think most of the time when this kind of thing happens it is inadvertent,” Tober told the Observer. “They didn’t catch it and we didn’t catch it.”
CATS, Parsons Transportation and the city audit department will meet to discuss the findings and review documents in order to determine how much money the city will be credited against future billings. The matter should be settled by June 30.
…
Future billing forms will be designed so it will be easier to spot problems, Tober said.
Officials at Parsons Transportation did not return a phone call asking for comment. The same firm has been hired to plan an extension of the light-rail line to the University City area.
Mayor Pat McCrory said he was disappointed with the audit findings and would insist that CATS be reimbursed for all money it is due.
CATS asked the city auditor’s office to look into the light-rail line’s billings. Tober said he regularly requested audits when he headed the transit agency in Cleveland and is continuing that practice in Charlotte.
Now how does any of that square with what we are being told in September 2006?
It doesn’t because the current line is 100% spin from CATS, Tober, and City Manager-for-Life Pam Syfert. Over a year ago CATS knew, stone cold knew, that Parsons was submitting questionable charges for mundane things like cell phones, rental cars, meals, and air travel. And no one at CATS stopped to think about the big picture Parsons was responsible for? And the local taxpayers have handed Parsons another $17 million since then? Unreal.
Actually, not really. Because beginning way back in 1998, when the choo-choo dreams were first dreamt, there were serious questions raised by some members of the Charlotte city council the system’s cost, oversight, and its design.
You might not remember that — Tober and Syfert and McCrory are betting you don’t — it was so long ago that the 9.6 mile line was over a 11 miles long and was to cost all of $227 million.
Oh, and there was a walk-way bridge between South End and Uptown back then. CATS has swept that away too.
