CIP Delays And Overruns

To the Editor:

Newtown’s Capital Improvement Plan is a tool employed by the Board of Finance for prioritizing capital requests from the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen. The BOF submits their plan for Legislative Council approval. I recently reviewed the last ten years of CIPs and saw some startling trends.

Projects are scheduled and budgeted for the following five years. Once these projects are on the CIP, delays and overruns are rampant. Take for example, the following three projects:

1. HVAC Improvements to Hawley School. Originally scheduled in the 2000 CIP for completion during 2004 for $350,000, it remained so scheduled for the 2001 CIP. In 2002, it was scheduled for 2004 at a cost of $550,000 with an additional $46,000 scheduled in 2005. For the 2003 CIP, it was scheduled to cost $224,000 in engineering and management fees in 2004 and an additional $3,360,000 in fees and trade costs for 2005. (Don’t lose me, we’re not done yet.) The engineering fees grew to $290,000 in 2004’s CIP accompanied by a slightly reduced $3,320,000 in fees and trade costs. $3,320,000 remained as a 2005 expense in 2005’s CIP. This project escalated to $4.97 million, was approved by the Board of Finance to be completed this school year, but rejected by the Legislative Council. Now, these renovations are scheduled for 2010-2011 at a cost of $7,750,000, more than 22 times original project costs, and six years late. Herein we have an example of project management by our present administration. Even allowing for substantial work-scope creep, these numbers indicate ghastly management.

2. HVAC Improvements to Sandy Hook School. In fashion very similar to the delays and overruns at Hawley, Sandy Hook’s HVAC upgrades initially appeared in the 2000 CIP at a total cost of $412,500. They have been postponed numerous times and are now scheduled to be completed in 2011-2012 at a total cost of $3,788,800. This is nine times original estimates, and six years later than originally scheduled. (I’m not making this up.)

3. Rear Field Upgrades at the High School. In the 1997 CIP, this project was scheduled for completion during 1998 for $500,000. The 1998 CIP postpones this work until 2000 while costs are increased to $710,000. The following year, costs climb to $800,000 and the project is delayed to 2001. Work is finally undertaken during in 2001 at a cost of $600,000, while an additional $306,273 is spent during 2002. Final cost is $906,273 which is nearly twice the original estimate. This project was completed four years late.

What’s the point of creating a CIP if it’s scrapped and rewritten annually, costs are not monitored and schedules are ignored? All the money wasted due to these cost overruns belongs to the citizens of Newtown — these are not funds privately held by the Rosenthal administration folks who have been wasting them.

On November 6, vote for a change in town government — vote for the Independent Party of Newtown.

Brendan Duffy

Candidate for Legislative Council, District 3

Independent Party of Newtown

4 Chestnut Knoll Drive, Sandy Hook                       October 10, 2007