September 13, 2013

To:Governor Rick Scott’s Aides
State Senator Dwight Bullard
Clerk of the Courts, Amy Heavilin
County Commissioners
State Attorney, Catherine Vogel and assigned investigators
County Administrator, Roman Gastesi
County Attorney, Robert Selinger

From:Walter P. Drabinski
Sir Isaac Newton Coalition

Re:CRWS

Dear Public Officials:

I am writing to you to bring you up to date on some actions and to hopefully reach a resolution without further unnecessary litigation.

BOND VALIDATION PROCESS:

I was one of two persons who intervened in the County’s action to have its $90 million of bonds validated, and provided testimony in support of our objections to the validation. We feel very strongly about our position and hope that Judge Audlin will force a remedy on the County. Should the Judge validate the bond issuance, we will consider an appeal to the State Supreme Court. We do not want to hold up the timing of the bond issue, but we strongly believe that state regulations must be complied with.

Let me remind any of you who have never read the May 2012 filing that was supposed to inform us of the system we were getting:

  • It repeatedly stated that Dense Subdivisions would get gravity.
  • The only map included showed all gravity.
  • The DEP stated gravity where practicable.
  • Nowhere in the presentation did it say that construction costs were the deciding factor.
  • A blank DEP permit application was provided, even though the actual ones were submitted and would have showed a 30% mix of grinders.
  • FKKA’s attorney argues that anyone attending the meeting could have asked for specific maps and if they knew how to review them would have seen the system they were getting. This is not transparency.

REQUEST FOR INJUNCTION:

Based on the time it will take for the legal process related to the Bond Validation to take place, which appears to be a minimum of two months and significantly longer if we appeal, and the fact that FKAA has expedited construction in Cudjoe Gardens by four months, we will be requesting an injunction, delaying construction in the areas identified by FKAA as possibly qualifying for gravityinstead of grinder pumps. A major reason for the injunction is so that the Clerk of the Courts can audit the analysis presented by FKAA supporting their decision to force Low Pressure on a number of dense subdivisions in the Inner Island hot spots.The injunction will request the following:

  1. A 90 day injunction on construction in those areas identified by the FKAA in the spreadsheet they prepared in August.
  2. A request through the Court; supported by the Sir Isaac Newton Coalition, and perhaps by the County, for the Clerk of the Court to retain an independent consulting engineer to evaluate the LifeCycle economics of the subdivisions identified by FKAA.
  3. While FKAA may insist on a performance bond, we believe this will not be necessary. First of all, the schedule they published called for construction to start in Basin D (Cudjoe Gardens) in January 2014. Second, The Giannetti contract specifically prohibits them from starting work in Basin D until 100% of the work is complete in Basin C. Therefore there is no potential harm from the injunction. We hope the County will support this position.

EVIDENCE OF BIAS in FKAA Anlaysis:

Any independent review of the FKAA analysis by a expert that understands or can add, will unveil significant errors and bias in the FKAA work.

I have more recently focused my work on the analysis and design for Cudjoe Gardens and Cudjoe Ocean Shores. What I am finding goes beyond simple errors or differences in two engineer’s opinions as to assumptions. In my opinion, some of the information has been fabricated to support the argument for LPS. I can only speculate as to why this was done. Unfortunately, many of the possible conclusions suggest actions that may violate various regulations or laws. This is why it is so important for the Clerk of the Court to utilize its authority under the ILA to investigate. Without this independent assessment, I will be forced, by my conscience, to provide my findings to the State Attorney and other regulatory bodies. In every analysis of Matthews, whether it is the Final February 2009 Letter Report or the June 2013 updated analysis, we find the following types of fabrications to make LPS look less expensive compared to gravity than it really is:

  1. Columns of numbers in the cost spreadsheet have totals that are incorrect. This cannot happen in a typical spreadsheet document without typing in a wrong number intentionally. In virtually every case, the errors favor the LPS hybrid system
  2. Inaccurate percentages. There are a number of places where the cost estimate is a percentage of the construction cost. It is correct for the hybrid system, but higher for the gravity system, slightly biasing results.
  3. Materials not needed for all gravity were still included, while numbers of EDUs needing grinders were underestimated.
  4. An independent measurement of some street lengths shows that there is a bias toward overstating the linear footage of gravity and understating the amount of LPS, further biasing results.
  5. In the LifeCycle analysis, some assumptions are ridiculous:
  6. $100/hr for a FKAA employee or $180,000 loaded salary per year, versus a high of $80,000 for a County employee per County Engineer.
  7. Assumption that a grinder pump at a home can be maintained for $40/yr. ($84,000 for 2,800 pumps), while the exact pump in a lift station will cost $1,800/yr. to maintain ($2 mil./yr. for 275 lift stations with 4 pumps each).
  8. Grinder pump at home will last 12 years and cost $2,000 to repair. This same pump in lift station will last 5 years and cost $6,000 to repair. (Actually in the 2009 analysis it assumed $20,000 for repair of lift station pumps.)
  9. Electric cost for a grinder pump of less than $10 per year while Key Largo’s exact pumps cost $45 per year.
  • In some cases the costs for gravity analysis were simply doubled.
  • While the gravity lines are projected to last 60-100 years, there is no consideration that the 2,800 grinders, with HDPE line and significant claptrap will result in a lifespan of 10 to 20 years.
  • In the Cudjoe Gardens construction costs, FKAA insists that two more lift stations are needed due to culverts at a cost of $208,000. We spoke with the contractor and he indicated that they can go under the culvert at an incremental cost of $7,600 to $15,200.
  • In the Cudjoe Ocean Shores case, the additional engineering costs associated with converting to all gravity are grossly inflated at $23,000. This amounts to almost four weeks of engineering effort for a design that is essentially complete.
  • All of the original analysis included the cost of paving for all gravity areas while LPS had no gravity costs. This added about 30% to the cost of gravity, even though all roads are scheduled for paving due to age.

Finally, the sole source use of the EnviroOne grinder pumps. FKAA, in response to our public records request, stated that they stated “EnviroOne or equal” in their bid specifications. However, a closer reading shows that a few pages later in the specs, they require a “progressive cavity pump” and then later specify a motor that only EnviroOne uses. This effectively precludes the use of any equipment other than EnviroOne. Any reasonable person would conclude that this was an illegal sole source process with only the vaguest of cover.

Public Records Request

In May and July we submitted public records requests to the FKAA. The first request was partially responded to, but the second has been ignored. We have asked the State Attorney for assistance. We would remind the Commission that in the original ILA, paragraph 22 states:

Estimated Cost for Gravity in Inner Island Subdivisins

The proper means of determining whether to install gravity or LPS is through a LifeCycle analysis. Using accurate and reasonable assumptions, Cudjoe Gardens, Cudjoe Ocean Shores and some parts of the Lower Sugarloaf area clearly meet the test. I provided an analysis to you on August 16, 2013 that demonstrates this. I have no information on the other areas FKAA identified in their August 1st spreadsheet so cannot opine on these. I just learned in the Bond Validation hearing that the County Engineer, Kevin Wilson, has now devised a new hurdle. He now states that the incremental cost of construction must be negative. This is the opposite of what he stated a month ago in a meeting with the County Administrator and FKAA and makes no sense at all.

What is the incremental cost of construction? Once one removes the paving portion, which we all agree is appropriate, the incremental costs arereasonable. I provide a range, because FKAA has not agreed to some cost issues. However, we believe the following are likely cost ranges:

Months ago Mr. Larry Francisco, President of the Cudjoe Gardens Property Owners Association requested an estimate, using current and accurate numbers, of what gravity for Cudjoe Gardens would cost. Many weeks later, at the July BOCC Meeting he asked why it had not been responded to. Mr. Gastesi immediately contacted him and told him there would be a response very quickly. To this date, we have had no response from FKAA as to updated and accurate costs.

In the interim, we have learned that another subdivision has received updated cost information and is negotiating to have gravity installed. Why are we being denied equal treatment once again?

Conclusions

What I am trying to communicate is that:

  • We were promised a gravity system last May, FKAA tricked us. Even the County Commissioners did not know the extent to grinders. Does anyone think Cudjoe Gardens should be 40% grinders?
  • On a LifeCycle cost basis gravity is warranted throughout Cudjoe Gardens and the other dense subdivisions.
  • Addressing the dense subdivisions in the inner island hot spots will cost just over $1 million plus paving. Certainly well below the $2 million we discussed earlier.
  • Litigation for the bond validation delay and the injunction will be significant.
  • Matthews Consulting and FKAA have cooked the books to justify the amount of LPS. This is deceitful at the least and warrants an investigation.
  • The County Engineer cannot change the rulesof economics at the eleventh hour.
  • The other subdivisions identified by FKAA have not joined us in this fight to date and we have no information on their costs.
  • The County Commission should serve its citizens as a first priority, not defend the mistakes of the FKAA.
  • We wish to avoid a long period of litigation, but we will not simply cave because we don’t have your power or resources.