St. Lawrence and Board Wrap up Year-end Gift for Ballpark Contractor—Morano Contract Bloats from Original $4.3 to
$15.4 million

December 27, 2011 No, ‘Tis not the season. The season was over in September with the Boulders in next to last and the taxpayers still holding the bag for what has become an endless stream of construction costs at the ballpark site on Firemen’s Memorial Drive. Now it’s late December, and change orders (cost overruns) are still coming up regularly in the Ramapo Town Board meetings. When these resolutions are read aloud in the meetings, Town Attorney Michael Klein always neglects to mention the amounts so we have a few for you to look over, with the numbers attached.

At the Ramapo Town Board meeting on December 12, 2011, two resolutions were voted on and three change orders were unanimously approved. All will be paid by the taxpayers out of the 5197H36.34460FMD fund. That’s the Firemen’s Memorial Drive Fund, a.k.a the Provident Park money pit. Itzy Ullman was absent from the meeting, but everyone else, St. Lawrence, Pat Withers, Daniel Friedman, and Fran Hunter, all approved the following:

And when will "construction" finally be completed on the ballpark? So far, all indicators seem to point to a "work in progress" status for the months, perhaps even years ahead. Surrounded by two wetlands and already dealing with drainage problems on site, it’s a little scary thinking about the first spring melt and rains that will flood this basin at the end of the winter.

Horrendous Planning
If you look closely at the documents itemizing these latest expenditures there’s a larger scandal here. The payment of $52.3k is for a change in the original contract with Morano Brothers that is the 39^th change order for just that one contract. The contract, agreed to in 2010, began as a $4,125,000.00 obligation for "grading, site work and drainage for the Fireman’s Memorial Drive Project."

Then change order after change order after change order began to jack up the cost of the work to almost quadruple the original agreement. Who in their right mind would accede to these increases? Well, the question probably should be reworded because we’re talking about the Supervisor and his nodding panel collectively known as the Town Board. And how bad was the planning that would create this schedule of overruns? Here’s a list of the cost overruns as they pumped up this single contract to four times its original size (from $4,125,000.00 to $15,314,290.73). That’s a lot of nodding. Itemized, that list looks like this:

WHEREAS, the Town Board by Resolution No. 2010 - 455, approved an agreement with Morano Bros. Corp., 2045 Albany Post Road, Croton-on-Hudson, New York 10520 for grading, site work and drainage for the Fireman's Memorial Drive Project in the amount of $4,342,500, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2010-727, approved Change Order Nos. 1, 2, 3,4, 5, and 6 and increased the contract amount from $4,125,000 to $5,890,314.88, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-75,.approved Change Order Nos. 7 and 8 and increased the contract amount to $6,401,030.56, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-138 approved Change Order Nos. 9, 10 and 11, and increased the contract amount to $7,556,480.41 and,

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-166, approved Change Order Nos. 12, 13, 14, and 15 and increased the contract amount to $9,286,119.37, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-293, approved Change Order Nos. 16, and 17 and increased the contract amount to $11,029,311.11, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-395, approved Change Order Nos. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,24 and 25 increased the contract amount to $14,033,565.84, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board, by Resolution No. 2011-419, approved Change Order Nos. 26 and 27 and increased the contract amount of $14,535,542.62, and

This is the work of a Town Board that is not just malfunctioning. The current board and Supervisor have crossed over into what might legally be better defined as malfeasance. Consider the published judgment of the Chief Examiner of the New York State Comptroller’s Office writing about our Board:

"The Board has a fiduciary responsibility for Town assets and finances, and an obligation to serve the community, protect taxpayers' interests, and exercise good faith and due diligence. As the legislative body, the Board should establish and oversee much of the policy, financial, and ethical framework within which the Town operates."

"The Board has not exercised effective oversight of the Town. The Board neither established policies nor oversaw the Town's financial operations. Board members told us that they received no financial reports; such as detailed project cost reports for Town projects (including the baseball stadium discussed in the next section), budget versus actual reports, and generally did not receive or review contracts. The Board made its decisions based upon representations from the Town Attorney and Supervisor. Additionally, although Board members should ensure they receive all necessary information, for the most part, they have not requested the information or ensured that they received requested information. In fact, Board members told us that they did not know how much the baseball stadium would cost the taxpayers or how it would be paid for. Without proper information, there is a risk that inappropriate decisions may be made which could result in further costs to taxpayers."

Why did members of the Ramapo Board choose to remain ignorant of financial facts and, ultimately, fail to establish policies or oversee the Town’s financial operations? And there’s the larger question, are there legal consequences for willfully opting to look aside (concerning the facts) and then (assuming insulation from any fraud or fiscal mismanagement) voting to approve quadruple cost overruns, accepting false projections, and hiding costs and revenues?

Perhaps with the New Year, gifts like the Morano $4 to $15 million disgrace will be given a close look by New York State authorities and others.