September 16, 2013

To: Clerk of the Courts, Amy Heavilin
State Attorney, Catherine Vogel
County Attorney, Bob Shillinger

From: Walter P. Drabinski
Sir Isaac Newton Coalition (SINC)

Re: CRWS Auditing

Dear Ms. Heavilin:

I am writing to you, and copying other legal authorities, on behalf of SINC with the following request. As you are aware from discussions we have had, the Clerk of the Court office has full authority to audit FKAA and the CRWS project. We fear that there may be a number of failings in the structure of their reporting, project management, cost controls and procurement practices. Therefore, we ask that you use the full force of your office to undertake the following actions:

1.  The Clerk should request all monthly and quarterly reports that are required for FKAA if they have not been provided. The Clerk should define what information is required in these reports to assure that there is complete transparency in how this project is being carried out, including project management, cost control, procurement, and any other aspect of the project that will impact cost, performance or schedule. These reports should be made public on the Clerk of the Courts data base. As a minimum we would expect the quarterly reports to include the following:

a.  Cost – Actual versus budget for each Basin being worked on, as well as the transmission and treatment plant. This should identify changes in quantities, unexpected cost, and other aberrations from plan.

b.  Schedule – An update on progress for each Basin versus that provided in the public schedules this spring.

c.  Engineering – Issues regarding project design, including proposed changes to the system, additional monitoring or other changes.

d.  Quantities – Since this is a “unit Price” project, FKAA should report actual and projected changes in quantities by Basin, and for the transmission line and treatment plant.

e.  Budget Estimate – An updated total; project cost versus original budget should be presented.

2.  The Clerk should request an organization chart of both the FKAA and County’s engineering group with responsibility of wastewater project management and cost control. Resumes of all project management should be requested, with specific detail on the following:

a.  Cost engineering personnel;

b.  Project Management personnel;

c.  Civil Engineering capabilities;

d.  Procurement expertise

Should there be a deficiency in any area; FKAA should be required to indicate how the skill sets will be provided.

3.  The Clerk should order FKAA, and the County Engineering, Finance, Legal and Budgets, as well as the County Administrator’s offices to retain all documents pertaining to any wastewater project.

4.  The Clerk should identify the type of audits that are needed and either conduct them or retain a firm to do so. In particular, we request a review of audit of:

a.  The methodology used for deciding on the use of gravity versus low pressure grinder pumps. You are aware of our contention that the numbers FKAA and the firm Matthews Consulting have presented appear to be inaccurate as a minimum.

b.  A review of all work or studies conducted by FKAA or its consultants to ascertain the potential environmental harm of using a pressure system with HDPE pipe.

c.  An audit of the specifications used for procuring grinder pumps form EnviroOne. It appears that this was in fact a sole source procurement despite FKAA’s statements otherwise.