Public fight over PBS&J at Orlando toller

Orlando FL mayor and chair of the toll authority Rich Crotty says he wants longtime operations contractor and consultant PBS&J out at the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA). He says the 27 years they've been operating the Orlando tollroads as part of the authority is "too long." He charges that  they messed up seriously in estimating the costs of the authority's new head offices, and he says they should never have got involved in political fundraising - hitting up authority vendors for political donations as revealed in a recently released grand jury paper.

Another board member agrees, Tanya Juarez, and Harvey Massey who just stepped down from the board have also been outspoken about the need to be rid of PBS&J.

The public fight is extraordinary since PBS&J are less than a third the way through a new five year contract - although oddly there is no mention of the contract in OOCEA's official archive of bid results.

See: http://www.expresswayauthority.com/Corporate/administration/Contracting/BidResults.aspx?show=all

Also we can't find any press release or any mention of it in monthly board minutes although it must be there somewhere. (We did find a Supplemental Agreement with PBS&J for Gopher Tortoise Humane Relocation for SR417.)

OOCEA announced in November 2006 that the engineering services contract with PBS&J worth, it was said about $9m/yr then would be rebid for the first time, because as CEO Mike Snyder said: "It's the right thing to do."

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1705

There's a TOLLROADSnews report June 29 2007 saying PBS&J had won reselection as preferred provider of general engineering consultant services. Parsons Transportation of Pasadena CA was the only other contender.

PBS&J was selected based on expertise and capability and the hourly billing rates and other financial terms were not part of the bid, but were negotiated after the selection.

No value was placed on the contract but the previous five-year contract ran an average $16m/year.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/208

PBS&J personnel are a substantial presence in the OOCEA offices, although their numbers are nowhere revealed. The company is not mentioned in the latest annual report.

Three and a half years to run

It seems likely the contract was signed in the fall of 2007 so it has only run 18 months of its five year term. If there is 3.5 years to run on the PBS&J contract, the Authority will have to negotiate, or litigate an end to it, if chairman Crotty's wishes to fire them are to be fulfilled.

Context for the complaints

The fight over PBS&J's tenure occurs in the context of a larger set of controversies about misbehavior by the former chairman Allan Keen, the apparent bribe payment of $107k made to anti-toll activist Alan Guetzloe, the firing of veteran PR and marketing man Ron Pecora, critical audit reports, demands for the termination of chief executive Michael Snyder, attacks on the current chairman Rich Crotty, as well as proposals to rescind a toll increase.

This is not a happy family.

Previous PBS&J scandal

In 2005 PBS&J auditors found that the company and its clients had suffered some $36m losses in a fraud directed by the company's chief financial officer and two others in the Miami office. The fraud was discovered within PBS&J, the three were fired, and the company negotiated restitution with its major clients.

The company has about 4,000 employees working out of 75 cities and does around $500m a year. It is employee owned. The company is generally well spoken of for the quality of its engineering work.

OOCEA operates four major tollroads and a segment of a fifth. It collects around $200m in toll revenue/year.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1542

TOLLROADSnews 2009-03-22