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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2017)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2017 WORLD IN BRIEF Associated Press GOP bill unlikely to settle passionate health care debate WASHINGTON — The nation’s passionate debate about the role of government in providing health care for citizens and pay- ing the costs is unlikely to be settled by the legislation newly revealed by House Republicans. With Republicans now controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, the bill would drive government policy down routes long advocated by conservatives. The course cor- rection would take at least two years to get rolling, and probably longer to show definitive results. If it falls short, it would give rise to a fresh set of health care grievances. The Republican legislation would limit future federal fund- ing for Medicaid, which covers low-income people, about 1 in 5 Americans. And it would loosen rules that former President Barack Obama’s law imposed for health plans directly purchased by individuals, while also scaling back insurance subsidies. Republicans say their solutions would make Medicaid more cost-efficient without punishing the poor and disabled, while spurring private insurers to offer attractive products for the esti- mated 20 million consumers in the market for individual policies. But Democrats say the bill would make many people unin- sured, shifting costs to states and hospital systems that act as pro- viders of last resort. Individual policy holders might be able to find low-premium plans, only to be exposed to higher deduct- ibles and copayments. Trump’s new travel ban comes without the chaos of first one WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump signed his first travel ban with scant warning and little planning seven days into his presidency, he meant to signal he was a man of action. After the lawsuits, chaos at airports and international crit- icism, Trump’s rewritten travel ban sent a different message: The White House has learned some lessons. The Trump administration’s unveiling of its revised restric- tions on travel and refugees was deliberate and cautious, an implicit acknowledgement of some of the unforced errors from the first rollout. The executive order was announced by Trump’s Cabinet officials, some of whom felt cut out of consultations on the earlier version. It does not go into effect immediately, giving the world time to assess its impact. Council: Councilor ‘couldn’t be prouder’ Continued from Page 1A Though Mayor Arline LaMear has expressed sup- port for Astoria’s Hispanic community, she said in December that the city would likely not seek sanctuary city status. Gutierrez, who endorsed the final draft of the resolution, advised her that the designation could polar- ize the community. ‘Please be safe’ City Councilor Cindy Price said she “really couldn’t be prouder” to approve the city’s inclusivity resolution. “I think that the cur- rent immigration efforts that are being made are cruel,” she said. “They go beyond what we have known for many years throughout Republican and Democratic administrations.” She urged the immigrant community “to do every- thing you can” to comply with the law and become documented. Undocumented immigrants with families, and those caught in the jus- tice system, should “make plans, just in case, because this is not a great time,” she said. “This resolution, really, is something that shows our support for our immi- grant community but cannot do much,” she said, adding: “ICE doesn’t need to have local law enforcement help them apprehend people. They know where you live. They know where you work. They know how to find you. They have access to all the public records. So please be safe.” City Councilor Tom Brownson, who said he agrees with Price’s assess- ment, said one of his constit- uents expressed concern that the resolution, which cele- brates “immigrants and refu- gees of all nations,” does not distinguish between “legal” and “illegal” immigrants. The councilor said he sus- pects others in the commu- nity are sympathetic to this view, but “in my opinion, it’s not the city’s business to make this distinction.” “It is more important to make clear that we support all the people that contribute to the good of our community and our city,” he said. THE DAILY ASTORIAN T UESDAY E VENING A (2) (-) (-) (6) (-) (8) (9) (10) (12) (13) (-) (20) (-) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) L KATU KOMO KING KOIN KIRO KGW KRCW KOPB KPTV KPDX KCPQ TBS KZJO ESPN ESPN2 NICK DISN FAM FMC LIFE ROOT FS1 SPIKE COM HIST A&E TLC DISC NGEO TNT AMC USA FOOD HGTV FX CNN FNC CNBC BRAV TCM SYFY RFD (2) (4) (5) (-) (7) (-) (3) (10) (12) (-) (13) (20) (22) (29) (30) (31) (32) (34) (35) (36) (38) (39) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (56) (57) (58) (61) (63) (64) (65) (162) 6 5A Audit: ODOT contracts still subject to gamesmanship cheaper ways of completing projects. Agency has long recognized problem, but done little to fix Not new issues By NICK BUDNICK Capital Bureau A decade ago, state inves- tigators found that Oregon Department of Transportation contracting had become a cyn- ical sport for one highway con- struction company — the exec- utives there submitting low bids, then wagering over ways they could increase project costs to boost profits. While that case is old his- tory, a new state audit of ODOT suggests that its contracting sys- tem remains vulnerable despite a decade of warnings from the department’s own employees of contractor gamesmanship and fraud. The audit released Mon- day by Secretary of State Den- nis Richardson found that the department fails to employ methods to track “unbalanced” bids, meaning those with unre- alistic line-item amounts meant to boost profits. More than 90 percent of all ODOT-run projects completed from 2011 to 2015 included unbalanced bids, and a quar- ter of those later featured cost overruns, auditors found. Significantly, the report echoes the criticisms of a recent $1 million consultant’s review of the department meant to address concerns by the Leg- islature. The consultant’s study noted ODOT’s frequent con- tract overruns and said that compared to other large agen- cies that contract out construc- tion work, ODOT’s contracting was “worst in class.” The new audit comes as state lawmakers weigh whether to approve new fees and taxes on Oregonians, such as a gas tax hike, which will be spent on hefty road and bridge contracts meant to address a backlog of unmet needs. The Secretary of State audi- tors’ critique of ODOT bidder gamesmanship did not come as news to Director Matt Garrett, who has run the department for more than a decade. In fact, the new audit’s findings are strik- ingly similar to those of a 2008 report on unbalanced bidding issued by ODOT’s internal Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Oregon Department of Transportation Director Matthew Garrett speaks last year on the Lewis and Clark River Bridge in Astoria. An audit released Monday by the Sec- retary of State’s Office says Department of Transportation contractors often lowball bids to win contracts, then in- flate costs through contract change orders. auditors — suggesting that the same issues remain. In 2008, the ODOT audi- tors said new software to track unbalanced bidding could save millions of dollars for a rela- tively minor upfront cost. The department’s response to the latest audit — which makes a similar recommenda- tion about software — closely echoes the department’s response a decade ago. It ques- tions the audit’s methodology, but agrees with the recom- mendation to closely track line items in the bid through to proj- ect completion. New audit findings The Department of Trans- portation spends about $400 million a year on construction. In the five-year span reviewed by the Secretary of State audi- tors, ODOT oversaw 413 con- struction projects that cost $1.8 billion. Oregon uses a traditional low-bid system of contracting in which bidders on projects list the expected cost and quantities for line items in the project — such as asphalt, flagging costs and trucking. But to win the bid, con- tractors sometimes lowball quantities of particular line items, accompanied by a high- er-than-realistic price per unit. That paves the way for a win- ning low bid that then can be inflated through contract change orders, auditors found. In fact, 61 percent of the projects reviewed by the Sec- retary of State had one or more unbalanced bid items that were at least double their estimated cost, according to the audit. Meanwhile, contractors can lowball other line items, pricing them at 1 cent, to keep overall prices low. ODOT doesn’t deny the system allows this. “Contractors may make a token bid (i.e., penny bids), front-load bids, or price-unit bids with large variations from the final engineer’s estimate in an attempt to minimize risk and maximize profits while keeping the overall bid low,” admitted ODOT Highway Administra- tor Paul Mather in his response. At the heart of the problem is that the department uses dif- ferent software at the different stages of project cost estima- tion, bidding and project com- pletion, making it impossible to track patterns in how bid line items change over time. “If agency leadership decides to implement enhanced tracking and scrutinize unbal- anced bidding, the state could potentially realize signifi- cant savings by avoiding proj- ect cost increases. Inaction will continue the status quo of incomplete data that prevents ODOT from evaluating unbal- anced bidding that can lead to project cost increases,” accord- ing to the new report. Mather, in the department’s offical response, questioned the auditor’s methodology say- ing it failed to show that unbal- anced bidding played a role in the department’s cost overruns. He noted that the total cost of the projects came in under their estimated cost, reflecting that ODOT sometimes bene- fits when contractors figure out In 2003, then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a $2.5 bil- lion transportation package intended for new roads and bridges, with the bulk of the work intended to be contracted out. Over the years, however, problems arose with con- tractors, including with Ross Brothers — a firm that the Ore- gon Department of Justice in 2008 accused of civil racke- teering using lowball bids and padded billing. That’s the firm where executives were accused of making wagers over what change orders they could per- suade ODOT to approve. The following year, the state and Ross Brothers settled when the company agreed to dissolve without admitting wrongdoing. In the wake of the settlement, ODOT Director Garrett vowed victory. He said the agency was making changes to ensure Ross Brothers types of problems didn’t happen again. But internally, records show, the department resisted recom- mendations from its own audits on how to address the problem of unethical lowball bidding. Mary Hull Caballero, now the city of Portland’s elected auditor, formerly worked at ODOT’s internal audits unit. In 2008, she did the research for the audit that similarly called for investing in a soft- ware tracking system to moni- tor patterns of unbalanced bid- ding. She raised the specter of whether unbalanced bids and poor contract tracking were contributing to an “inflation spiral” of overspending by ODOT. Hull Caballero found other states had reported good sav- ings from software sold by the American Association of State Transportation Officials. Mich- igan, for example, more than made up their initial costs in a single year. In its response, ODOT responded that it didn’t have money for the software, but would form a “task group” to look at the recommendation. Now, the new audit and the $1 million consultant’s review indicate the department’s con- tracting continues to be a problem. ODOT, for its part, says it already is on top of the issue. Fire fees: If classification changes, landowners will be notified Continued from Page 1A lots and 600 landowners. But some of the landowners did not know their lands had been reclassified until January. The annual property tax fee assessed to owners of for- estlands in the Astoria dis- trict is $1.21 per acre. Own- ers are charged a minimum assessment of $18.75 each year. A $47.50 surcharge can be added if property owners build additional structures on their land. About 70 landowners gath- ered for a public meeting in Seaside in February, many of whom expressed their frustra- tions in testy exchanges with officials. Affected landowners will be notified by mail and phone LISTINGS A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach if there are any changes made to their property’s classifica- tion, Goody said. While the public meeting’s date and time is not set yet, it will take place at the Astoria District Office at 92219 Highway 202 in Astoria. Evening listings TUESDAY M ARCH 7 PM 6:30 7 PM 7:30 8 PM 8:30 9 PM 9:30 10 PM 10:30 11 PM 11:30 KATU News at 6 iheel of Fortune The Middle (N) Amer. Housewife Fresh Off-Boat (N) Real O'Neals (N) People "Celebrity Love Stories" (P) (N) KATU News at 11 (:35) Jimmy Kimmel KOMO 4 News iheel of Fortune Jeopardy! The Middle (N) Amer. Housewife Fresh Off-Boat (N) Real O'Neals (N) People "Celebrity Love Stories" (P) (N) KOMO 4 News (:35) Jimmy Kimmel NBC Nightly News KING 5 News KING 5 News Evening The Voice "The Blind Auditions" (N) This Is Us "What Now?" 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