Seattle Press on Line - Sound Transit's Unsound Business Practices

Small Ideas for Seattle

Sound Transit's Unsound Business Practices

By Dick Falkenbury

Nov 15, 2000 -- Imagine if you went to an architect and said, "I own a lot in a ravine in Seattle. I want to build a house on it. It will be difficult because the lot is so steep. But I want you to design a house for it. I only have $150,000 to spend on the house; I'll pay you $5,000 for the design." The architect says, "Sure, no problem."

The architect comes back in a month with plans. He says, "That lot is very steep and it will take a lot of extra work. The house will cost $225,000."

You say, "But I told you I only have $150,000!"

The architect says, "No problem. Give me $10,000 dollars more and I'll come up with some cost-cutting that will get it down to $150,000."

Sound good? That's Sound Transit.

They needed a bid on the tunnel from downtown Seattle to the University District. Sound Transit had told the voters that the tunnel would cost $500 million. Modern Construction won the contest, but their bid was so high that it is being negotiated down. For submitting a bid, Modern Construction got $900,000. After they won, though the bid was too high, they were given another $1.8 million to come up with what they should have had in the first place--a workable bid.

Sound Transit should have said, "The maximum bid is $500 million; anything over this is unacceptable." Instead, they paid for a bid that should have been rejected and then paid twice as much for the company to come back with what they should have had in the first place.

This is stupid. It should be criminal. It is the way Sound Transit does business.

Monorail Passes: Initiative 53 Approved By Voters

I want to thank everyone for the monorail vote on Tuesday. It was validation that people do want this system, even if there is a price to pay. They want this monorail built sooner rather than later.

It is with a humble sense of responsibility that those of us on the Elevated Transportation Corporation Council begin our work to come up with a plan to submit for voter approval. It is a great responsibility; it is a great opportunity.

I would like to personally thank Peter Sherwin for putting up with my behavior, which can border on exasperating at times. He withstood the test, and passed with flying colors. He carried this thing through, and that was exactly what was needed. Congratulations to Peter and all the others that helped.

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