the BScubed/Clueless Award goes to...

Edward Blansitt, Montgomery County MD Inspector General, and Timothy L. Firestine, Montgomery County MD Chief Administrative Officer, for the IG's report ("Project Management Deficiencies in Constructing the Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center") and Firestine's response (included in the report).

This 165-page .pdf document deals mostly with recommended measures for future projects; but, does not deal with why and how the Silver Spring Transit Center became severely flawed. The report fails to address why and how Montgomery County selected the SSTC's builder/contractor, engineer/designer and concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector. Were these selections, made sole source with a public-private partnership, political "favors"? 

The report also fails to address reimbursement of federal (53%), state (11%) and county (36%) public funds wasted on the $120+ million, lemon Silver Spring Transit Center.

Congratulations, Messrs. Blansitt and Firestine. The BScubed/Clueless Award is yours.

the BScubed/Hat Trick award goes to...

David Dise, Director of Montgomery County's Department of General Services, for his statement concerning the Montgomery County IG's report on failures in project management for the Silver Spring Transit Center.

"While this added oversight is useful, by itself this measure would not have detected or prevented the major flaws in this project any sooner than the County's and WMATA's own efforts."

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/05/report-problems-with-silver-spring-transit-center-may-have-been-known-years-ago-103358.html

Here at BScubed it's not often that we find a Baseless Self Serving Statement (BScubed) that meets all 3 of the Hat Trick's criteria:

1. 100% Baseless
2. 100% Self Serving, and
3. 100% Absurd

Congratulations, Mr. Dise, the BScubed/Hat Trick award is yours.

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."
George Washington

the BScubed/Putting Lipstick on a Pig Award goes to...

Metro General Manager Richard Sarles
Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen
Tim Firestine, chief administrative officer for Montgomery County
"Short" (Charlie Scott?, senior government relations officer with Metro)
Montgomery County Council member Roger Berliner
David Dise, general services director for Montgomery County
news media (print, TV, radio, internet)

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=46&sid=3618969

When asked about Metro's decision to wait until repairs are complete, Metro General Manager Richard Sarles told reporters "It will be opened, and it will be safe."

Councilmember Nancy Floreen pressed for an answer to the question. "You know, at the end of the day, people want to know, so, when are we going to be able to get in there?"

Tim Firestine, chief administrative officer for Montgomery County, told the council, "Our goal, still, is to complete the center and turn it over to Metro by the end of the year."

Short (Scott?) said it would depend on the course of the repair work but added, "We'll do everything we can to expedite" the opening of the transit center.

Council member Roger Berliner, who leads a county committee on infrastructure, joked, "What time is your meeting? Maybe we'll all just sort of hang out."

After the council hearing, David Dise, general services director for Montgomery County, was pressed yet again on when the project and all the needed repairs would be completed. "We won't know the full details until we have finalized the current design and worked with the general contractor on that." Dise has repeatedly told the county council that taxpayers would not be on the hook for the cost of remediation and repairs at the Silver Spring Transit Center, but when asked directly if those costs wouldn't have to be made up front with taxpayer dollars, he conceded. "That may be required, yes." But he then insisted that it's the county's position that taxpayers should not have to cover those repair costs. However, Dise said he fully expects it will take lawsuits to recover the cost of repairs. Of the contractors who could be held responsible by the county, he said "I would expect that they're all working through counsel that are making sure they keep their hands in their pockets."

The citation for the BScubed/Putting Lipstick on a Pig Award reads: "Especially noted is how such a large group of supposedly responsible people can be so concerned with making themselves look good, and when the SSTC will open, and so blase about public safety."

Congratulations to all of you. The BScubed/Putting Lipstick on a Pig Award is yours.

the BScubed/Hypocrisy award goes to...

the news media (print, TV, radio, internet) for claiming that they provide "in-depth reporting" and ask "probing questions", and then failing to do so.

For more than a year the news media have been reporting on the serious problems with the yet-to-be-opened, $120+ million Silver Spring Transit Center (3-inch pieces of concrete falling off, extensive cracking, total lack of expansion joints, thin slabs, exposed reinforcement, missing reinforcement, understrength and overstressed concrete, suspect concrete test reports, underdesigned beams, etc.). Not once in the hundreds of reports that I've seen have the news media asked these questions:

• Why are there serious flaws with the brand new, yet-to-be-opened, $120+ million Silver Spring Transit Center? 
• Do the SSTC's serious, documented flaws suggest that there are other, perhaps even more serious problems with the SSTC that haven't been discovered yet?
• How can the brand new, yet-to-be-opened, $120+ million SSTC have all these documented problems before it even opens? The SSTC hasn't seen its first car, much less its first fully-loaded bus! 
• Who was looking out for the public's interests (53% federal funding, 11% state, 36% county) during design and construction?
• What does the SSTC experiece say about the practice of using public-private partnerships to design and build public works projects?

Congratulations, news media. The BScubed/Hypocrisy award is yours!

Silver Spring Transit Center: damaged goods--return to sender