Calhouns Can(n)ons

Design Build for A Los Osos Sewer Speedway?

Paavo Ogren has spoken often of design/build and public/private methods that can lead to both cheaper and faster projects. Once the 218 passes, it’s more than likely that the County will be pursuing such strategies. [from 2007 Business wire]

CELSOC: Public-Private Partnerships and Design-Build Speed Delivery of Infrastructure Projects

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California (CELSOC) applaud Governor Schwarzenegger's call for efficient project delivery. Now that the voters have given our elected officials the financing tools to improve our infrastructure, it is important to quickly deliver the infrastructure that will carry California into the future.

California can deliver projects quickest by mobilizing both public and private resources. Public-private partnerships give agencies access to the expertise, flexibility and financial resources of the private sector to deliver projects on time and within budget.

These partnerships have been used successfully throughout the United States and the world. Many public agencies have sped up the delivery of infrastructure projects by accessing private sector resources. At other times, utilizing private resources made it possible for agencies to even deliver the projects at all. The public agency determines the types of services it needs for the project at hand and by law may only access those services following an open, competitive process.

Design-build is a proven technique that works particularly well with large projects. The public agency competitively selects and then contracts with one entity for both the engineering design and the construction of a project. Design-build allows many facets of the project to be worked simultaneously, instead of sequentially.

The State Route 22 in Orange County is just one successful example, among many, of design-build. SR-22 was recently completed in just 800 days, roughly half the time the project would have taken with traditional delivery methods. The project increases traffic flow and speed, eliminates bottlenecks, adds high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, makes ramps easier to navigate and widens bridges.

Although to date California has fallen behind the rest of country in fully utilizing public-private partnerships and design-build to promptly deliver needed infrastructure, California now has an opportunity to catch up.

CELSOC encourages the Governor and Legislature to fully authorize agencies to utilize the most modern and advanced project delivery techniques available. We look forward to working together to deliver California's infrastructure efficiently and cost-effectively.

CELSOC is a 52-year-old, statewide association dedicated to enhancing the consulting engineering and land surveying professions, protecting the general public and promoting the use of the private sector in the growth and development of our state. For more information, visit www.celsoc.org.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Business WireCOPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group

Chugga-Chugga, Bay News Moves To SLOTown.

The Bay News, i.e. The Resurrection News, The Little Community Paper That Refuses to Die has steamed out of Morro Bay and into SLOTown to the offices of the SLO City News, along with The Coast News (5 cities area, part of The Bay News) wherein it has and will morph into a hybrid regional paper under the Tolusa Press. More on this in next week’s Can(n)on (posted here Thursday, Oct 18, God willing.) Meantime, check out Thursday’s edition, if they had time to put anything in it to note the changes, since they happened so fast. A hair on fire move, that’s for sure.

CSD May Elect A Pope! Or At Least Send Smoke Signals

I hope everyone in Sewerville, my beloved Bangladesh By The Bay, will plan to attend the Oct 4th CSD meeting at 7:30 pm. at the Community Center. The agenda item will be the CSD Board’s vote on “their” property and I think community input will be crucial.

The Tribune reports that several board members are thinking of abstaining because they don’t want to influence the homeowner’s votes one way or the other. I have stated here that the Board’s vote will likely be seen by many “undecideds” in the community as a signal (Black smoke? White smoke?) like the signal sent out the Vatican’s chimney when the bishops are locked inside picking a new pope. Indeed, the vote will be a kind of smoke signal. But it’s an important one.

The CSD has scheduled another meeting on the 18th to discuss what they intend to do should the vote fail. Since the ballots have to be in before the 23, with the cut-off date the 21st I think, (unless hand delivered) that date is waaaaayyyyy too late to be of use to the community. So, I’m betting a lot of discussion on the 4th will veer off to cover that topic – indeed, it’s actually ON TOPIC since it’s vital that the community know earlier than later what options are available to the CSD before they vote on anything having to do with collective property, should that vote fail.

Apropos that, here’s my observation: If I read the recall vote right, the majority of voters wanted a cheapER sewer system, OUT OF TOWN, and a voice in choosing which type. (Measure B would have given them an “actual” vote; the County can only give them a “survey” and a promise to seriously consider that survey’s results). So, cheapER, out of town, choice.

The county has set in place a Process to go through the various options that have been already looked at (the TAC) and the Process requires that other alternatives be looked at before some final projects float to the top for a (hopefully) final vetting by Dr. T and his group (something I will vigorously lobby for) before being presented for a “survey” choice.

CEQA comparisons and evaluations cost money, vetting options requires money, doing a community survey requires money. If the 218 fails, the project reverts back to the CSD, which has no money. How could they continue the Process started by the county? If they couldn’t continue that Process, and could only put out a few RFPs for some plan or another, thereby short-circuiting everything, then clearly the public wouldn’t have an opportunity to be surveyed on anything – they’d get handed whatever the CSD decided to hand them, which is exactly what happened with the recalled CSD, and which runs counter to what the community voted for with Measure B and the recall. In short, the county has the resources to carry though the Process the community apparently wanted (and likely wanted from day one only the original CSD never had the resources to do that properly), while the CSD doesn’t have any resources.

If that Process is what you voted for via Measure B & the recall, then it’s important for you to show up and let the CSD know that. If they have some way of continuing to deliver that Process if the 218 fails, then they need to ‘splain that Thursday night as well.

And Now, One For The Funny Bone, Maybe

AP, Santa Ana: “Three bloggers who sit on city boards and commissions have been asked to tone down Web ridicule of Santa Ana officials. The bloggers have used the www.orangejuiceblog.com Web site for inflammatory commentary on the motives of city officials and alleged favoritism in awarding city contracts, among other things.”

What makes this odd is that the bloggers in question were bloggers before they got appointed to the various commissions and continued their blogs after they got appointed. What’s nice is that the bloggers aren’t just some bunch of Anonymice hurling poopy-bombs.

But the question that went unanswered in this snippet of a story is this: Do these known bloggers only chew on the ankles of the city council members and commissioners who DIDN’T appoint them, that is, are they acting as political cats paws for their masters, or do they gleefully chew on the ankles of everybody on the council, including those who appointed them?

If it’s the former, then the voters will likely need to clean up that act. If it’s the latter, then you’ve likely got a new breed of cat: Bean-Spilling, Muckraking, Whistle-blowing Insiders!

Uh-oh, Hide the Silverware? Or, Hey, How Can We Hire Those Guys?