FORA director: "Public funds have been spent…
FORA director: "Public funds have been spent wisely" but documentation off limits to public
Former Fort Ord land was conveyed to Seaside from FORA where the Seaside Highlands housing development now stands.
By Monterey Herald and Virginia Hennessey |
The director of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority said documents sought in a recent lawsuit are "proprietary property" that is off-limits to the public.
Michael Houlemard said invoices and other records detailing the nearly $100 million munitions cleanup on the former Army base belong to the two companies hired to complete or insure the work and are not subject to the Public Records Act.
He said regulators have approved the work and progress to date, as detailed in regular reports, and the community "should be confident that public funds have been spent wisely and for their intended purpose."
Michael Stamp, whose law firm filed the public records lawsuit last week on behalf of Keep Fort Ord Wild, said Houlemard"s assurances and monthly reports are not good enough.
"That sounds like, "Everything is just fine, trust us," and that"s not the position the community is in with FORA," he said. "It"s not the way a publicly funded agency should be treating the public."
In 2007, FORA received a $97.7 federal grant to remove munitions and explosives from 3,340 acres before the land was converted to public use. To get a fixed rate on the project, FORA essentially relinquished its role as general contractor.
It hired ARCADIS to complete the work then paid Chartis $82.1 million to service the invoices and guarantee the project for up to $128 million. Though FORA paid for it, Houlemard said, the insurance policy was a contract between the two companies.
Houlemard said the arrangement provided oversight for ARCADIS, gave Chartis incentive to assure ARCADIS worked efficiently and helped FORA avoid potential cost overruns, an important consideration since the project"s price tag was based on estimates of the amount of explosives present.
It also spared the community and FORA from going through the annual congressional appropriations process, he said.
Keep Fort Ord Wild, a coalition of open space advocates and environmental preservationists that is fighting development on the former base, filed a public records request in December seeking documentation of how FORA spent the $97.7 million federal grant.
While FORA turned over thousands of pages of documents, attorneys Stamp and Molly Erickson said, they do not spell out how the money was spent. The group is asking a judge to compel FORA to turn over invoices and other documents detailing the work that has been completed.
"Show us what you have, show us what you"ve cleaned up," Stamp said. "There are a thousand questions still to be answered."
Houlemard said he"s provided what he has and doesn"t have the rest. Instead he issued his own news release detailing the grant distribution.
To date, Houlemard said, Chartis has paid ARCADIS $44.3 million for the work completed on Fort Ord, about half of the original $82.1 million contract.
The remaining $15.6 million from the grant, Houlemard said, covered a $900,000 self-insurance policy; $4.7 million for regulatory work; $6.1 million in state taxes on the Chartis insurance policy; $500,000 for a contractor"s pollution liability policy; and $3.4 million retained by FORA for administrative costs.
He criticized Keep Fort Ord Wild and its attorneys for confusing the public and distracting people from the purpose of the cleanup — to protect public health and safety.
"It is unfortunate that this Public Records Act litigation and one entity"s related press release results in misleading representation about fiscal responsibility," he said. "The … cleanup project is highly successful and all funds are accounted for and reported on a very regular basis."
Stamp wondered how Houlemard could make such an assertion when he doesn"t have the paperwork to prove it. He noted that FORA has said it doesn"t have a copy of the $82.1 million insurance policy it bought from Chartis.
"They can say whatever they want about the arrangement, but if they don"t have it in writing, they don"t have it," he said. "Apparently they didn"t even get a receipt for the money. You"d think they would have something that tells them what they bought other than an assurance from somebody at some meeting."
FORA"s attorney, David Balch, said the public records argument was a "red herring."
"Since FORA is no longer in the payment stream, the financial records don"t impact" its role in the project, he said. "It was the Army"s grant money that went to Chartis. A huge economic risk was taken off the table."
Virginia Hennessey can be reached at 753-6751 or vhennessey@montereyherald.com.
Virginia Hennessey