Easton needs a Construction Audit!

To the Editor:

Easton’s Board of Finance is currently wrestling with taxpayers’ calls to engage a tri-state group of construction audit professionals. Consider the following facts:

1)      The project took almost seven times its original time budget.

2)      There has been significant turnover of members of the “committee”, some trade professionals.

3)      The Town’s treasurer position changed hands two or three times over the tenure of the project.

4)      At least two parties have actively, but sometimes separately without the other party’s knowledge, been engaged in approving cash disbursements.

5)       Carlson Construction, and likely Mr. Carlson himself, has been financially stressed for several years.

6)      The construction contract is a “fixed-price contract”, and no one knows who negotiated it.

7)      Direct labor and sub vendors have not been fully paid by Carlson Construction.

8)      Outside vendors had to be engaged by the Town to finish/correct Carlson’s work.

9)      A DPW employee who worked exclusively at the animal shelter site from September 2012 through at least March of this year, no longer works for the Town.

10)  $74,000 is being held back by the Town, pending direction as to where it should be paid.

11)  Substandard materials and poor workmanship are evident throughout the building.

12)  Lien releases were not obtained in a timely manner.

13)  Mr. Herrmann has said on several occasions that the winning “bid was too low”.

Each of these items, by itself, may only be an unfortunate item of concern.  But when you consider them as a group, they constitute a significant “red flag” on a construction project rife with the potential for mismanagement, a poor finished product, and possibly fraud. 

An independent, professional construction audit offers the only avenue to unwind this tangled mess.