10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
ODOT: Craig’s bid
was $104,000 more
than the only other
bid for the project
Continued from Page 1A
package. He also denied sug-
gestions that his relationship
with the department would
bias his review.
“I think all of that enhances
my ability to see what is good
and bad and what needs to
be improved,” Craig said. “I
think that is why they hired
me. It has never occurred to
me that somehow this would
be connected to pursuing
more work.”
Craig has published arti-
cles praising the Department
of Transportation’s past work,
bearing titles such as “Deliv-
ering Remarkable Results in a
Changing Marketplace: Ore-
gon’s State Bridge Delivery
Program.”
Susan Morgan, a member
of the Oregon Transportation
Commission, defended Craig
as independent, and said she
is conident that the over-
sight committee “will hold
Mr. Craig’s team to high stan-
dards leading to an indepen-
dent review of ODOT.”
“Given the short time
frame to completion, a con-
sultant who is somewhat
familiar with the organiza-
tional structure of ODOT
may be an opportunity,” Mor-
gan said.
While the Department of
Administrative Services ulti-
mately was responsible for
issuing a request for proposals
and choosing Craig to do the
review, Department of Trans-
portation employees already
had recruited potential con-
sultants. Those employees
also asked several irms to
give input on what the review
should include, according to
previous reports by the Pam-
plin Media Group/EO Media
Group Capital Bureau.
Two bidders
Only two companies bid
for the project: Craig’s irm
and Pennsylvania-based Pub-
lic Works.
The
Department
of
Administrative
Services
formed a procurement team
of three of its employees to
score the proposals based
on the quality of the exec-
utive summary, the irm’s
experience and approach to
the audit, the consultants’
resumes and pricing. Barry
Pack, former chief adminis-
trative oficer of the Depart-
ment of Administrative Ser-
vices whom Brown recently
named interim director of
the Oregon Lottery, made the
inal call on the selection, said
spokesman Matt Shelby. Pack
also served as a longtime aide
to Brown when she was sec-
retary of state.
Brown’s ofice reiter-
ated that she has entrusted
the oversight committee and
Department of Administrative
Services to select an “experi-
enced, independent consult-
ing irm.”
“This review will contrib-
ute to a stronger and better
ODOT to serve the people of
Oregon,” said Bryan Hocka-
day, Brown’s press secretary.
Craig’s proposal scored
10 points higher than Pub-
lic Works’ in all areas except
for price. Public Works bid
$246,600, while Craig offered
to do the work for $350,000.
Craig
directed
the
Nebraska Department of
Transportation for 10 years
before becoming a consul-
tant. Since then, he has done
management reviews of
“best practices” for programs
administered by departments
of transportation in Missouri,
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and
Washington state, according
to his proposal. Public Works
also has evaluated several
departments of transportation,
including those in Louisiana,
West Virginia, Iowa, Colo-
rado and New Mexico.
The request for pro-
posal “clearly stated that we
wanted someone with prior
experience working with
departments of transporta-
tion,” Shelby said. “John
has worked with ODOT and
other states. We see this as a
beneit.”
Stakeholders expressed
concerns back in January
about whether a Department
of Transportation audit over-
seen by transportation ofi-
cials could be impartial.
‘Truly independent’
review
Several advocates with
environmental and alterna-
tive transportation groups in
a January letter asked Brown
to hand over oversight of
the audit to the Secretary of
State’s Ofice. That ofice
already conducts perfor-
mance audits for other state
agencies.
“To ensure a rigorous
and unbiased review, the
audit must be truly indepen-
dent,” the letter stated. “With
all due respect to the Ore-
gon Transportation Commis-
sion, we believe the audit will
be perceived as in-house if
it is overseen by the Oregon
Transportation Commission
and if ODOT staff is engaged
in scoping the audit and in
hiring the consulting irm that
performs the audit. An audit
overseen by the Secretary of
State would alleviate con-
cerns about bias.”
The state’s choice of Craig
to do the review deepened
those concerns, said Chris
Hagerbaumer, deputy direc-
tor of the Oregon Environ-
mental Council, who signed
the letter.
“The more in-house the
audit is, the less the people
will trust that it is actually
impartial, and what is the
purpose of an audit that peo-
ple don’t see as being impar-
tial? It isn’t going to actually
serve the state well,” Hager-
baumer said.
Pamplin Media Group
reporter Nick Budnick con-
tributed to this report.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Arch Cape: Plans to dissolve advisory
group had been in the works for a while
Continued from Page 1A
However, county counsel
Chris Crean said bylaws do not
prevail over the county’s abil-
ity to create or disband a com-
mittee whenever it is appropri-
ate. Crean said an issue for the
county is the Arch Cape com-
mittee is a quasi-judicial com-
mittee that requires extra staff
time to keep minutes and send
notices for each meeting.
“It’s the quasi-judicial func-
tion that they are conduct-
ing that is creating most of the
dificulty and liability for the
county,” Crean said.
In addition to continuing the
discussion, the Planning Com-
mission directed county staff to
research alternatives to resolve
concerns without disbanding
the group. Various options will
be presented at the September
meeting.
Losing history
The 39-year-old commit-
tee is the last active citizens
advisory committee in Clatsop
County. It is becoming com-
monplace in the region for such
groups to be dissolved.
Last week, Paciic County
Commissioners in Washington
state voted to end Oysterville’s
Design Review Board. The
Oysterville board had existed
for four decades.
When the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners unan-
imously voted in February to
dissolve Arch Cape’s com-
mittee, it offered to recognize
neighborhood
associations
instead.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Planning Commission listens to Arch Cape resident Michael Manzulli
speak during a public hearing on the Arch Cape Design Review Committee Tuesday in Astoria.
Residents are not ready to
entertain such an idea, as they
continue to protect the current
committee.
“Any ad hoc committee that
is appointed for an individual
issue, wouldn’t necessarily be
the same people that would be
appointed for another issue,”
Gordon Church, of Arch Cape,
said. “We lose all the history
and structure of Arch Cape’s
involvement with the county.”
Virginia Murphy, a com-
mittee member, took it one
step further by suggesting the
county reintroduce other citizen
advisory committees around
the county.
“In my eyes, the current
Board of Commissioners and
staff would better serve the cit-
izens by instituting advisory
committees in the other areas
to decentralize government and
build grassroots involvement.”
Why now?
Each of the residents who
spoke Tuesday in some way
asked why the county was tak-
ing action now.
Committee chairman Theo-
dore Lundy wanted to contest
the image of the group as an
unnecessary bureaucratic layer.
He also challenged the for-
mer interim county manager’s
assertion that the group created
a hostile work environment.
“We serve the community,”
Lundy said. “We are there to
help people work their way
through the process.”
County counsel explained
how plans to dissolve the group
had been in the works for a
while.
What Mays witnessed at a
committee meeting in January
accelerated the process.
“This creates a huge liabil-
ity for the county,” Crean said.
Overall, the Planning Com-
mission showed its support and
understanding to the residents.
“It seems like a greatly valu-
able committee, and I was real
disturbed that this whole thing
would go this way,” Commis-
sioner Christopher Farrar said.
“To me, the idea of rewrit-
ing the ordinances so the com-
mittee doesn’t exist seems
like some kind of a fairy tale,
frankly.”
Port: Commissioners expressed some buyer’s remorse
Continued from Page 1A
nearly 54 percent of the loan.
The agency has included
options to amortize the loan
amount over 10 to 25 years.
“I think we’re demonstrat-
ing successfully here that we’re
able to get a commitment on 95
percent of this project through
Key Bank,” said Jim Knight,
the Port’s executive direc-
tor. “The only thing we need
is an agreement from the Port
Commission.”
Commissioners expressed
some buyer’s remorse, dis-
cussing other funding options
and whether the entire central
waterfront should share in the
cost of a stormwater system
ultimately meant to serve all
of them. But commissioners,
under pressure from the state
to make progress, voted unan-
imously to move forward with
the loan.
The Port was lagged by
the state Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality in August
2014 after tests over two years
showed elevated levels of cop-
per entering the Columbia
River. The metal can damage
the olfactory and navigational
abilities of salmon and other
marine life. The state required
the agency to have a stormwa-
ter treatment system that lowers
the level of copper below fed-
eral benchmarks. The agency
is already a month behind the
June deadline to complete the
system, but is getting leniency
in exchange for progress.
Stormwater will be col-
lected from all of Pier 3 and the
upland portions of the central
waterfront excluding piers 1
and 2, and pumped to a central-
ized system of settling ponds
and biowswales on Pier 3. Asto-
ria Forest Products leases much
of Pier 3 for its timber-sorting
and processing yard, one-ifth
of the affected land and possi-
bly 20 percent of the loan.
“I think it’s probably a fair
thing that the leaseholders help
pay for it,” said Robert Moon,
acting manager for Astoria For-
est Products, adding the pay-
ments should be tied to the life
of the stormwater system.
Bornstein
Seafoods,
Englund Marine & Industrial
Supply, Bergerson Construc-
tion and River Land Co. LLC
each lease between 6 and 7 per-
cent of the affected area. The
Port has met with tenants about
the proposal and is planning
further meetings to iron out the
details.
“Overall, Englund is not
happy about the additional
costs, nor the Tier II situa-
tion,” Jeremy Davis, the chief
inancial oficer for Englund
Marine, said of the state des-
ignation. “However, we realize
that water standards are becom-
ing more strict, that treatment is
inevitable and that someone has
to pay for it.”
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