Will Youngstown finally get V&M-related project going?

The third time could well be the charm for Youngstown city government as it tries to get a $14.4 million project on track, but what is not charming is the spin that the deputy director of public works, Charles Shasho, put on the ineptitude of the administration of Mayor Jay Williams.

Before going any further, it is important to note that the undertaking is an integral part of V&M Star’s $650 million state-of-the-art steel-pipe making plant now under construction on land spanning Youngstown and Girard along Route 422.

It has been almost a year since Shasho and his staff first tried to get the rail construction and relocation project moving, but missteps have forced them back to the drawing board.

On Wednesday, the city began advertising for bids — the third time it has done so — with the hope that everything falls into place.

Here’s how the deputy director of public works portrayed the latest attempt: “The third time’s the charm, they say.” He can be forgiven for keeping his fingers crossed.

But then Shasho sought to blunt criticism of city government’s failure to get the project done with this gem: With all of the contractors at the V&M expansion site, the delays turned out to be beneficial, he said.

In other words, Youngstown has done the company a huge favor by not delivering on time. Hence, City Hall should be praised, not criticized. Talk about one for the “How to be a bureaucrat without really trying” file.

On June 6, in an editorial criticizing the Williams administration for not being able to proceed with the rail construction-relocation, we said it was an inauspicious beginning for a showcase economic development project that “has even attracted the attention of the president of the United States.” President Obama visited the V&M plant last May.

In retrospect, we were kind.

The four bids received at that time were higher than the engineer’s estimate of $13.5 million. The lowest of the bids was $18.1 million, while the highest came in at $20.2 million.

Why such a discrepancy?

“It looks like the price of rail is more than we expected,” Shasho said at the time.

Another hiccup

To avoid a repeat of that disastrous first round, city officials spent four months talking to V&M, the state rail commission, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. They then changed the scope of the project and re-advertised for bids, which were opened in October. On Nov. 10, the city rejected all six bids it had received — even though two were below the $14.4 million engineer’s cost estimate — because the apparent lowest bidder failed to include a cost for two gate-crossing signals, and two contractors threatened to file lawsuits over the bidding process.

So, it was back to the drawing board.

What makes this situation all the more disconcerting is that Youngstown isn’t spending a dime of its own money for this project. The city received $19 million from the federal stimulus initiative for site preparation work for the V&M expansion project, and yet it has failed to deliver. We wonder what top officials of V&M Star’s French parent company, Paris-based Vallourec, think of the inability of local government to perform a comparatively minor assignment — in the overall scheme of things. Just drive by the site of the new plant and you’ll get a glimpse of the enormity of this undertaking and the efficiency with which the private sector operates.

There’s a lesson for government to learn.