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November 15, 2005EditorialSeptage plant collapse exposed failed systemFrom the moment a holding tank at Grand Traverse County's brand-new, $7.8 million septage plant collapsed in June, many have wondered if those in charge knew what they were doing.Now that we know they didn't, it's time for the elected officials supposedly overseeing the project to stop covering for the firms and professionals involved - despite their long-standing working relationships and apparent loyalties - and meet their obligations to the public. The officials who make up the county's Board of Public Works have botched their oversight responsibilities almost from Day One. The Water and Sewer Committee of the board hired Gourdie-Fraser, a local company that has been the DPW's engineering firm since the 1970s, to do the preliminary design work for the plant - even though Gourdie-Fraser had never done such work before. Worse, the committee then recommended that the contract to build the thing be awarded to the firm Gourdie-Fraser/Christman, even though it wasn't the low bidder and had less experience in wastewater treatment plants than other bidders. Last week, Gourdie-Fraser/Christman admitted it didn't even know that a more stringent industry standard for wastewater plants even existed. Incredible. The failures of leadership and judgment have piled one atop the other since this project began. - The apparently unqualified hometown firm designed the plant and got the contract to build it. - DPW attorney Michael Houlihan - who should have vetted the contracts - didn't know what standards were required. - The elected members of the DPW and the county's professional staff obviously didn't know what those bids - or the construction standards involved - meant. - The committee flirted with one boneheaded marketing idea after another (a mascot, a "crap in a bag" mailing to media and a bizarre logo). - Gourdie-Fraser/Christman did not oversee construction of the holding tank that collapsed. - The DPW took months to hire an outside firm to find out what went wrong. All of this points to serious flaws in the DPW's working relationship with Gourdie-Fraser (including a deep-seated cronyism), a lack of professionalism on the part of the county's paid staff and a serious lack of commitment to the public. The elected officials who make the decisions for the DPW - supervisors from Garfield, Acme, East Bay, Peninsula and Elmwood townships - have to reassess not only the current crisis but how they do their jobs. The current system is obviously not working. Things must change.
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