State Auditor Brian Sonntag has written a letter to the Seattle Monorail Project, expressing some serious concerns
As you may know, the State Treasurer and some in the municipal finance community -- including a few who are involved in the Monorail Project and stand to benefit -- are deeply concerned about the overly optimistic revenue projections, about the aggressive project scope, about what they belive has been a lack of openness, and about the potential effect of the project on the taxpayers not just in Seattle but throughout the state.Pay attention to that last bit, you people throughout the state. Meanwhile, Monorail watchdog group OnTrack has released its latest findings, among which is that
Based on SMP statements and expert estimates, current projected Green Line costs exceed $2 billion, making the project roughly $625 million over budget before even breaking ground.In the latest issue of The Stranger [not yet online], SMP Director Joel Horn admits that OnTrack's numbers are on track.
More about this disaster will be made known on June 20, when the Moronorail releases the details of its contract with the bidder.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 08, 2005 11:09 PM | Email ThisThis is also the reason why we are all working hard to see that Initiative 912 makes the ballot and passes. We simply can't afford to throw more good money after the bad money that's already been spent.
And this is why we need to oust the current Legislature in 2006 and 2008. There's no rational effort towards handling our transportation issues without hopelessly regression into feel good projects that cost billions but add almost nothing to our existing infrastructure.
I moved here because my wife's family is here. They are great people, and I'm glad to be near them as we raise our children, but to be honest, I can't wait to get the hell out of this state. I've lived in many Western States, and Washington is by far the most poorly managed state I've ever seen.
This sounds like every project ever tried in Seattle and King County.
If anyone is stupid enough to believe this or the 4 billion estimate on the viaduct replacement are anywhere near the true ending costs, I have some land in Rural King County to sell you (of course you can't do anything with this land unless Ron Sims and his CAO get thrown out of office)
Laughable! This is their shining year!
I am getting outraged at the Monorail. I think it should have been longer, to get more riders. The Green Line should have been to Lake City, going up Aurora, crossing over to Northgate, and in the South to Burien and Fauntleroy via W. Seattle. I also did not like how they forced a bidder out. I at first did not like that bidder, but when Bombardier said they wanted back in, and had a better proposal, I said they should be let back in.
The Monorail Authority has several ideas for future lines, but because of their stumbling on the first line, it will never happen.
The Discovery Institute has both a book and video called "How do we get there from Here", both are itneresting.(The book is several years old, the video, available on the Seattle Channel is brand new).
Sure the Monorail plan is a bad idea, it should be sent back to the planning process. I like the idea of having a few of the board members elected, but the ones that are appointed should have some expertise in how to build a project like this. That was another bill that did not get that far in Olympia, proposed, yet again, by a Seattle Lawmaker. You all think that this is a project that every Seattle Voter and Politician supports, you are mistaken. State Senator Ken Jacobson is a vocal opponent.
Also, compared to the operating Las Vegas Monorail, our plan actually serves a few commuters. The Hotel/Entertainment Complex owners put up the money to build it, so naturally it serves Las Vegas Boulevard(better known as the STRIP). I just learned on a railfan board, that the route serves the backside of the Hotel, out of the way for commuters, and anyone getting off the strip to catch the train, has to go through a Hotel, and the fare, $3, makes it out of reach.
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on June 9, 2005 03:46 AMMany Washatonians are wondering the same thing. We also know good families and businesses leaving "socialist-to-be utopia called Washington" for the same reasons.
A native Washatonian with many family ties here; if my spouse was to receive a serious job offer out of state, we would probably accept.
Fed up King County voter.
Posted by: dl on June 9, 2005 06:47 AMPerhaps the solution could be found in the "Cascade County" concept -- taken up a level of political organization?
(city...county... (ahem) STATE... )
Ironically, the moonbats and moveon.orgians would support it -- since they were talking about it after GWB was re-elected.
Posted by: FlyingTigress on June 9, 2005 07:40 AMIn 2003, I requested of Sonntag an audit of King County. Allegations had been made by 5 King County DOT whistleblowers alleging illegal acts committed by DOT to assist developers in winning Traffic Concurrency Certificates without funding the road improvements required to support these projects. Among the allegations were the misuse of road capacities, forecasts and other things that DOT refused to correct. The whistleblowers alleged retaliation for their refusal to "go along" and were eventually demoted and moved out of their jobs where they could impact this process.
In response to my request and pages of documentation and email communication between the whistleblowers and King County PA Norm Maleng, Ombudsman Amy Calderwood and others in DOT, Sonntag agreed to perform a thourough audit of King County DOT's actions related to concurrency and mitigation that falls out of those studies. The 3-page letter from his office outlined a very detailed set of allegations that would be investigated and reported back in writing in 2004.
A year later in late 2004 I received the promised letter from Sonntag with the conclusions of that audit. To my genuine sadness, my faith in Sonntag was crushed by a 5 paragraph letter. The first 3 paragraphs summarizing the promised investigation, and the last 2 concluding that nothing wrong was found in the audit. The Auditor had based his entire investigation on a DOT investigation performed by a traffic consultant hand-picked by DOT to cover-up the wrongdoing. The whistleblowers themselves had objected to this "independent" investigation, but Sonntag's office accepted its bogus results "hook, line and sinker". The audit accepted the results of that investigation completely and the auditor's investigators didn't even interview or talk to the whistleblowers.
Sometime between Sonntag's agreement to investigate and the conclusion of the audit, another major scandal had been diverted by King County.
You can go the Washington State Auditor's website and they promote all of the savings as a result of their audits. The pitiful totals are in the millions of dollars since 1997. The cost to the taxpayers in King County DOT manipulation of road studies is in billions of dollars in taxpayer liability.
The state auditors office is another one of those sad jokes. It's there to suggest that government cares about waste, fraud and abuse, but the office won't investigate anything that threatens real government abuses of the taxpayers.
Posted by: Mike on June 9, 2005 07:55 AMno matter what you say, the politicians in charge like Ron Sims are totally corrupt and need to be ousted en mass. But I bet you vote Democrat down the line.
Posted by: Manco_Dollars on June 9, 2005 08:42 AMYour suggestion is a good idea, but the big project advocates would lobby to prevent such a requirement from every getting into law. Part of the trick to get voters to go along is to manipulate costs up front and then inflate the costs and spread the taxpayers' money far and wide. Look at Sound Transit, for example.
What funds would project backers use to purchase the "preformance" bonds anyway, if the taxpayers were being asked to foot the whole bill? Who would ever underwrite those bonds, given the total lack of credibility that government has to stay within its budgets? The bonds would cost as much as the overruns.
Might be easier to simply prevent voter-approved projects from reducing scope or increasing costs. If either occurs, the project is automatically invalidated.
Posted by: Mike on June 9, 2005 08:43 AMI do like the idea of an insurance bond for these projects. That would bring some interesting numbers into play!
Posted by: fred on June 9, 2005 08:46 AMA test is under way to see if tracking cars with GPS and billing the drivers by mile is feasible.
England is starting a program that uses satellites and GPS. They track time of day and roads used. The heavier congested roads and peak hour driving cost a lot more - up to $2.30 a mile.
So you see, if our lovely legislature decides that this method is a good one, they'll use it to price us out of our cars and force us to public transportation. If we "voluntarily" go to public transportation, they will need to have an expansion of transportation - monorail, light rail, subways, etc. just to handle the increase in ridership.
I do have some reservations on the Patriot Act. However, I have greater concerns over unfetterred terrorist movement and action. It will be interesting to see if the people that claim outrage over loss of civil rights and liberty due to the Patriot Act will quietly acquiesce to having their vehicles movements (them) tracked by the government because it helps push forward the social engineering of getting people out of their cars.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on June 9, 2005 08:47 AM"They have to build the monorail and viaduct tunnel.
A test is under way to see if tracking cars with GPS and billing the drivers by mile is feasible."
I wonder if the Einsteins realize that GPS won't work in a tunnel? For that matter, I wonder if there Einsteins realize that it'll take a good automotive electrician about 15 minutes to defeat on of those things?
Posted by: Dogbert on June 9, 2005 09:02 AMconsidering your trolling throughout, one would have to assume you're a Dem.
Posted by: manco on June 9, 2005 11:05 AMIncreasing I-5 capacity isn't really an option either - building new freeway lanes in urban areas is at least as expensive as adding mass transit (with eminent domain, etc - and with property costs where they are in Seattle right now, this would be super expensive).
And yes, Soundtransit will add significant capacity to the N-S Seattle corrador - it will carry half as many people as I-5 does now - that's huge.
You can bitch and moan about this stuff - yes, it costs money - but 20 years from now, you're going to be glad you did.
Posted by: willis on June 9, 2005 02:37 PMWhat you talkin about Willis?
I'll bet that they'll be lucky to get half of their estimated rider numbers. Just check out how far below the real numbers are - not their reduced and doctored numbers they change every 6 months so they can "meet" their ridership goals. And because of where the line is, very few of the riders are getting out of the cars on I-5. This is the poster child for no new gas tax - no money without a real, concrete plan, not half-baked proposals like the viaduct and 520.
I'm a monorail supporter, partly because I'm lucky enough to live 4 blocks from a station. But if they can't contol the price like they promised, it's time to kill it. Too bad that didn't happen to Ronnie's train to nowhere.
Posted by: Bubbasaurus on June 9, 2005 03:36 PMSeattle and State DOTs, (in fact, most US city and state planners), practice "Old School" principles that go back at least 100 years. The basic formula for urban/suburban development and transportation systems through these years has been to separate housing from all other civic purposes (industry, commerce, amenities, institutions, etc). This planning guideline made sense early on because city centers were then heavily polluted, and inner-ring suburbs could be developed reasonably close to the other purposes - mass transit worked well.
Traffic and other problems associated with continued separate-housing are compounded by building transit lines that do not change this development pattern. Left unchanged, Link and the Green Line increase the need for commuting and long-distance travel; which will grow beyond capacity of both the trains AND the roads. And so the traffic will get worse, particularly during the rush hours. Off rush hours and in the reverse-commute direction, transit lines, both rail and bus, run nearly empty because there are no major destinations developed outside the 500lb gorilla city centers.
Sound Transit management decided Link LRT should not serve the most important destination between downtown and Seatac, South Center, the major commercial district ripe for development that needs modern transit. Sound Transit managers "lie" when they say the bypass would save money.
These rail transit systems can be designed to reduce traffic, but instead their route and station locations are inadvertently designed to increase traffic. The light rail and monorail could be built effectively, marvelously, but instead they are designed by incompetent engineers and managed by crooks catering to the auto and petroleum lobby, banking and insurance institutions, the parking garage cash cow cabal, the MSM prostitutes.
Don't blame goverment for this. Blame Big Business control over government. Blame the GOP, the party of Big Business.
Posted by: Artie on June 10, 2005 10:09 AMThe monorail is a merely one of the latest in a long series of bad ideas.
Seriously, all us folks posting comments could draft a better plan than anything that appears to be getting any serious consideration.
I can't wait to be part of Cascade County.
Posted by: Snake on June 10, 2005 03:10 PMYeah, let's just make Washington state the next Huston with it's 45min cross town traffic jams. I don't think the monorail is the best idea but at least it's something to get people out of their cars. I'd much rather spend money on that than some 16 lane highway.
Posted by: Joesph on June 10, 2005 03:47 PM