Chapter 76

I had interviewed Richard Bozman the week before. Ken Smith of building services and John Jenkins, Chairman of the board sat in on the interview. To say I was impressed was an understatement. He had credentials above and beyond anything we would need here.

He was certified by the NRC as a construction supervisor and project auditor inside the dome of a nuclear power plant and by the Interior Department for hydroelectric projects. He had even been the construction supervisor for a skyscraper in Hong Kong.

He found error after error in the blue prints and materials list. And that was on the first few pages.

His explanation made sense when he explained it for us laymen. The architects were paid by percentage on the total cost of the project including cost over runs. The builder was awarded the job based on low bid. Any changes to the building plans after the project was awarded was considered an exception and billed at a premium rate, sometimes 300 percent above the bid rate.

To make matters worse any materials ordered for that grid of the project simply disappeared even if that grid was stopped before the first nail was driven, usually to another job site the builder was running or returned for credit to the builders account and not to the project account. The materials were ordered by the grid off the blueprints based on the order of construction. They didn't want roof trusses sitting on the job site for a year. They wanted on time deliveries as the materials were needed. Some builders kicked back a portion of this to the architects to guarantee that there were mistakes that would fall into the extra category. This was where the real money was made and big projects cost overruns.

A week later Mr. Bozman requested that I meet with him. He had indentified 1.4 million dollars worth of these areas in the site work and the first stage of the building. The site work was for both dorms and the first stage included the foundation for the first dorm. He estimated that we could save 4 million over the entire project by eliminating the overlaps that would have to be corrected by exceptions to the contract.

The meeting needed to include more than just me. This problem needed someone with more authority than I had. If the issues couldn't be resolved then someone needed to shut the project down. Blueprints needed to be redrawn to eliminate the issues, then the project needed to be rebid.

To resolve this I scheduled an emergency meeting for the next morning with the board for Mr. Bozman to present his case.

Almost as an afterthought I instructed Patti to do a complete investigation of the builder, the architectural firm and the building committee to see if we found any conflicts or connections among the companies or their management before the meeting.

After lunch I received a call from the Director of Athletics requesting an immediate meeting. I didn't have anything scheduled for the rest of the afternoon. I agreed to meet in 30 minutes.

Director Jeff Blades and his six coaches showed up for the meeting on time. They had serious concerns about the safety of their players at away games as well players and spectators at home games.

With the recent events at the Boston Marathon and events at other colleges they requested security be beefed up. They wanted security to send a chaperon on each bus and if necessary to stay with the teams on overnight trips. The coach and another educator always stayed on overnight trips but they now felt that more security people were needed.

"You have valid points but you have to understand that there are challenges that are going to be difficult to overcome. As you know most educational facilities are gun free zones. Most laws state even local law enforcement can't carry a gun on the grounds of those colleges," I said.

"To even start I would need to do a security profile of each college that you are going to, where your players are staying. From that I can decide what kind of resources we need to supply," I said.