Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Montgomery County Md's Isiah Leggett: county executive or self-appointed land development guru?

one has to wonder about the wisdom of an elected county executive who, in his legacy building, rejects widespread and time-tested good-government practices in favor of "innovative" land development schemes. specifically, one has to wonder about Isiah Leggett, Montgomery County MD's county executive.

"But nearly a decade in, as Leggett (D) nears the end of his 12-year tenure, this signature project has not gone forward as expected. Only a fraction of the money anticipated from land sales to private developers has been paid so far. And the county’s difficulty in finding a new site for a school system bus depot has slowed progress on a major portion of the planned Shady Grove community, including a new park and elementary school.

Critics on the County Council say Leggett overpromised and underdelivered, adding to the county’s $3.2 billion debt by borrowing against land sales proceeds that have yet to materialize.

“This is just not a good news story,” said Council President Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), one of three council incumbents running for county executive in the 2018 Democratic primary.

But Leggett says he devised a creative way to replace outdated buildings and pursue transit-oriented development policies far more quickly, and effectively, than had been done in the past. Even his own staff was skeptical, he recalled in an interview.

“I was the sole person who believed we could move all these pieces,” he said. “You can argue that a few dollars didn’t come in at the precise time. . . . The county comes out far ahead in the long-term.”

...

Council member George Leventhal (D-At Large) said it was “not good planning” to jump into the development venture without knowing where the depot would be moved.

“I don’t think it’s something we can foist on a community just to transform a Metro station,” said Leventhal, also a candidate to succeed Leggett as county executive.

The Shady Grove initiative has generated an unexpected level of debt. Most big capital improvements, like roads and schools, are financed through the sale of general obligation bonds, where principal and interest are usually paid off over 20 years. But the Leggett administration, interested in moving quickly and anticipating that land-sales proceeds would soon be in hand, kept the smart growth projects out of the capital budget, opting instead to use $200 million in short-term loans on which it only paid interest. Such interim financing is meant to be retired quickly, to avoid added expense for taxpayers. But the county is still carrying a balance of about $160 million.

...

Looking for funds to pay off some of the debt, Montgomery officials announced last month that they may use the $22 million netted from settlement of the county’s lawsuit against the designer and builders of the Silver Spring Transit Center.

The county could also sell more bonds to convert the debt from short-term to long-term. But that would crowd out other construction projects in the capital budget, which caps new bond debt at $340 million annually.
Isiah Leggett’s signature plan for Shady Grove is less lucrative than promised - The Washington Post


it didn't work out for the "monumental debacle" public-private partnership paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center.
it didn't work out for the silver spring arena (Proposed Silver Spring Arena Fails To Generate Developer Interest - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD ). 
and, it hasn't worked out for Isiah Leggett’s signature plan for Shady Grove.

image by EnLorax G. Edward Johnson




Sunday, July 16, 2017

the story of the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center: march 2013 to now

construction problems with the silver spring transit center became public in march 2013. 
Concrete issues at the Silver Spring Transit Center - The Washington Post

I began this blog in october 2013. in a post dated august 2014 I said:
"Much of the media's (print, TV, radio, internet) coverage of this story has revolved around politics--Republicans blame Democrats, etc. However, the SSTC isn't a story about politics. 
  • The SSTC is a story about serious failures in design and construction of a public work. 
  • The SSTC is a story about how government has wasted taxpayer money. (53% of the funding for the SSTC are federal funds, meaning ALL taxpayers, from coast to coast, are paying for this seriously flawed lemon. 11% are MD funds and the remaining 36% are Montgomery County funds.)
  • The SSTC is a story about public safety for those who will use it--if it ever opens.
  • The SSTC is a story about government accountability in protecting the public's investment and their safety.
  • The SSTC is a story about how government deviated from the tried and true, competitive methods for selecting a contractor (bids) and for selecting a design engineer and a concrete inspector and tester (multiple firms competing for the project).

The REAL story of the SSTC has yet to be told in the hundreds of media reports over the past year and a half. The real story of how and why Montgomery County selected the SSTC's contractor/builder, the design engineer and the concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector has not been made pubic."

silver spring transit center: The untold story of the Silver Spring Transit Center

it's been more than four years since construction problems with the silver spring transit center became public. has the real story of the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center been told? what are its lessons? most importantly, have the lessons been learned?






Friday, July 14, 2017

taxpayers lose in the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center "monumental debacle"

Montgomery County’s expensive private attorneys - The Washington Post

my comment:

"well said. ... the transit center suit looked to me like a case of legal chicken. on one side: the owner, Montgomery County--the hand that feeds private engineers and construction contractors. on the other side: the private engineering firm, the general contractor, subcontractors, the private inspection and materials testing firm, their big-pocket insurance carrier(s) and the insurance carriers' lawyers. 

The case was complicated by Montgomery County taking on the role of construction manager for the project. The county may have thought that they had a good case; but, if one "reads between the lines" of the KCE report (the private engineering firm that the county hired to investigate the engineering and construction problems), then the county's case wasn't as strong as the county made it out to be. Perhaps the county was counting on the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" principle, or the "deep pockets" principle or "my hired guns are bigger than your hired guns" principle; but in the end, it looks to me like the county rolled the dice, and they came up snake eyes. all were at fault, including the county."


The Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center "monumental debacle" is a classic case of what happens when politicians play with house money. 

Taxpayers--federal, state and local--lose.


image: misc 24



Thursday, July 13, 2017

Metro's mismanagement by committees of politicians who know nothing about running a successful railroad

Metro Board On Verge Of Major Overhaul | WAMU

my comment:

you can't run a successful railroad, or anything else for that matter, by committee--especially, 3 committees of politicians from different jurisdictions--4 if you include the federal government. 

been there; done that.

let's try something different than the abysmal failure of management-by-political-committees that resulted in ruining a state-of-the-art transit system in just 40 years.

let's get someone(s) who knows something about running a successful railroad, and put them in charge.

maybe they'll be able to bring metro back from the dead.