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6/22/2007
The city doesn't have a clue? Unbelievable.
I wrote the other day about the troublesome agreement the City of Appleton was being asked to accept as a result of error after error made in building the infamous $55 million Appleton Water Filtration plant. Though with much consternation, the multi-million dollar Settlement Agreement with Koch Membrane Systems (KMS) was nevertheless approved at Wednesday night’s Council meeting.
Council members, uncomfortable with the Agreement releasing Koch from all liability, did some public hand-wringing.
Alderperson Ed Baranowski: “’The council did do something wrong (in 2003),’ Council approved that test…I had every reason to believe that test was done inaccurately and it would never uphold what it was touted to be.”
Alderperson Jim Clemons: “I don’t know why we would pay more and get less than what we originally bargained for. Don’t we have an obligation to find out what happened?... If the City was at fault, I wish we would have found out about it.”
City Attorney Walsh: “There’s an intervening document that indicates Koch met the capacity tests.” Council members appeared surprised by this statement. Alderperson Clemons again: “I certainly would like to see that one…”
Alderperson Jeff Jirschele: “We’re in a bad situation. We don’t know exactly how we got here.”
Well dang it, I know how we got here. Darn frustrating. Here’s kind of an abbreviated chronology of activity documented in my six inch memo file on the subject. For the reader who wants to walk through some of the goings-on, selected documents below help frame the situation.
Here's a note to Mayor Hanna (way back in February, 1999) sending up red flags about sole-sourcing Koch Membranes.
Here’s the completely uncompetitive membrane bid award (April, 1999) that surprise, surprise, was the same amount as was budgeted.
Here’s a note to Attorney Walsh (December, 2002) expressing concern about the Koch warranty being signed off on.
Here’s the document (June, 2003) City Attorney Walsh referred to, that Aldermen apparently heretofore hadn’t heard of. It’s the document that explains the test Alderperson Baranowski refers to above. It’s the document that may assign blame to McMahon Associates, the plant’s engineers. McMahon certified (erringly, perhaps) that Koch met the terms of its contract. It’s a lot of detailed descriptions; the recommendation that Koch has met the specified production capacity is at the bottom of page 6.
Ok. Enough stuff and enough links to look at. You might say my words are self-serving and smack of “I-told-you-so.” Perhaps. But the absolutely critical message here is that public money is not meant to be thrown around lightly. And when it is, all involved must certainly learn from their errors (in this case, from the tragic errors). And leadership – city leadership at the top – must be held accountable.
The Appleton Common Council vote to approve the Koch Settlement Agreement was 11-5, the five Nays being Alderpersons Baranowski, Brown, Clemons, Kalata, and Lange.
COMMENTS
Our leaders ask how did we get here? The answer is simple. The fox was watching the hen house. All who know the situation know there was no oversight of this project except by the proponents. I think this entire matter is criminal. I believe our mayor should start managing all departments so we do not have another mess like this in the city. (See the salary watch posted by FoxPolitics.net.)
Your metaphor is a good one, as it may describe the relationship in those years between the chair of the Utilities Committee (appointed by the mayor) and the Director of Utilities (reporting to the mayor). The Committee Chair perhaps served the department more diligently than did he serve the ratepayers. JE
Jim Flading (Fri Jun 22 19:27:35 2007)
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