http://couv.com Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. Fri, 07 Nov 2014 16:49:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. http://couv.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://couv.com http://couv.com/issues/clark-county-today/the-crc-gorilla http://couv.com/issues/clark-county-today/the-crc-gorilla#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:15:44 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=20833 http://couv.com/issues/clark-county-today/the-crc-gorilla/feed 0 columbia river crossing light rail project,CRC,david madore,kevin peterson,video,wsdot World renowned transportation architect Kevin Peterson says the manual for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is well written and well respected around the nation, but he has difficulty understanding why it was not followed to cr... World renowned transportation architect Kevin Peterson says the manual for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is well written and well respected around the nation, but he has difficulty understanding why it was not followed to create the design for the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail Tolling project. Kevin Peterson says the CRC is like a gorilla sitting in your front yard, and your view is the hind end. In 2010 frustrated engineer friends requested that Peterson review the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) as proposed and offer feedback. What Peterson saw was enough of a concern that he contacted the CRC directly and asked to meet with project officials. “When I looked at the project in 2010, I could not see that they had considered a collector distributor for a bridge replacement,” says Peterson. “Why the project did not consider a collector distributor is what I find disturbing.” The collector distributor option (CD), one that is spelled out in the WSDOT manual, greatly simplifies the design by placing local traffic on the bottom level with the faster freeway traffic on the top level. During their spring 2010 CRC meeting, Peterson presented a “notional indication of the benefits associated with a collector distributor” versus the braided design the CRC pursued. A braided design gets its name from its appearance. When viewed from above its intertwining on and off ramps appears braid-like. Peterson feels that on this project the braided design creates interchanges that are spaced too closely together and ultimately unsafe. Based on his experience, expertise and solid reputation that has been the foundational bedrock of Peterson's career, he believed that his input would be valuable. The CRC’s response to Peterson? “Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Peterson watched with increasing disappointment as the CRC, when questioned in public, suggested that there were problems with his idea, but the CRC only alluded to problems, and called his concept “fatally flawed,” without ever identifying anything specific.   According to Peterson there are significant benefits to the collector-distributor model. It straightens the grossly amplified curve in the current CRC design. It avoids massive land-take in the downtown area and virtually eliminates encroachment on Fort Vancouver. It even goes farther and connects downtown with the fort. The biggest plus of Peterson's concept offers superior safety and congestion relief with a projected outcome of reducing the number of potential deaths from vehicular accidents. From all appearances, the CRC bulldozed forward with a braided design, which grossly impacts Hayden Island. Hallmarks of the design that Hayden Island can look forward to are objectionable noise, the takeover of the equivalent of 19 to 21 city blocks, or 33-46 city blocks when the broadcast of freeway noise is considered.   As currently planned, the overwall CRC freeway structure swells over Vancouver in a manner that Peterson hasn’t seen since the 1960s when freeways were built without real regard or consideration for urban environments. “It’s a brutalistic structure that is being laid over Vancouver,” says Peterson, and if the freeway has to be raised 30 feet to accommodate river shipping it makes his assessment even more dire. He compares it to a “gorilla sitting in your front yard, and you get to look at the hind end.” Peterson now joins the frustrated engineers who pulled him into this review. He doesn’t understand the CRC mentality that is content with using a braided design that only meets minimal standards and costs substantially more. “When I saw that this was the solution it shocked me,” says Kevin Peterson. Peterson continues to seek answers to his fundamental questions: Why does the CRC project office refuse to consider a collector distributor? What are a design flaws that the CRC office has alluded to in a collector distributor model? Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no 1:23:43 http://couv.com/issues/herrera-beutler-referendum http://couv.com/issues/herrera-beutler-referendum#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:46:30 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=16821 http://couv.com/issues/herrera-beutler-referendum/feed 0 http://couv.com/issues/transportation-taxes-fees http://couv.com/issues/transportation-taxes-fees#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:24:53 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=14183 http://couv.com/issues/transportation-taxes-fees/feed 0 http://couv.com/issues/couch-digs-into-crc http://couv.com/issues/couch-digs-into-crc#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:30:04 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=13120 http://couv.com/issues/couch-digs-into-crc/feed 0 audio,columbia river crossing light rail project,CRC,odot,scott thompson,wsdot As a forensic accountant who specializes in fraud investigations, Tiffany Couch’s job is to offer a neutral eye and follow the paper trail - often to surprising results. - That was certainly true this fall when Couch’s firm, Acuity Group PLLC, As a forensic accountant who specializes in fraud investigations, Tiffany Couch’s job is to offer a neutral eye and follow the paper trail - often to surprising results. That was certainly true this fall when Couch’s firm, Acuity Group PLLC, became ... Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no 12:08 http://couv.com/issues/mayor-vows-to-fund-lightrail http://couv.com/issues/mayor-vows-to-fund-lightrail#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:08:27 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=11807 http://couv.com/issues/mayor-vows-to-fund-lightrail/feed 2 http://couv.com/issues/wash-transportation-com http://couv.com/issues/wash-transportation-com#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:19:54 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=9795 http://couv.com/issues/wash-transportation-com/feed 0 http://couv.com/issues/tiffany-couch-crc-finances http://couv.com/issues/tiffany-couch-crc-finances#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:11:21 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=6203 http://couv.com/issues/tiffany-couch-crc-finances/feed 0 Boondoggle,bridge,bridging the gaps 2,columbia river,CRC,crc investigation,david evans and associates,fraud investigations,freedom of information,Light Rail Tolling Project,scott thompson,tiffany couch Vancouver-based forensic accountant Tiffany Couch gave an update of her analysis of financial documents related to the Columbia River Crossing Bridge and Light Rail project at Bridging the Gaps 2 on Oct. 8. - Vancouver-based forensic accountant Tiffany Couch gave an update of her analysis of financial documents related to the Columbia River Crossing Bridge and Light Rail project at Bridging the Gaps 2 on Oct. 8. Couch initially reported on the CRC's poor accounting practices during the first Bridging the Gaps conference in June. Couch examined thousands of pages of electronic documents supplied by the CRC via a Freedom of Information request. She found that the CRC was unable to adequately account for how it spent $108 million in public funds between July 2005 and February 2011. Oddities included invoices totaling $15 million lacking vendor names and invoices worth $38 million that lacked codes to identify services rendered. More recently, Couch received and analyzed the CRC’s seemingly sweetheart contract with David Evans and Associates, general contractor on the CRC project. Couch describes how the CRC’s original call for consultants in 2005 listed a budget of $20 million for the environmental phase of the project. The only firm to bid was David Evans and Associates, an engineering firm based in Portland. In May 2005, the CRC signed a $50 million contract with David Evans to deliver a draft environmental impact statement for the project. The contract included large mark-ups for overhead and an assortment of other fees on top of labor charges. For example, in one invoice dated April 17, 2007, David Evans listed its labor cost as $91,536, but the invoice totaled $280,291 after the various mark-ups were applied. The CRC paid it. Couch also discovered that until August 2009 David Evans routinely added a four percent fee to subcontractor billings, a practice not stipulated in its original contract. David Evans received more than $1.4 million in income from these unapproved fees. The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) discovered the practice during an internal audit dated Jan 26, 2010. However, rather than requiring David Evans to pay back the money received, the internal auditor advised that the contract be retroactively changed to allow for the markup. Couch also describes how David Evans asked for an additional $40 million, without detailed explanation, to complete its contract. WSDOT not only agreed, but later approved another $10 million. In all, David Evans is scheduled to receive $105 for what was originally a $50 million contract. Couch said her investigation is ongoing and will continue as the CRC provides her with requested documents. CREDITS Video directed by Jordan Thompson Video shot by LifePoint ______________________________________________________________________________________ See our continuing coverage of the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project. Do you have information to share on the CRC? To respond anonymously call 260-816-1426. To allow your comments to be used on COUV.COM call 260-816-1429. Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no 47:39 http://couv.com/issues/tolling-ballot http://couv.com/issues/tolling-ballot#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:11:13 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=2199 http://couv.com/issues/tolling-ballot/feed 0 http://couv.com/issues/btg-joe-cortright http://couv.com/issues/btg-joe-cortright#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:04 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=1268 http://couv.com/issues/btg-joe-cortright/feed 2 Boondoggle,bridging the gaps,cortright report,CRC,joe cortright,Light Rail Tolling Project,odot,video,wsdot Listen to an audio podcast of this presentation here: - Joe Cortright, president and principal economist for Impresa, a Portland consulting firm specializing in regional economic analysis, speaks at the "Bridging the Gaps" event in Vancouver on Ju... Listen to an audio podcast of this presentation here: Joe Cortright, president and principal economist for Impresa, a Portland consulting firm specializing in regional economic analysis, speaks at the "Bridging the Gaps" event in Vancouver on Ju... Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no 14:21 http://couv.com/issues/crc-forensic-accountant-interviewed-by-kpams-victoria-taft http://couv.com/issues/crc-forensic-accountant-interviewed-by-kpams-victoria-taft#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:52:25 +0000 COUV.COM staff http://couv.com/?p=1154 http://couv.com/issues/crc-forensic-accountant-interviewed-by-kpams-victoria-taft/feed 0 audio,Boondoggle,carol doane,Light Rail Tolling Project,odot,tiffany couch,victoria taft,wsdot Tiffany Couch is a forensic accountant with the Acuity Group. David Madore, a private citizen, has asked her to take a look at Columbia River Crossing’s books. KPAM host Victoria Taft asks her what she's uncovered. - Tiffany Couch is a forensic accountant with the Acuity Group. David Madore, a private citizen, has asked her to take a look at Columbia River Crossing’s books. KPAM host Victoria Taft asks her what she's uncovered. Couch reports having difficulty obtaining what she calls some of the basic accounting records of the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project* (CRC). As a former government auditor, Couch says she expects at least a financial statement or job costing report, documents that would show total money coming in by source, total expenditures to individual vendors, and expenditures coded for rent, architecture, legal, etc. These are generic forms, Couch says, but the state has indicated it does not have them in a central repository. As a result, Couch has been forced to ask for more detailed documents, for example expenditures. She says that if they can't say where the money is coming from - feds, ODOT, WSDOT - “Then at least tell us who the money is being sent to.” Couch explained that the CRC is supposed to be a joint venture between ODOT and WSDOT. However, ODOT spends some of the money and WSDOT spends some of the money, so a total tally was not available. She was only able to get Washington State expenditures from its accounting system. What she discovered is that through December 2010, Washington's Department of Transportation spent $108 million related to the CRC, and of that $77 million went to a single vendor, David Evans and Associates. Most of the expenditures from WSDOT to this firm were for architectural, engineering type of expenditures, and possibly the environmental impact studies. The only details that Couch has been provided have to do with Washington. “We have no idea how much has been spent from ODOT coffers to this same firm,” she said. The CRC did provide Couch with 715 PDF files. Her frustration has been trying to figure out how all the pieces of paper relate to each other, and sometimes the frustration is just opening the file. “They’re extremely large, some of them thousands of pages of a single PDF file,” she explained. The documents purport to detail related expenditures. “However, they were given to us in such disarray that half the battle has been opening up a file, inventorying the information in the file, and trying to disseminate all this data.” Tiffany Couch tells Taft she cannot confirm the true number of what has actually been spent. She can’t confirm how much Oregon has spent on this project. “I really can’t confirm anything - we don’t have a financial statement of money coming in and money going out.” Couch says the public should be able to review financial statements, and that the financial statements should be backed up by detailed documents. “They say they are not required to keep those records because this is a project underneath Washington State Department of Transportation...I do not understand at this point why we don’t have that high level data.” * The well-documented cost to taxpayers, if the CRC stays on budget, is $10 billion. This was established by the Cortright Report (PDF) which used data from an independent review panel hired by the governors of Washington and Oregon. (View the panel’s final report.) See our continuing coverage of the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project. Do you have information to share on the CRC? To respond anonymously call 260-816-1426. To allow your comments to be used on COUV.COM call 260-816-1429. Audio and video stories from Southwest Washington. no 9:58