Who is tracking the budget for this project?

And...Do we have a project manager? You know, as in a "professional" who can keep tabs on it for us?

About the process and progress of the project? I was around when the last jail was built. Modern marvel it was to be. It was substandard the first day it was occupied. Biggest reason? County Quarterly Court (what is now County Commission) decided to cave to "economy" demands they felt from the public. What did they do? They approved change orders to change the type of steel put certain places, and to change the type of concrete put other places.- they saved some money for the taxpayers. Funny thing about that saved money: It was all lost and more in the manhunt that followed thr FIRST jail escape from there, which escape was directly enabled by the well publicized facts of how they had scrimped to various construction aspects to save some money. And the several following escapes added to the net loss the taxpayers suffered because they had prevailed upon the legislative body to do it cheaper. I know - I was engaged in that first manhunt and could (but won't) tell you the name of the prisoner and what state he was finally captured in.

So we need to be careful about HOW we "watch-dog" that project.

You may believe we overpaid for the property, but you don't know how hard the county worked to get the prices down, what was done to achieve the fact that the county DID get the prices down, how the prices were compared to assessed value, etc, etc. There was significant time and effort put in on getting the acquisition costs down as far as possible.

So it was public knowledge what we could spend on the project. I suppose you would have supported that fact being kept quiet and away from public knowledge? I somehow doubt that... they can't win: keep it secret and be damned for their conniving secrecy... make it public and be condemned for giving away all the "secrets."... hmmm... I wouldn't wanna be one of them!

RB

I will be very surprised if this project comes in at budget, given the process and it's oversight at present.

I like the process by which Knoxville managed Victor Ashe Park. They hired a professional project manager who was involved in the daily oversight of the project. An aide to mayor Ashe told me that they think they saved millions over the normal handling of such projects.

In that case, of course, the Mayor was a lame duck and wanted it finished so he could christen it before he left office.

has all along been tied to the Jail Oversight Committee, which has had oodles and oodles of public meetings. Their meetings are not secret, although they have sometimes been mis-reported by both the RCN and Mr Largen.

I wonder what people think the oversight is? My wager is that many would be surprised at the number of meetings various folks have that look at this project as it goes along. Although it isn't done in secret, it is a fact of the busy and ongoing nature of the project that every meeting of any people that has to do with the project can hardly be done so that everybody and their dog can attend. Has anybody asked the County Executive, for instance, for a schedule of the Oversight Committee meetings and attended any of them? I have attended some of them. At NONE of the ones I have attended have I EVER seen a member of the public.

RB

Has anybody asked the County Executive, for instance, for a schedule of the Oversight Committee meetings and attended any of them? I have attended some of them. At NONE of the ones I have attended have I EVER seen a member of the public.

No one should even have to ask for a schedule...the schedule should be posted publicly. The County has a web site with a calendar. it has been erratically updated to this point. I post the County site link on every page of RoaneViews, by the way.

The minutes for each meeting should also be published publicly. I sit on the Board of a nonprofit organization that does all this consistantly and effectlvely and with far fewer resources than Roane County has at it's disposal.

A suggestion has also been made for every meeting to be videoed and the video posted in flash format for all to review at their convenience. That would be facilitated by highspeed internet...Which the County has not facilitated now, has it?

Should it be added to the cost of the jail project on which it reports?

One of the issues with the county website is the cost of a webmaster that can (by virtue of being paid appropriately) keep the website up to the timeliness standards that seem to be wanted. I've done a little webhosting, and it ain't easy (kudos to you and the group that started this one, BTW!). We're not talking about something that's as easy to achieve as simply making the decision to do it.

Maybe I'm simply alert for it, but I have seen lots of notices (like all such notices, they're small and not in headlines) of meetings of this committee, and I've seen reporting on what was discussed/decided. I won't say I've seen notices for every meeting, but certainly for enough that if somebody went to each one I've seen notices for, there would not likely be cause for talking about how hidden the process is.

Maybe we could start another topic and discuss the notions of how far a government has to go to get information out vis a vis how much effort a citizen should be willing to put out to get the information. How much is enough to thwart any possible accusation of not being open enough? I think there are limits. Do you?

RB

I have noted elsewhere that the Mayor Farmer has said the County has a new web site under construction that would take care of this very easily. But I will point out that RoaneViews has a perfectly adequate calendar and events management module which would cost the county right about, say...zip!

The time and expense factor is vanishingly small once the material is organized on a word processor file, something that should be done anyway.

I think it's time we drag Roane County kicking and screaming into the 20th century. ;>)

Like the cool fresh water of creeks and rivers flowing down from the mountains to the sea, the good people of Roane County and of America have tremendous untapped potential energy. If only we could make our government be more like a water wheel harmlessly and beneficially dipping into the flowing stream...