this guy is a fool...
Mayor wants to know why tram bill went into orbit
Audit - An expert will check the books on a $15 million project that cost $57 million
Friday, March 16, 2007
ANNA GRIFFIN
The Oregonian
Now that the sleek silver cars of the Portland Aerial Tram are running up and down Pill Hill, Mayor Tom Potter plans to bring in an outside auditor to explain why the city's newest transportation toy cost so much and how to avoid similar skyrocketing costs on future projects.
Potter said this week that he waited until the tram was finished to launch an intense examination of the $57 million aerial lift connecting Oregon Health & Science University with the new South Waterfront neighborhood.
City Council members OK'd construction of the tram four years ago at an estimated cost of $15.5 million. The final tally, according to tram project director Art Pearce: $57 million.
Rising steel and concrete prices accounted for some of the price increase. So did last-minute design changes, faulty estimates and a general lack of accountability among city managers.
"I'm two years into this job, and I still don't know how the decisions were made that increased it to $57 million. There is no trail," Potter said. "I really like the tram. I think it's going to become a Portland icon, and 20 years from now, people won't talk about the price. But the only way we can learn from this is to know what we did wrong."
That won't be easy. Most of the elected officials and bureaucrats who took part in the earliest tram discussions have left city government.
There's already been plenty of fingerpointing, particularly during the last tense months of debate before construction began last year. And the current City Council already has made several major changes in how they do business.
When bureau managers bring construction projects to the City Council now, for example, they must report how confident they are in the cost estimates. At the very least, that makes someone accountable if the estimates turn out to be wildly off.
Potter does not yet know how much an independent audit will cost. But he hopes it might reveal ways the city can prevent future projects from busting the budget.
City Commissioner Sam Adams, whose Portland Office of Transportation oversaw construction of the tram, says an audit is a great idea, although he'd like it to begin sooner than the mayor does.
Potter wants to wait until after the May 15 vote on proposed changes to the structure of city government, "so this doesn't become a question of whether the form of government was to blame."
"I didn't want to do this until the thing was operational, until we knew nothing else could go wrong," he said. "I also don't want to do it while there's any chance of it becoming a political fight."
Anna Griffin: 503-294-5988;
[email protected]
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1174013718231550.xml&coll=7
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