During the Board of County Commissioner (BOCC) meeting on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, Bruce Mattare drew attention to the troubling financial outlook of the county’s Justice Center Expansion Project (JCEP), which broke ground in September.
Commissioner Mattare displayed a graph showing the rapid progression of costs associated with the project, expressing frustration with the process he refers to as “broken,” that leaves little discussion or deliberation, many unanswered questions, and a 74.05 percent cost increase in only 19 months.
Mattare walked through the timeline, referencing public meeting discussions, presentations, resolutions, and staff communications. Starting in February of 2022, when the project design was presented by Lombard Conrad Architects, a firm out of Boise whose design proposal was relied upon as the authority on expected costs, the architect firm projected the construction to cost roughly $19 million, with an additional $3.5 million in soft costs. The construction industry uses the term soft costs in reference to costs of a project incurred that are not labor and materials. As you can imagine, the list of items categorized as soft costs can have hefty price tags covering architectural, engineering, financing, permitting, inspection and legal fees. The JCEP is no exception, showing a $300,000 projected soft cost increase in just the last 10 days.
In an August 2022 BOCC meeting, Bouten Construction, based in Spokane, Washington, was on record highlighting Lombard Conrad design cost proposal as unrealistically low. In response to County Treasurer Steve Matheson’s question for a rough project cost estimate, a representative for Bouten stated, “Initially just looking at it, I think $18 million is what we were described. That’s $312 bucks a foot, you can’t build a house in Coeur d’Alene for $312 dollars a foot. So with that we are seeing north of $500-550 a foot. Puts it north of $30 [million].”
“Wow,” was uttered by someone off camera upon hearing the “north of $30 million” project cost figure.
Discussion continued, without reconsideration based on the updated estimated cost figure verbally disclosed by Bouten, and on August 8, 2022, they were awarded the Request For Quotation (RFQ) for the project in an unanimous vote of the BOCC.
By March 2023, the official project cost had ballooned to over $35 million, just like the representative of Bouten Construction had predicted. In the March 16, 2023, BOCC meeting, Bouten presented a “Current Project Cost Estimate” to the board. Mattare notes the importance of the distinction between a “project cost estimate” and a “construction cost estimate.” In Bouten’s project cost estimate of $35.2 million, they failed to include the $3.5 million soft costs from Lombard Conrad’s design estimate. That means Bouten actually presented a “construction cost estimate,” while the agenda lists the presentation as “project cost estimate.” This $3.5 million soft cost wasn’t disclosed within Bouten’s informational packet until September 2023, after the BOCC had already voted to pull from reserve funds to cover the exploding costs of the Justice Center Expansion.
The board made financial decisions based on inaccurate data, much to the chagrin of Mattare who made clear at the October 3 meeting that he had based his vote to use reserve fund balance to buttress the project budget because he was operating on the information from Bouten covering “project costs” as opposed to “construction costs.” As you can see in the meeting agenda shown below from March 16, 2023, the action item clearly states, “Current Project Cost Estimate with Bouten Construction.”
“I hope people who support this project can justify the taxpayer expense,” expressed Mattare.
There is consensus amongst the county elected officials that the need for additional space for court services is critical. Commissioner Leslie Duncan, who has consistently supported the project, shared her perspective. “The desperate need for expanded courts have been justified by all stakeholders involved beginning 2019. Although Kootenai County has received additional judges since 2019, we have not expanded court facilities,” Duncan stated. She wants the public to know that construction costs have gone through unprecedented supply chain and labor shortages, which results in higher costs. “I lament the project has become more expensive as I believe each tax dollar taken from property owners is sacred,” continued Duncan. “I do concern myself with the justice system as a top priority.” That the Sixth Amendment secures the right to a speedy trial factors into Duncan’s support of the JCEP.
By the end of the BOCC meeting, Mattare had laid out three unequivocal precursors that must be satisfied before he will support anything further concerning the project.
- The county budget director must be included in all of the working group meetings. She must be provided notice of projects that fall through within one week. She is involved in validating every quarterly ARPA report, and the board reviews and approves all quarterly reports before submitting them.
- Somebody has to show where all the funds are coming from for the jail pods, the sheriff’s office move, and the Justice Center, in that order. Along with the absolute maximum fund balance that will be spent to complete these projects, where the money is going to come from, and how much money will be left over to purchase items, maintain emergency funds, cover expected repairs, and other expenses that might be incurred.
- All information is to be shown in a public meeting with feedback from the county taxpayer as to whether we should draw this much fund balance down, and operate without any meaningful financial cushion.
In response to Mattare’s three criteria, Duncan agreed, “I think that your requirements going forward are absolutely necessary and workable.”
Commissioner Bill Brooks firmly aligned with Mattare, “I couldn’t have said it better. I think we’re in a spin that’s going to take us right up, as I said before it’s all said and done, $65 million … I think that’s where we’re headed.”
