548K error found in engineering pact

Commissioners are expected to address the issue today.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer Gary Newbrough said a mistaken interpretation of a 2004 preliminary engineering report led to a contract that would overpay a Youngstown engineering company by 548,000.
Newbrough said he explained the mistake to various county officials Tuesday, including commissioners Dan Polivka and Assistant Prosecutor Jim Misocky, before the county commissioners' planning meeting. He and other officials said the next step would be to attempt to correct the mistake.
Newbrough said a preliminary engineering report done by MS Consultants of Youngstown indicated the engineering fees associated with a sanitary sewer project for the Scott Street area of Newton Township would be 685,000 and that administrative costs would be 548,000.
Typo
Newbrough said Tuesday there was some information printed below that on the same page of the report that was supposed to clarify that the administrative costs were not part of the engineering contract, but a dot instead of an asterisk was printed in front of the information.
The commissioners awarded the engineering contract to ES & amp;C International of Youngstown.
The incorrect mark caused Newbrough to mistakenly believe the administrative costs were to be paid to the engineering firm instead of paid separately, Newbrough said.
Newbrough said the administrative costs are for items such as property acquisition, temporary work areas, access to the site, legal fees and permits, Newbrough said.
"That would be somewhat ironic," Newbrough said of a typographical error causing a 548,000 mistake, "that a dot should have been an asterisk."
Looking into it
Newbrough and Polivka said they would be checking into the matter right away and determining what needed to be done to correct the mistake.
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said later he was not part of the meeting and doesn't know whether the mistake will cost the county any money. He said the matter is being handled by the prosecutor's office.
The county auditor's office reports that ES & amp;C has not been paid anything on the contract yet.
Polivka said he would wait to comment on the matter today, when commissioners will address the issue again at their regular weekly meeting. "I have a lot of comment, but I'm not going to make one now," he said Tuesday. "We're checking into the department to get to the root of the problem," he added, referring to the sanitary engineer's office.
Commissioner James Tsagaris, who missed Tuesday's meeting, said he was unaware of Newbrough's explanation of the problem but had been made aware last week that there was possibly something wrong with the amount of the contract. He said he and Polivka asked Newbrough at that time to check into it.
"That sounds more legit," Tsagaris said, when told the engineering fees should have been only 685,000. "It didn't seem like a 1.2 million job."
'Harmless'
Newbrough said the commissioners are "harmless" in the mistake because they rely on a recommendation from him for such contracts and followed information he gave them.
He added that Jim Brutz, the assistant county prosecutor who advises the sanitary engineer in legal issues, signed off on the contract Oct. 2.
Sat Adlaka, a principal with ES & amp;C, did not return a call seeking comment.
Atty. Ned Gold of Warren, who had represented ES & amp;C on the negotiations for the contract, said Tuesday he completed his work for ES & amp;C a couple weeks ago after the contract was signed and is not in a position to comment. He said the Scott Street contract is the only project he has worked on for ES & amp;C.
Heltzel has raised questions about the contract for several months and was outvoted 2-1 by Polivka and Tsagaris when it was approved Oct. 3.
Heltzel has said the engineering contract raised a number of questions in his mind -- such as why it was so large -- and advocated dividing it among two companies. He has also raised questions about whether the county's current procedures for awarding professional service contracts might cause commissioners to be influenced by campaign contributions from engineering companies.
After John Pierko of MS Consultants raised questions about the contract to Heltzel recently, Heltzel wrote a letter to the county prosecutor's office Nov. 1 asking the office to review the contract.
runyan@vindy.com