Clayton County is locked in a dispute with the company that once managed its SPLOST-financed building program because of costly overruns, delays and unfinished projects.
Silverman Construction Program Management abruptly withdrew from the projects in late January with three of its four projects undone, including the much-needed animal control facility. Silverman had been working on the projects since 2010. The Forest Park Library is the only project that Silverman completed.
The company’s departure in late January prompted Clayton commissioners to launch an independent investigation into Silverman’s business practices to insure that the county wasn’t billed for work that wasn’t done. There were four project the company was supposed to oversee and only one got built, Commissioner Shana Rooks said during last week’s commission meeting.
On Thursday, the head of the company sent a letter to the county officials blaming them for the delays and cost overruns. As project manager, Silverman Construction’s job was to serve as an added layer of oversight on the projects, keeping the various people involved in the project — architects, engineers and other consultants — on track. But Silverman said that was difficult given the county’s changes, delays and indecision involving the projects. In the letter chief executive Arnie Silverman said he was “personally offended” by what he considered to be “the clear misrepresentation of the facts and circumstances leading to the firm resigning our role as program manager for the Clayton County SPLOST construction program.”
“I thought I was helping the county by resigning. But it got all turned around,” Silverman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday. “Candidly, by us resigning, that did give the county some money to go towards projects.” In other words, he explained, money that would have went to his company in fees will now be freed up to be spent on projects.
Clayton officials have previously said some projects, such as the recreation centers, have been delayed because the county did not have the money to staff the facilities once they opened. Construction of the animal control facility has been delayed by a recession, a change in county leadership, setbacks in finding a new site for the shelter and several redesigns of the facility.
Silverman’s letter noted that “Clayton County directed redesign and then another redesign” of the facility.
“I welcome them to come and take a look at what we’ve done. There’s nothing illegal or immoral,” he said Friday.
Silverman said his company never billed nor was ever paid when projects were delayed. He also noted that the company agreed to cut its fees when it took on the work in 2010. His letter noted that the company worked under “conflicting and often confusing directions and change orders from Clayton.”
The company was managing projects in Clayton within “grossly underestimated budgets using cost data that was several years old,” he said.
“Most of the projects did not get truly started until 2012 or later due entirely to Clayton County’s own issues,” Silverman wrote. “The original cost estimates prepared by Clayton County were conceptual only and in our opinion were understated.”
Clayton “caused delays of three years or more (by redesigns and other decisions), which allowed for a significant increase in the cost, which was not in any way caused by (Silverman Construction’s) action or inaction,” the letter stated. Silverman said his company “waived billings for several months when there was a lack of direction or no decisions from Clayton County, which made progress challenging at best.” He noted that the county had three different heads of the central service department during his time on the projects.
“The longer a project takes the more costly it is,” Silverman said.
Finally, Silverman said it became “increasingly clear, during a series of meetings, Clayton County wanted to sever the relationship” with the company. The company said its team members, contractors and subcontractors were interrogated.
“Every other week, we sent a quick report saying these are the decisions that need to be made and these are the things that are holding us up,” Silverman said. “You get tired of beating your head against the wall. There was insufficient direction.”
The company also noted its departure from the Clayton projects is the first in its 20-year history where a project was not completed.
Silverman’s withdrawal appears to clear the way for the county to take a new, more aggressive stance on stalled SPLOST projects, some of which have languished for more than a decade.
Friday, the county’s chief operating officer outlined how he plans to get the SPLOST projects built.
The county has $78 million worth of projects in the 2004, 2009 and 2015 SPLOSTs that have yet to be built. COO Alex Cohilas said Friday he plans to have those 16 projects done by mid-2017. He said he plans to meet that goal by using the project architects instead of project managers to oversee the work. This will save the county about $2.7 million in project management fees, Cohilas said. In fact, he said, architects already on the various projects have agreed to takeover management without additional fees.
“We’re moving forward. There’ll be no delays in the project, and there’ll be more money toward the projects going forward,” Cohilas said. “We’ve laid out a dramatically different project delivery strategy so that citizens can get more bang for the buck and citizens can see where their tax dollars are going.”
As of last Oct. 31, Silverman was paid $467,480 in fees, Cohilas said. He was due another $65,216 through Jan. 30. Had he stayed until his work authorization expired in April, Cohilas said, Silverman would have gotten another $113,482. Even with those payouts, it would have taken another $240,282 for Silverman to see the police precinct, animal control facility and fire building through to completion, Cohilas said. But that would have involved going to the commissioners to ask for work extensions and more money for cost overruns. Cohilas said he couldn’t justify that decision.
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