Audit urges closer look at future BES projects

Fish says enough already being done to keep tabs on spending

An independent investigation into cost overruns at the Bureau of Environmental Services office building includes 11 recommendations to make sure it doesnt happen again.

Commissioner Nick Fish, who is in charge of BES, thinks he already has done enough to keep future construction projects under control, however. Jim Blackwood, a policy director in Fishs office, notes the commissioner has directed BES to appear before the City Council any time a project is projected to increase more than $500,000. Fish issued the same directive to the Water Bureau, which he also oversees.

Blackwood says Fish is prepared to do more if recommended by the City Auditors Office, however. The auditor is close to completing a comprehensive audit on all of the citys procurement policies that will likely recommend many changes in the way the city spends money on goods and services.

We are looking forward to what the procurement audit has to say, Blackwood says.

The City Attorneys Office retained the Barran Liebman law firm to investigate cost overruns at a BES office building at the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant services building in North Portland. It started as a personnel investigation into how the costs increased under BES Director Dean Marriott. But when Marriott resigned after the investigation started, it was changed to look at lessons learned from the widely publicized episode.

Fish placed Marriott on paid administrative leave last October, just before the investigation began. Marriott resigned in early January in exchange for nearly $200,000 in severance pay and $49,000 in legal costs. He was protected by the citys civil service system and was preparing to fight any disciplinary actions.

The law firms report was released last Wednesday. Much of it confirmed an October 2014 city audit on the project that found costs increased in large part because BES officials decided the building should be an environmental showcase after work had already begun.

The report agrees with the audit that oversight on the project was lacking, and it faults project staff for routing a $95,581 payment to the architect through the construction firm after Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who was in charge of BES at the time, said he would not approve any more cost increases. The report says this was inappropriate, but not illegal.

However, the report differs from the audit on the estimated starting cost of the project, which reduces the size of the increase.

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Audit urges closer look at future BES projects