Audit Subcommittee's Report May Not Be Its Final Word on Undergrounding

The City Council Audit Subcommittee is getting closer to approving its final report on the Piedmont Hills undergrounding project, but committee members say their work continues to be stultified by ongoing litigation between the city and the engineering firms charged with botching the project.

The committee plans to meet next month to discuss the report they've drafted and possibly vote on it and then send it on to City Council.

If a report is approved in August, a more comprehensive study might follow once the litigation has been resolved, said Mayor Dean Barbieri, a subcommittee member.

“We’ve prepared a report of those things we can discuss while litigation is pending,” said Barbieri. “When the litigation gets resolved, we’ll determine if it needs to be supplemented with a second final report that is all encompassing.”

Piedmont is anxious to settle the case against the engineering firms involved, said Barbieri, but the companies have so far not offered to pay a sum of money that the city feels is fair and reasonable. Barbieri said the matter will likely be taken to trial.

“We’re not just going to dismiss the lawsuit,” said Barbieri. “We feel that the parties that were hired by the city to perform engineering duties did not perform their work to the required standard of care.”

The project that broke ground in 2009 was put forth by a group of Piedmont Hills residents concerned about the danger and aesthetics of overhanging wires. The last remaining utility cables and poles in the undergrounding district last month, shortly before the June 30 deadline.

The residents of the district had agreed to pay the $4.3 million estimated for the work, but the city was saddled with the bill for more than $2 million in overruns that the contractors racked up after hitting bedrock.

City Council formed the audit subcommittee to examine the handling of the project. The three members of the subcommittee presented their , which were compiled last week.

The draft report contains recommendations on how the city can avoid another fiscal disaster like the undergrounding project in the future. With a plan to develop sports fields in , the city needs to have safeguards in place, said Barbieri.

“[The report] is going to have recommendations about ways to protect the city from incurring expenses above and beyond those that were anticipated,” said Barbieri.

At next month's public meeting, the committee will decide which recommendations they wish to include in their final report.

“The report will show how once a project begins, the liability for the City expands at such a rapid pace that realistic choices become fewer and fewer,” said subcommittee member Ken Kawaichi.

Kawaichi expects the report to stress that “clearer guidelines, better oversight, better communication, continuous monitoring and pre-set limitations on spending should be required.”