CHANGE ORDER ACCOUNTING THROUGH DECEMBER 2014

Lebo Citizens reader and Mt. Lebanon resident, Richard Gideon has been following the high school renovation change orders very closely.  Thank you, RG, for your end of year accounting. The numbers listed in the sidebar include January 2015 change orders, as approved during the January 19, 2015 school board meeting.

Here are the official figures concerning change orders for the high school reconstruction project through the end of December, 2014:

Total spent: $4,028,968.57

Average Change Order (includes refunds): $15,924.78
Median Change Order (includes refunds): $9,797.00
Beginning Contingency: $4,276,000.00
Balance (31 Dec 2014): $247,031.43
% used (31 Dec 2014): 94.22%

The total spent thus far reflects another, rather irritating, situation. A couple of months ago I noticed that a change order in favor of Farfield Electric going back to July of 2013 (7/15/13 EL-37-133 Farfield, Light fixture changes in both interior & exterior locations due to code, 28,907.00) had been changed from $28,907 to $28,097, resulting in an $810.00 discrepancy in my spreadsheet. I wrote to Mrs. Klein asking her to verify which one of the two figures is correct. Mrs. Klein replied saying, "We checked our records and found it was in fact a typographical error which we have corrected for December’s report." And here is where we have a problem; Mrs. Klein did not confirm a figure, she just said "...it was in fact a typographical error..". What does "it" refer to?; the $28,907 figure or $28,097. I assumed it was the $28,097 amount (and wrote about it on this Blog), but after listening to the podcast of the School Board meeting in December it became clear that Mrs. Klein was referring to the original $28,907 figure. This was confirmed when I received, yesterday, the latest Change Order PDF accounting through December, 2014, which listed $28,097. Here is the exact line from that document:

7/15/13 EL‐37‐133 Farfield Light fixture changes in both interior & exterior locations due to code requirements, maintenance issues & fire department review. 28,097.00

To be perfectly fair to Mrs. Klein, perhaps I should have worded my message differently (and not assumed!); but in fairness to me, I did ask for verification of which one of the two figures was correct, and instead of a number I got a pronoun. A subsequent message to Mrs. Klein about the issue was not answered.

One interesting note is that the December change orders totaled "only" $49,311.00; the lowest monthly total since July, 2013, when a series of refund adjustments resulted in a negative CO balance for that month of -$29,292! Even so, the average monthly total for change orders since the project began is now $129,966.73*. In theory, the average monthly CO total, given a starting account value of $4,276,000 spread over 41 months (the project "life"), cannot exceed $104.292.68.  

I have predicted that the District will run out of money before the project is completed, based on its rate of expenditure, and I'll stick to that prediction. However, it will be quite interesting to see what the District proposes to do to stop this "money bleed."  

Richard Gideon
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*In the interest of disclosure, there have been a total of 31 monthly periods of change orders since the project began, totaling $4,028,968.57, resulting in an average of $129,966.73/month.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Remely

Almost a year ago, I blogged about how Dan Remely regretted that "the blogs" only listed numbers for change orders. Updated List of High School Change Orders 

Change Order

Dan Remely mentioned at last night's meeting (which was televised this evening) that "the blogs" have lists of numbers for change orders. Just numbers, with no explanations given. In the small space that is available, that is all I can do. I post the agendas which provide the explanations. Dan spoke of a detailed list that will be on the School District website. When he questioned the availability of that list, President Cappucci replied that the list has not been developed. So I guess we are just stuck with a list of numbers.

Poor Dan. That list was never developed, at least for the public to see...until now.

Richard Gideon, Lebo Citizens reader and commenter, has been keeping track of all the change orders. Monthly, Richard has been kind enough to verify my numbers that I list on the sidebar of this blog.

RG included this explanation in his email to me, along with the table that he created. High School Construction Reconcile Sheet

The pale yellow cells represent the change orders for the HS "Renovation" project from June 2012 through December 2013. The pale green cells are change orders sorted from lowest (maximum refund) to highest (greatest single expense). Please note that the number in the pale green cells do not represent the cost or refund of the change order as described in that particular row; ergo, the color coding. 

At the end, you'll find both average and median prices. Those in the pale yellow areas are across the board; those in the pale green areas are sequestered into refunds only vs. costs only.
 

(No TERC math was used, nor any standard American algorithm harmed, in the preparation of this table)