How and why did Montgomery County non-competitively select Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC, Foulger Pratt to build it and Balter Co. to inspect and test concrete and to serve as special quality inspector?
We do know that the SSTC is, as Councilman Phil Andrews puts it, "a monumental debacle". We know from KCE's structural report that the SSTC's severe concrete cracking and other structural flaws were caused by "errors and omissions" made by Parsons Brinkerhoff, Foulger Pratt and Balter Co. What we don't know is why and how Montgomery County selected them in the first place.
Private companies that provide services for most public works projects are selected competitively. General contractors for most public works projects submit bids. The contractor with the lowest qualified bid is selected to perform the work. Professional service firms (engineers, testing and inspection firms) for most public works projects compete with other firms to perform the work. They submit written qualifications and experience. Next, the most qualified firms are "shortlisted" and interviewed. The firm deemed most qualified is then selected to develop a detailed work plan and cost proposal. The work plan and cost proposal are negotiated; and, if acceptable, a contract for the project is executed.
The Silver Spring Transit Center is a public-private partnership, in which private companies can be selected non-competitively to perform services for public works projects. The normal competitive processes that are followed for selecting private companies for public works projects are waived.
Which brings us to the question: How and why did Montgomery County non-competitively choose Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC, Foulger Pratt to build it and Balter Co. to inspect and test concrete and to serve as special quality inspector when contractors and professional service firms for most public works projects are selected competitively?
Which brings us to the question: How and why did Montgomery County non-competitively choose Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC, Foulger Pratt to build it and Balter Co. to inspect and test concrete and to serve as special quality inspector when contractors and professional service firms for most public works projects are selected competitively?
Was cronyism involved? Were they selected in return for political "favors"?
Montgomery County, state of MD and US taxpayers (the SSTC is funded by local, state and federal funds) deserve to know the answers to these questions. After all, we're "paying the freight"--for the SSTC's initial, flawed, construction and for the "repairs".
All of us are consumers--we know the value of competition. How many of us, when we make a LARGE purchase (never mind one with an original price of $100 million (plus or minus), that currently costs $141+ million, and, is still NOT finished or open to the public), would choose a single vendor and write them a "blank check"? How many of us, after we find out that our expensive, new product is defective, would reach into our pockets and pay our single source vendor (even if it is our brother-in-law!) another $21+ million for "repairs" to our defective new product (even before we've had the opportunity to use it for the purpose for which it's intended)??? We'd have to be NUTS--or a member of Montgomery County's council!!!
If the high cost of cronyism is responsible for the SSTC debacle, then we should know it NOW--BEFORE it happens AGAIN with the Purple Line.
All of us are consumers--we know the value of competition. How many of us, when we make a LARGE purchase (never mind one with an original price of $100 million (plus or minus), that currently costs $141+ million, and, is still NOT finished or open to the public), would choose a single vendor and write them a "blank check"? How many of us, after we find out that our expensive, new product is defective, would reach into our pockets and pay our single source vendor (even if it is our brother-in-law!) another $21+ million for "repairs" to our defective new product (even before we've had the opportunity to use it for the purpose for which it's intended)??? We'd have to be NUTS--or a member of Montgomery County's council!!!
If the high cost of cronyism is responsible for the SSTC debacle, then we should know it NOW--BEFORE it happens AGAIN with the Purple Line.
Wouldn't this photo make a great jigsaw puzzle?
It'd be particularly appropriate since there is severely cracked concrete throughout the SSTC.
Take a ride down Colesville Road in April 2012, courtesy of Google Maps:
- Click on the large, street view photo to "move on down the road".
- Now click on "2014" in the small, street view window, and the most recent (Oct. 2014) street view photo will appear in the small, street view window.
- "Move on down the road" again by clicking on the large, street view photo.
Montgomery County, MD is the fertile field that Jonathan Gruber talked about.
- NO cronyism in publicly funded projects.
- NO more public-private partnerships (e.g., Purple Line) until ALL questions concerning the public-private partnership Silver Spring Transit Center have been answered.
- NO more "monumental debacle" Silver Spring Transit Center projects--once in a lifetime is MORE than enough!
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