The daily newspaper’s story on the cost overruns points out that the Community Maritime Park expenditures need to be investigated by independent auditors–without ties to any of the contractors and subcontractors at the project. A list of how much companies were paid barely scratches the surface of what needs to be examined.
Ed Spears and others want to point to the expansion of the stadium as the root of the problem. What is overlooked is the Studers gave $2.25 million for the additional seats (which is what Spears told the CMPA board in January was the cost for the additional seating) and nearly $40 million was spent before the stadium construction began.
The real questions are who agreed to cut the checks, who authorized all the change orders, who approved the expenditures beyond the original budget and why, and what did the CMPA really get for each of those expenditures. No, a list of total payments isn’t enough.
It’s time we quit playing the blame Studer game and look for the real hogs at the CMPA trough.