Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

[monsoon]

Apparently because this latest fiasco, and according to the Huntersville Herald in a very long article about the upcoming decisions to be made by the MTC, county commissioner Jim Puckett has asked the county staff to give him options about either repealing the transit tax and/or redirecting it to something other than rail transit. Oh and our local transit critic, David Hartgen is having a field day about it. i.e. Quick to make the point the Blue Line was supposed to cost $227M and now its blowing its budget of $427M.

If the transit tax was repealed, it would kill the rest of the 2025 plan and the area would have one single transit line down South Blvd. This is why I said above that running over the budget like this, is really really bad. There are a lot of people that would like to see this killed. The city needs to do what it can quickly to fix this issue and make sure it does not happen again.

[dubone]

This is wretched. It won't pass, but it is wretched.

[uptownliving]

Apparently because this latest fiasco, and according to the Huntersville Herald in a very long article about the upcoming decisions to be made by the MTC, county commissioner Jim Puckett has asked the county staff to give him options about either repealing the transit tax and/or redirecting it to something other than rail transit. Oh and our local transit critic, David Hartgen is having a field day about it. i.e. Quick to make the point the Blue Line was supposed to cost $227M and now its blowing its budget of $427M.

If the transit tax was repealed, it would kill the rest of the 2025 plan and the area would have one single transit line down South Blvd. This is why I said above that running over the budget like this, is really really bad. There are a lot of people that would like to see this killed. The city needs to do what it can quickly to fix this issue and make sure it does not happen again.

Jim Puckett is the Mecklenburg County Commisioner that represents most of the North Meck towns. Is he not in favor of the proposed North Commuter Line?

September 25th, the City Staff is expected to have a full report on the latest Blue Line debacle and it will be in open session with the Council Members. They can't discuss legal issues in open session, all of that will have to be discussed in closed session until the lawsuit is over.

[monsoon]

Jim Puckett is the Mecklenburg County Commisioner that represents most of the North Meck towns. Is he not in favor of the proposed North Commuter Line?...

Most likely it is because this is a county tax that is being spent by a department of the city of Charlotte. It's a rather odd arrangement and given the rather frosty relationship between the county and city commissions, I can see where this is coming from. No doubt he may have others joining him because of it. I think the county is at least owed an explaination and possibly the cost overruns should come out of the Charlotte city budget instead of the county transit tax. This has a ways to play out and more than the city council is going to have a say in what happens. I agree with Dub that Puckett's move probably won't pass, but the debate will give him political ammunition to use against the city.

CATS is expected to present it's revised trasit plan on the 27th just two days later. Bad timing for sure because it casts doubts on everything that CATS will present for the future transit lines. The article made mention that Tober's tenure may be short lived.

[RiverwoodCLT]

When all the ice caps melt and the eastern sea board is under 20 ft of water, will these County Commisioners still want to keep on polluting our enviroment with carbon dioxide. We must look into the future, and not just for the next election to get elected again.

All we will have is a parking lot on I77 south out of north Mecklenberg.

I do not think very many polltican care what happens to the

enviroment as long as they can get re-elected.

"Complex global environmental problems...are not simply scientific problems. They are also problems of policy, law, economics, and human behavior."

- Kilaparti Ramakrishna

See these for my concern

http://whrc.org/carbon/index.htm

http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/genera...ualreport06.pdf

[monsoon]

When all the ice caps melt and the eastern sea board is under 20 ft of water, will these County Commisioners still want to keep on polluting our enviroment with carbon dioxide. We must look into the future, and not just for the next election to get elected again.....

Well, debates over the role of transit in the prevention of global warming really are off topic in this particular thread. Lets not go there.

[nyxmike]

What I don't understand is this:

If it ends up being one single line, then taxpayer money is wasted. Not only that, but it looks stupid. They already are building the thing - why would you want to kill the transit plan when almost $500 million of money has already been dumped on one line. I am really hoping for the Northeast section - the fact that it will connect to UNCC is very important. I think the North commuter line is equally important as well. People always say they don't want to be like Atlanta, but at the same time they don't want to change their lifestyles. People in Atlanta refused to change their lifestyles, and now they are sitting in traffic.

[uptownliving]

Most likely it is because this is a county tax that is being spent by a department of the city of Charlotte. It's a rather odd arrangement and given the rather frosty relationship between the county and city commissions, I can see where this is coming from. No doubt he may have others joining him because of it. I think the county is at least owed an explaination and possibly the cost overruns should come out of the Charlotte city budget instead of the county transit tax. This has a ways to play out and more than the city council is going to have a say in what happens. I agree with Dub that Puckett's move probably won't pass, but the debate will give him political ammunition to use against the city.

CATS is expected to present it's revised trasit plan on the 27th just two days later. Bad timing for sure because it casts doubts on everything that CATS will present for the future transit lines. The article made mention that Tober's tenure may be short lived.

You didn't answer my question. I can't remember if Jim Puckett has supported the North Line.

This is an election year...and Puckett is running AT LARGE for County Commision this year instead of in his usual North Meck district. He is doing this to purely score politcal points and get recognition because he knows as well as the rest of us that it won't fly. I suspect he would get the support of Bill James...but not anyone else (well maybe Dan Bishop).

Just a note that all these elected officials that are trying to score points on this by calling for everyone to resign are going to look pretty stupid if CATS ends up getting all the cost overruns, refunded to them in court.

[monsoon]

You didn't answer my question. I can't remember if Jim Puckett has supported the North Line.

I can't say that I ever remember him saying much about it until now. It's clear he needs a platform to run on for an at large seat and this appears to be part of it. CATS cost overruns are handing him a campaign on a silver platter.

About the court case, Parsons has said that CATS has not even notified them of any problems. In any case, getting the courts involved in building a transit system will provide a lot of fodder for the critics no matter who turns out to be right about it. If it causes the public to lose confidence in the transit system it could delay the build out of it by years if ever.

[uptownliving]

About the court case, Parsons has said that CATS has not even notified them of any problems.

I saw that too in their response. It doesn't fly very well considering that Parsons was officially fired from the South LRT project months ago. They weren't fired because of their good work.

[monsoon]

While I am not a lawyer, I think it is going to be difficult to sue a company if you never told them they did anything wrong.

[dubone]

That reminds me of FEMA not knowing anyone was at the NO Convention Center. I mean, it's been all over the news! Don't they have any local reps or account managers that might notify headquarters?

But seriously, U/L is right. They were fired from the job. How could they consider themselves unaware of any problems.

[uptownliving]

Well what they stated was that CATS had not "officially" notified them. The key word is official.

I did a little investigation of my own into this matter and found that Parsons Transportation Group was fired by the city at the begining of 2006 and that by at least April 10, 2006 City Council was aware of this. From the meeting minutes:

Mr. Leard (CATS South Line Project Manager) said the original contract, if I take you back to sometime the first part of the year (2006), originally had Parsons Transportation Group was going to be the consultant to carry forward into the design services. We had some disagreements and some contract overruns on Parsons side, and the City moved forward with basically stopping their service on the project, so this contractor was a sub-consultant to Parsons and performed very well in their work, so we are now taking them forward to continuing this role.

Ralph Whitehead Assoc was the firm selected by the City Council in April to take over the Parsons contract.

I am sure we will learn more when the full report comes out in a little over a week.

[monsoon]

Given they were fired in April 2006 (5 months ago) and CATS is just now figuring out there are cost overruns and schedule delays because of it, then there is something very wrong about the management of this program. Even if they did know for all this time, they should not have kept it from the government for so long. It hurts their credibility greatly.

[uptownliving]

Given they were fired in April 2006 (5 months ago) and CATS is just now figuring out there are cost overruns and schedule delays because of it, then there is something very wrong about the management of this program. Even if they did know for all this time, they should not have kept it from the government for so long. It hurts their credibility greatly.

Parsons was fired at the begining of 2006...before April 2006...because Parsons was causing cost overruns and delays. CATS was getting rid of the "cancer." I don't think that CATS realized the full extent of Parsons incompetence until recently at which time they notified the City Council.

[monsoon]

(sometimes I am convinced the Observer reads UP because...)

The Front Page Headlines of today's Observer says in big bold letters "Rising costs kept quiet for months. Followed by a photo of the new train with a big read "OVER BUDGET" stamped on it. Drama for sure as the Observer article in the way it is presented on the front page is going to fire up a lot of people. As a result Syfert has decided to hold not one but two "media briefings" today to explain the debacle.

Apparently if they go above $448M then the US Congress gets involved so I say their feet is in the fire over this one because if the Business Journal is correct and they have busted the budget by $22M, then they are over this amount. Not good for sure. The FTA, it seems, has already been involved in this by already rejecting 3 plans that CATS has submitted to reduce costs as being un-workable. And just yesterday the FTA rejected the 4th plan from CATS.

It is interesting that it was Syfert who held back the news but I suspect that Tober will take the fall for this. The timing of Syfert's evaluation is interesting as last week she got a pay raise and a $12,500 bonus.

The article is here

[uptownliving]

That article doesn't make things look good at all for CATS right now. At least the good news in all of this is that construction continues and they still plan to finish up by the end of 2007.

[monsoon]

... finish up by the end of 2007.

Yeah they have no choice in that one because the Federal money is contigent on them finishing the project by Dec. 2007. I don't know what happens if they don't meet that date as I don't see how the feds could ask for the money back but its something they probably don't to test any more than they have.

A lot of people are calling for Syfert to give back the $12,500 bonus she got last week. No doubt that would have been affected if the news came out when it happened.

[dubone]

I wonder what the A, B, C and D plans were for cutting costs. I wonder what the feds will approve for cutting costs.

This really stinks. Tober should not have been saying months ago that now things should run smoothly, as far as budget goes.

[MZT]

It's starting to sound less and less likely that Tober will come out of this unscathed.

So if I understand the timeline...

April, Parsons fired.

May-June, CATS (Tober) gradually learn about the problems

July- Syfert is informed

August- The council starts getting wind of a cover-up

September - BLAM! Front page story!

Yuck. Now we get to see the construction mismanagement on this line, give more braying time to David Hartgen and The Rhino.....

[uptownliving]

It's starting to sound less and less likely that Tober will come out of this unscathed.

So if I understand the timeline...

April, Parsons fired.

May-June, CATS (Tober) gradually learn about the problems

July- Syfert is informed

August- The council starts getting wind of a cover-up

September - BLAM! Front page story!

Parsons was fired back in Janurary...I think this is the 3rd time I have posted that now.

Council was notified no later than April of the problems with Parsons and why they were fired.

The rest of your timeline looks correct to me.

[monsoon]

According to that article, council only found out about the huge cost over runs until just recently. That is in fact what is plastered on the front page of the Observer today. What has not been made public is Parson's role in this and it sounds as if it goes well beyond problems with them. Even if Parson's did cause every single issue being faced by CATS right now, their role in it has become irrelevant. This is being billed as a big f*ckup by CATS and it was covered up by the City Manager and Tober. A lot of people are no doubt calling their council representatives and the Mayors demanding that something should be done.

Though it has nothing to do with it, it certainly doesn't help that property taxes are due this month.

[dubone]

I'm sure that is how it is being billed by Rubin. Rubin is just as anti-transit as the Rhino guys and the WBTV guys.

This is the tabloidism that you normally speak of, metro. Rubin doesn't like Tober, so he pumping this up as a major coverup and secret boogieman conspiracy.

But the largest of the cost overruns is the parking deck soil, which is a Parsons screw up, but was only found recently.

[uptownliving]

All of the cost overruns on the project by Parsons are well documented and are all public information...anyone can go on the charmeck.org website and look at all of them...all of which were approved by City Council.

I'm not buying into any coverup or conspiracy theories at this time as the facts simply don't support it.

I am looking forward to the full report coming out in about a week. It will contain a lot of facts...which is what I live on...not baseless speculation and tabloidism.

[monsoon]

What we do know is this.

• CATS no longer has enough money to build this project.

• The stated reasons are because of design flaws, scheduling issues, and mis-management.

• Tober has said that Parsons is to blame for this. Parsons has said they were never told of any deficiencies.

• CATS is in danger of going over the amount that will trigger a US Congressional review of the project. This certainly would not be good for Charlotte as it will give the FTA a black eye for approving the system in the first place.

• CATS has submitted 4 plans to correct the problem to the FTA. All have been rejected as being unworkable

• CATS has known there were issues at least 9 months. However, City council, the public, the MTC and the county council were held in the dark until last week. The city manager, who is ultimately responsible for this project, got her review last week.

• There have been mention of lawsuits.

I think we can safely conclude there needs to be some changes at CATS and possibly the city management. Forgetting who is ultimately to blame for this mess, item #1 is the most important. There is no longer enough money to build this project.