Henhouses, Foxes, and Guards
Thu, 24 Apr 2008, 11:09am, Tinman said
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Last night’s public meeting about the Mt Davidson seismic retrofit project revealed several concerning issues that pose a significant risk of escalating into real problems for Mt D. I’ll get to these in a moment, but some background first.
Back in May 2006, regular hikers on Mt D were surprised to discover orange spray paint up and down the sides of the mountain. Natural Areas Program staff — who are the people within the Rec&Park Dept who manage Mt D — were equally mystified. It turned out that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was prepping for a major repair of the 75,000 gallon, 20 foot deep water tank at the summit and replacement of the iron pipes up and down the north and south flanks of Mt D to the tank. That this work was going to happen was never in question; funds were available and the PUC made a convincing case that the updates were needed. However, how the work was going to be done was very much at issue.
The initial plans called for trenching straight up the NE flank of Mt D right through the corridor between the grasslands and the trees — where the most complex plant communities and best bird habitat are located. After great public outcry and multiple meetings, this northern route was pushed back into the trees where lurk only weedy tangles of blackberry, ivy, and cape ivy. The southern route was always planned to follow existing trails up to the summit, but public lobbying obtained agreement that the width of this disturbance would be carefully limited.
On paper at least, this project appeared to have been redeemed from an unmitigated disaster to an acceptable, if regrettable, impact. All that needed to happen was for sufficient provisions to be worked into the actual contracts so that these acceptable plans will actually be implemented correctly.
And there lies the rub. At last night’s meeting, we learned several things:
- Natural Areas Program staff theoretically have the power to approve or disapprove the route of the pipeline (specifically the fencing that will constrain the route) and to monitor and enforce the contractor’s compliance. However, despite the assertions of PUC representatives, there is in fact no money budgeted in this $4 million project to pay for Natural Areas Program staff time. Everyone else gets paid — PUC staff, the contractors, and no doubt many of their brothers-in-law — but Natural Areas Program staff are simply expected to set aside their other responsibilities in order to do what is actually one of the most crucial activities — making sure the contractor doesn’t screw up.
- The penalties/fines structure for this project are pathetically feeble. The various costs to the contractor for trenching the wrong place or destroying the wrong plants add up to a paltry $30-40K — less than 1% of the budget. Any contractor who can figure out a way to cut his costs 2% by paying a fine of 1% will obviously view those violations as simply a cost of doing business. And even if violations are not committed intentionally, such impotent wrist slaps provide the contractor with little incentive to worry about “mistakes” or “accidents”.
The result of not funding the Natural Areas Program staff — who are supposed to be the primary enforcers here — is to emasculate enforcement. They are already responsible for 1100 acres — 27% of RPD’s lands — as it is, even though RPD allocates them only 1% of the RPD headcount and 2% of the RPD budget. Either they will have to neglect other Significant Natural Resource Areas, or they will have to neglect this one. And perhaps that is the RPD GM’s objective — to set the program up for failure. He has shown a consistent hostility to the needs of RPD’s assets that aren’t golf courses and playfields. RPD upper management were conspicuously MIA in these negotiations with PUC that left the Natural Areas Program with these unfunded mandates.
The paltry penalties in this contract raise “good government” questions. Penalties for major contract violations that add up to less than 1% of the budget may be the standard in this business, but that fact stands as an indictment of the far-too-cushy relationships between City departments and contractors rather than a justification of this practice. The fact that Natural Areas Program staff “signed off” on these provisions reveals how marginalized and powerless they were — not that the provisions are actually acceptable. RPD upper management could have intervened here. Hmm…maybe they did.
In any case, the contracts are signed and the work is about to start. At this point, there appears to be no chance of changing the penalties or shunting some cash to hire another Natural Areas Program staff person. Monitoring this project will fall to citizen volunteers, and enforcement will fall to, well, it will just fall. The PUC’s faith-based relationship to the contractor will prove justified or naive; we’ll soon see.
In the meantime, Mt Davidson volunteers and fans will need to walk the hill daily — digital camera in hand — to record and post here what transpires. Perhaps all the photos will be lovely, or perhaps they’ll show a slow-motion train wreck. All we can do is hope for the best and plan for the worst — and tell the story here either way.
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