Christie makes example of overbudget school project

TRENTON - Gov. Christie wielded his veto pen for the first time this week, singling out a Burlington City High School project that has gone more than 60 percent over budget as an example of the waste he plans to end.

Christie vetoed minutes from the Jan. 6 meeting of the Schools Development Authority (SDA), during which it approved $1.3 million in change orders for additional work at the school.

The original bid for the project was $28.7 million; with the change orders, the project would have cost more than $46.4 million.

"This kind of stuff is no longer going to be tolerated with taxpayer money," Christie said yesterday. "And so we're not going to approve the change order, we're not going to pay for it."

According to a news release on the SDA Web site, the school was expanded and renovated at a cost of $55 million, generating 475 jobs.

The expansion, according to the Web site, included a 49,982-square-foot addition and a 149,000-square-foot renovation of the existing school. It was opened to students in 2008. The project included a media center, classrooms, and art, computer, and science rooms, as well as expansion and renovation of the cafeteria and kitchen, and a renovation of the music wing.

Improvements were also made to sports fields, and parking and roadways, according to the Web site.

Messages left yesterday for Superintendent Patricia Doloughty, Business Administrator Craig Wilkie, and Board of Education President Ralph Lollar and Vice President Kathleen Cawley were not returned. A spokesman for the SDA referred all calls to the governor's office.

The general contractor for the project, Ernest Bock & Sons of Philadelphia, did not return calls for comment yesterday.

A memo to the SDA board from a vice president for project management at the authority states that in April 2006, during installation of underground piping for part of the expansion, contractors discovered that the athletic-fields area contained contaminated soils.

In spring 2007, a cap was installed over the contaminated soil so the area could be used. In March 2008, another cap was determined to be necessary.

In April 2009, the SDA board issued a written order for $1.077 million for Bock to relocate storm drains and place two feet of certified clean fill and six inches of topsoil over 350,000 square feet. Later, contractors discovered additional areas requiring remediation, further adding to costs.

According to the memo, the work in the change order "does not have an impact on educational adequacy," but "was initiated to ensure the orderly progression of the work and to minimize potential project delays, and has been completed."

Gov. Corzine created the SDA in 2007 to replace the Schools Construction Corp., which was created in 2002 to build schools in the state's neediest cities but was plagued with waste and mismanagement.

A 2005 report by the state inspector general found that the SCC was wasteful and had the potential for fraud.

Christie has broad authority to veto actions taken by many of the state's dozens of authorities, which spend billions of dollars a year.

In a report released last week, a Christie transition team subcommittee on authorities recommended that the new administration audit the SDA, which has authorized $12.5 billion in bonds and requested an additional $425 million.

According to the report, options range from continuing all projects, which would require $4.35 billion in bond issues, to canceling the entire program, affecting 1,800 projects and leaving 20 major facilities unfinished, and possibly exposing the state to legal action.

"I'm not paying for these extraordinary, exorbitant overruns," Christie said. "People want to know what you mean by changing Trenton. There's another example, and you're going to see more of that."