Comments

1
And Fish still supports the bloated CRC boondoggle after all this time, even though it's supposedly dead. Keep shoveling, Nick. You've got a long way down.
2
who was the design contractor? who is the cip manager? pretty soft ball.
3
The city, and this department in particular, has a history of boondoggles, and I completely believe that this is another one.

But my career is in managing projects, with degrees and certifications in the subject, and I wanted to point that it's not unusual for budget estimates to balloon right after the project starts.

Usually, the effort to explore design options is kicked off before very much detail is known - you're just getting a group together to study possibilities and make recommendations. Without any other information, that graph isn't scary to me. It shows that they wanted/hoped to build something for $3.2M, but after they brought in some engineers and started trying to design something that fit everyone's needs, they were told it would actually cost $8.9M to build what they were looking for.

What's important is that they then re-committed to that figure, and then stuck fairly close to it from then on. If it continued to balloon after that initial work, it would indicate their estimators had no idea what they were doing, or that someone kept adding new features, or that engineers made big mistakes. This timeline shows a fairly flat budget, after that initial investigation.

Final actual costs were almost 30% more than that first informed estimate, and that doesn't show great performance, but it's usually more worthwhile to compare costs to the first 'informed' estimate to than the earliest estimate, which is usually based on almost no data at all.

I'll repeat - I have no faith in this department, and I'm sure they made terrible mistakes. But this is my area, and I thought it was interesting that the graph you posted actually shows fairly solid performance - the opposite of what really happened, I bet.
4
Mayor Potter tried to fire Dean Marriott way back in 2005. So, after nine years of dodging the axe, Marriott is given a paid vacation.

If I get reincarnated, I want to come back as City of Portland bureau head ... they seem to have eternal life.
5
I would vote for LaVonne Griffin-Valade for any and every elected office in Portland.
6
@Reymont: Your point about the construction costs going up only 15 percent, once construction actually started, is right on. The audit noted it, and so did Commissioner Fish's office. What's interesting is that phase also marked when the project reverted to standard management practices. What's also interesting is that $8.9 million became the new starting point without enough people blinking a few times and saying something to city commissioners before the reasonably managed construction work itself started.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.