CDOT’S VISION FOR FUTURE: Lexus Lanes For The Affluent; Endless Traffic For Everyone Else

by Charles Bonniwell | Dec 16, 2019 | Main Articles

Part III Of A III Part Series

by Charles C. Bonniwell

The future for the average motorist in Colorado is going to be bleak according to insiders at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) which is the state agency in charge of the transportation needs of the people of Colorado. In a 99-page study provided in December by CDOT to the Colorado Legislature, the department claimed to need $14 million to $84 million annually in increased fees with Executive Director Shoshana Lew stating in a cover letter that the state’s “transportation funding is insufficient and outdated.”

The requested fees increase would in fact be of little help to the embattled state agency which has little desire or funding to save the failing roads system in Colorado. Although seldom starkly expressed, Lew’s plan is to make driving in Colorado so painful that many average Coloradans will abandon their cars in favor of a public transit alternative. She understands the inconvenience and unpleasantness of Colorado’s public transportation system and that the state’s most affluent residents will likely want to retain the convenience of their own automobiles. Under the radar CDOT is creating a two tier system — revenue or “Lexus” lanes for those who can afford it and massive traffic congestion for the general public.

Four major projects in and around Denver demonstrate this new approach:

•           $1.3 billion 10 mile Central I-70 Project in Denver;

•           $500 million I-25 North Expansion Project north of Denver;

•           $350 million 18 mile I-25 GAP Project south of Denver; and

•           $226 million 12.5-mile C-470 Project southwest of Denver.

Many motorists are outraged when they learn that billions of dollars in expenditures and massive construction inconveniences will not provide a single additional lane of road for the average motorist. CDOT effectively has slammed shut state firms from the ability to bid on the projects so almost all projects are done by massive out-of-state conglomerates at inflated prices. The following four massive projects reveal what is in store for the people of the state.

C-470 Project

The 12.5 miles between Wadsworth and I-25 in Douglas County is one of the busiest stretches of roads in Colorado with over 100,000 cars traveling it every day. The $226 million spent is solely for Lexus lanes while the general public will be forced to use the same two lanes east and west. CDOT did not have the funds, and did not want to ask the public for the borrowing as required by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR). It therefore set up an enterprise fund titled The High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE) which issued $161.7 million in revenue bonds and borrowed $106.9 million in loans from federal sources. The revenue from the Lexus lanes will go to pay back the loans, but even after the payoff, decades in the future, they are not expected to ever open the lanes to nonpaying drivers.

CDOT expects by 2030 the car usage will jump to 140,000 cars daily making travel ever more highly congested and allowing CDOT to charge ever increasing premium prices for their Lexus lanes.

The contract to build the 12.5 miles of road was not low bid (LB) but awarded on a design build (DB) concept to a joint venture of Flatiron Construction (a subsidiary of the massive German conglomerate HOCHTIEF) and AECOM, a large engineering firm out of Los Angeles. It is one of the few large projects in Colorado not awarded to the virtual duopoly of Kraemer North America LLC (a subsidiary of the Japanese construction giant Obayashi Corporation),  and Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 construction firm based in Omaha, Nebraska.

The project has been in constant delays and CDOT sent a letter of default to Flatiron/AECOM who in turn indicated the failures have been due to CDOT’s gross incompetence and the agency’s ongoing effort to try to blame everyone else for its internal problems. The latest delayed opening projection is in June of 2021.

I-25 Gap Project

If you are traveling south on I-25 after completing the 12.5 miles of C-470 you will need to take your wallet out quickly enough to travel the 18 miles from Monument to Castle Rock in more Lexus lanes. That stretch of road is two lanes each way and CDOT says it is so dangerous that two State Patrol officers have recently died in accidents using the road. Of course, it is not really clear why it would be any less dangerous to the average motorist who doesn’t get to use the one additional Lexus lane each way other than some minor road shoulder expansion on existing lanes. The Gap Project will cost $350 million with the state providing $250 million, $65 million from the federal government, $35 million from local governments including El Paso and Douglas counties. Westword has been chronicling the traffic nightmares imposed on the average motorist in articles titled “Traffic Nightmare Closures Come to I-25.” Few are aware the only beneficiary of the money and the traffic are to be the affluent who are willing to pay the fees for the Lexus lanes and political outrage will occur when the public does find out.

This project was awarded by CDOT to Kraemer not on a competitive bid process but by Construction Management/General Contractor method (CMGC) by which over 80 percent of such projects are awarded to either Kraemer or Kiewit. This project is also haunted by numerous delays and is now not expected to be finished until 2022. As with all CDOT projects CDOT blames the contractor and the contractor blames CDOT.

I-25 North Express Lanes Mead To Fort Collins

If you head north instead of south on I-25 after leaving C-470 you cannot escape the Lexus lanes. The Mead to Fort Collins project was originally for 13.5 miles for $250 million and awarded to Kraemer. Later when an additional $250 to $300 million of funding was located another 4.5 miles was added. Without even pretending to look for competitive bids CDOT simply gave it to their friends at Kraemer, based on a so-called “change order.”

Central I-70 Project

The most controversial and costly of all of the recent CDOT projects is the 10 mile stretch of I-70 from Chambers Road to I-25 which comes in at a whopping $1.3 billion dollars. For that money, in the end all you get is a Lexus lane going each way. The road, instead of going over the neighborhoods of Elyria and Swansea with a viaduct, goes down to the neighborhoods and then back up with a viaduct above the road with a park on it. Why this incredibly expensive alternative was chosen is not totally clear but it is blamed on the Brighton viaduct being obsolete. It certainly was not to help the residents of those neighborhoods who adamantly opposed it. Because the project essentially creates a ditch which would be subject to floods, various parts of parks in central Denver (City Park and Park Hill) were commandeered to act as flood water detention ponds to the outrage of those residents surrounding those parks. It is assumed that the friends of Mayor Hancock will greatly benefit financially from grounding the roadway and the land has been dubbed the “Mayor’s Corridor of Opportunity.”

As a design build project, it was awarded to a joint venture Kiewit and the French global investment group Meridiam Partners. What is somewhat unique about the relationship is that it was set up as a public/ private partnership or P3 which means the joint venture will pay the costs of the project while getting the revenue from the Lexus lanes for at least 30 years. It has been said about P3s that, generally speaking, the public gets the losses while the private entities get the profits.

As with all CDOT’s major projects the Central I-70 project is years behind. CDOT blames the contractors while the contractors blames CDOT. It is not clear why CDOT can never do a major project on time regardless of who the contractor is.

The Future Of Transportation In Colorado And CDOT

It is clear that CDOT under Shoshana Lew is generally not interested in building roads for the citizens of Colorado and where CDOT does build roads they are only for the affluent who can afford the Lexus lanes which will become ever more costly. By using CMGTC and DB methods and not competitive low bids CDOT set a duopoly for Kraemer and Kiewit which charges 30 percent more for every project. In addition, CDOT pays a quarter billion dollars to consultants every year to perform the tasks that CDOT once performed but is now unwilling to do. Major projects in turn are almost never performed on time with massive inconvenience to the motoring public.

As highlighted in our Editorial on page 3, the disgraceful state of affairs has not gone unnoticed. CDOT and Lew are increasingly coming under investigation, including by the U.S. Department of Justice, for their practices which may violate various federal statutes. But unless and until the citizens of Colorado become cognizant and angered about what is happening to their transportation system, no long-term solution will be possible.

CDOT Now Dominated By Two Out-Of-State Companies And Scores Of Consultant Firms

by Charles Bonniwell | Nov 22, 2019 | Main Articles

Part II Of A Now III Part Series

by Charles C. Bonniwell

After the publication of our initial segment in November, “CDOT IN TOTAL DISARRAY,” the Chronicle has been inundated with additional information from present and former CDOT employees as well as other interested parties. As a result, what was originally envisioned as a two-part series has now been expanded to a three-part series, with the final installment coming in our January 2020 edition.

Coloradans are increasingly spending hours stuck in traffic, some of which is unnecessary, insiders tell the Chronicle. Former and current employees of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), as well as in-state contractors, assert that the state agency formed in 1917 to direct the transportation needs of the state “no longer builds roads” but simply now makes schedules that are seldom accurate. The primary goal at CDOT has become avoiding blame or liability for the botched schedules and/or designs resulting in massive additional costs for CDOT projects and long delays in road projects being completed. The schedules have been weaponized by CDOT to use against contractors when projects are delayed or run over budget, even where the primary blame should fall on CDOT.

CDOT once revered for competence and non-partisanship has become a political football whose overall mission is increasingly unclear and muddled. Governor Jared Polis, upon coming into office, replaced highly respected and seemingly well qualified Michael Lewis (who had been appointed by then Governor Hickenlooper) with 35-year-old history major Shoshana Lew. She is the daughter of Jack Lew, the former Chief of Staff of President Obama and later his Secretary of the Treasury. Ms. Lew was reportedly hired by Governor Polis as a personal favor to former First Lady Michelle Obama. In interviews with media, including Colorado Public Radio, she has strikingly avoided discussing roads and instead emphasizing bike lanes, buses, light rail and multi-modal transportation. Her failure to respond to and, in some cases, even understand questions from callers on “The Mandy Connell Show” on 850 KOA Radio, caused her to be banned from the show which has a tradition of featuring the head of CDOT to discuss transportation issues in Colorado. CDOT employees indicate that she so dislikes traffic in the Denver area that she has an employee chauffeur her around town, a luxury few Coloradans can afford.

With transportation dollars relatively scarce in Colorado and the state legislature unlikely to increase any funding any time in the foreseeable future, making funding as cost efficient as possible would logically be of paramount importance to CDOT, but the opposite appears to be the case. In 2013 the legislature did away with the requirement that all public projects in excess of $50,000 had to be “awarded by competitive bid.” In its place it provided for the “best value” model in which bids come in as either (1) Design Build (DB); or (2) Construction Management/General Contractor (CMGC). Insiders view the “best value” as totally subjective and little more than a new form of manipulating the system so that two large out-of-state construction firms could be awarded 81% of all major construction projects distributed by CDOT in the last seven years.

The two firms are Kraemer North America, LLC, a subsidiary of the massive Japanese construction firm Obayashi Corporation and Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 construction company based in Omaha, Nebraska. In-state contractors indicate that Timothy Maloney of Kraemer North America was extraordinarily effective in shepherding through CDOT and the state legislature the change in awarding contracts under the comically false title “Keep Jobs in Colorado Act.” Prior to its enactment the majority of CDOT projects went to in-state firms. Set below are the $3.7 billion in major projects awarded over the last seven years by CDOT:

To apply to be awarded a DB or CMGC costs firms tens of thousands of dollars. Insiders indicate that CDOT encourages firms to apply in order to make the process look above board. But the in-state contractors are then rejected on the basis that they have never done a large DB or CMGC project. It is becoming increasingly difficult to con in state firms to submit bids which they cannot win with the massive project almost inevitably going to Kraemer or Kiewit or other international firms like Flatiron Construction, a subsidiary of the massive German conglomerate HOCHTIEF.

In turn, Kiewit and Kraemer don’t even want to have to prepare bids in the semi sham process as they are costly and time consuming, so they have come up with a new method by using the so-called “change order” scheme. Ordinarily a “change order” is a change in an existing project that is different from what was originally contemplated, but words can be manipulated to mean whatever someone wants.

Regarding the over $300 million project to build express lanes on I-25 from State Highway 402 to Fort Collins rather than having to go through a bidding process, Kraemer got CDOT to simply declare that it was going to do a “change order” to the $250 million project for express lanes from State Highway 66 to State Highway 402. Little did it seem to matter that the so-called “change order” was larger than the entire original project and a wholly different section of I-25.

Cost Of Consultants

The massive costs of CDOT projects is in large part due to the so-called “best value” method of bidding rather than “lowest bidder,” but it is significantly exacerbated by the utter dependence on outside consultant firms largely staffed with former CDOT employees who have retired with PERA pensions at relatively young ages. CDOT no longer has the in-house capacity to perform many of the everyday functions that it once did 20 years ago. Determining which outside consultants to utilize is once again on a subjective basis and a consultant without a significant number of former CDOT employees has little chance of being awarded a contract. Moreover, CDOT employees have no incentive to look after the taxpayers when dealing with former work colleagues. Furthermore, many of those now in CDOT plan to join a consultant once they are eligible to retire under PERA and hope for similar lenient treatment when they are on the outside.

In May 2019 the Colorado State Auditor did a Performance Audit of CDOT and found that problems with 80 of the 84 CDOT agreements with consultants including “unapproved consultant labor rates, contracts without proper approvals and contract terms that did not comply with state requirements.”

While it was generally known that outside consultants significantly added to the cost of CDOT projects the full extent of the problem was not previously quantifiable. The chart below is based on very recent internal CDOT calculations and if anything underestimates the problem in which consultant fees have averaged over the last four years $226,500,000 per annum adding 32.5% to the cost of CDOT projects.

Specific Projects

Next month the Chronicle will examine three particular projects which are:

•           The $1.3 billion 10-mile Central 70 Project;

•           The $226 million 12.5-mile C-470 Project;

•           The $500 million I-25 North Expansion Lanes.

The delays, the cost overruns, the crony bidding and other problems on these projects help identify the major concerns with today’s dysfunctional Colorado Department of Transportation.

Diagnosing Denver’s Volatile Late-Night LoDo District

by Luke Schmaltz | Nov 22, 2019 | Main Articles

by Luke Schmaltz

The spring and summer months of 2019 were a troubling time for Denver’s LoDo district, as incidents of late-night violence rendered multiple stabbings and shootings resulting in several fatalities. Such details are troubling in any district, yet the fact that this area is home to an array of high-end restaurants, luxury hotels, high-priced boutiques and high-class clothiers makes the juxtaposing crime rate an anomaly indeed.

Several socioeconomic dynamics intersect in this grid, creating what could be called a perfect storm for senseless violence occurring on an escalating scale.

This area is home to the 16th Street Mall — a retail mecca for shopaholics, tourists and sightseers with expendable income. The fact that, on any given day, thousands of people on foot navigate the marketplace in search of keepsakes, tech necessities, high-end accessories and urban adventure is irresistible to buskers, scam artists and spare changers. The majority of the latter live on the streets, and according to nation alhomeless.org, “a high percentage of homeless people struggle with substance abuse [which] can cause homelessness, but it often arises after people lose their housing.”

A clearer understanding of the problems in the area can be gained by considering the types of people drawn to it beyond those living downtown at very high rental rates. The focus here is on homeless people, tourists, drug dealers and nightlife party people and how their overlapping motivations may be the root cause of late-night violence.

Behold The Stampede

According to Longwoods International — a data compilation firm providing statistics to Visit Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau — 31 million people visited the Mile-High City in 2018, resulting in tourism revenue of $6.5 billion. The firm also lists the 16th Street Mall first among the top shopping and entertainment destinations for visitors from New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Kansas City and Phoenix. According to a high number of negative reviews on tripadvisor.com, many visitors firmly attest to the fact that an astonishing homeless presence defines the area, complete with aggressive panhandlers, overflowing needle disposal bins and the occasional fatality from drug overdose. The old adage of “If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t do it” applies here, meaning that panhandlers needing to support their addiction can do so by panhandling tourists for money.

Summon The Dealers

Addictions thrive on the availability of the substance in question, be it crack, meth, fentanyl, heroin, prescription drugs, etc. A large concentration of people dealing with the stress of living without a residence, without family, without treatment for mental illness and any number of other terrible conditions equates to a ripe market for any enterprising drug dealer. According to part of a statement issued by the National Drug Intelligence Center, “Gangs are the primary distributors of drugs on the streets of the United States.” As there are over 110 known street gangs in Denver, the LoDo district is undoubtedly targeted by more than one organization, which gives rise to the violence inherent in territorial disputes.

Hail The Party People

As the downtown foot traffic shifts from shoppers looking for a good deal to young people looking for a good time, one can reasonably postulate that the drug commerce adjusts in tandem to a more lucrative yet discreet clientele. According to the opinions of local business owners and their employees, territorial tensions may escalate as the night marches on. Mike Villano, former owner of Chances Bar and Grill and longtime contributor to the LoDo workforce, attests that “The violence is definitely gang related. Gangsters are capitalists and weekend nights in LoDo are a concentration of their target market.” The presence of alcohol and the general eruptive nature of crowd mentality makes it easy to see why altercations between rivals are inevitable. Meanwhile, a manager at an area establishment who preferred to comment anonymously states that “ … with people blasting (discharging weapons), one can only assume that some sort of gang affiliation is involved.” The longtime LoDo worker continues with a cautionary piece of advice for bar-hoppers, “Pay attention to your surroundings and know when to vacate the area in a hurry.”

The reality of the situation is that people in LoDo are carrying guns around, pulling them out in the middle of the night, and shooting strangers. If you’re going shopping downtown you can keep the panhandlers at bay with stony veneer or a pocket full of spare change, and if you’re going out for drinks afterward, keeping the danger at bay can be very difficult.

Comrade Brewing Wins Big At The 2019 Great American Beer Festival

by Mark Smiley | Oct 28, 2019 | Main Articles

35 Colorado Breweries Take Home Medals With Plenty Of Other Breweries Around The Country Impressing

by Richard Colaizzi and Mark Smiley

Great American Beer Festival (GABF) celebrated its 33rd year the weekend of October 5, 2019. The Colorado Convention Center once again served as the venue sprawling 584,000 square feet of space for over 800 breweries to pour over 4,000 different types of beers.

Comrade Brewing, located at 7667 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver, was named 2019 Small Brewing Company of the Year and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year by the Brewers Association at the awards ceremony held on Saturday, October 5, after receiving gold medals for two of its India Pale Ales, Superpower IPA and More Dodge Less Ram. These are the fourth and fifth medals the brewery has won since opening in 2014.

“We still can’t believe what happened at the Great American Beer Festival,” said David Lin, Founder of Comrade Brewing Co. “We always try to make the best beer we can and this year the judges thought so too. We’re incredibly proud of the brewing team Marks Lanham and Rio Urioste. It’s an honor to win small brewing company of the year and we’ll continue to do our best here in southeast Denver.”

The Small Brewing Company of the Year category is one of the most competitive as most breweries in the country brew between 1,000 and 14,999 barrels of beer per year. This is quite the achievement for a brewery which has a simple philosophy. “We make beer we like to drink and whatever is left over, we sell,” said Marks Lanham, Brewmaster for Comrade Brewing Co.

Superpower IPA was awarded a gold medal in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, which had 131 entries. Superpower IPA is an American IPA with loads of Pacific Northwest hops that lend huge pine and grapefruit hop aroma and citrus flavors. Its bitterness is balanced with a crisp, light malt character and is available year-round at the Comrade Brewing tasting room.

More Dodge Less Ram, a triple-dry hopped sister of Superpower IPA, took gold in the second most-entered category, American-Style India Pale Ale, which had 342 entries. More Dodge Less Ram was the first beer that Comrade brewed after a Dodge Ram plowed into the brewery three years ago.

“I told David on August 25 we were going to win this year,” said Lanham. “It’s been a challenging year for both of us. David got married and had a child. I had less fortunate things happen to me. When these things happen, it drives me to do better.”

A total of 322 judges from 18 countries do blind tastes to evaluate the beers in defined style categories. This year, 2,295 breweries from around the country, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands submitted entries. There were 9,497 entries overall.

“This year’s GABF competition was the largest and most competitive to date,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “The beers and talent were as impressive as ever, and we congratulate this year’s winners for their achievements in brewing.”

In addition to the medal winners, there are standout and under-the-radar beers that by the end of the festival, word has spread. 2019 was no different for these exciting, and at times, adventurous beers. These reporters were successful in trying over 150 beers over the three days of GABF, and the following beers deserve attention. While it is difficult to rank them based on favorites, all of them were outstanding beers, and most of them had large lines waiting to try them before the weekend was finished.

Local favorite WeldWerks Brewing Co. from Greeley, Colorado, always has a long line. They seem to have the most unique beers year after year at the GABF. Last year’s Spaghetti Gose was the talk amongst many of the patrons. This year would be no different. WeldWerks brewed yet another masterful concoction called Taco Gose. It tastes just like you would expect it to with those ingredients — Taco Sauce Beer. When it is served with a mini taquito, it tastes even better.

“For 2019, we knew we had to up the ante so we took things a step further by partnering with the folks at Horsetooth Hot Sauce in Fort Collins to create a completely unique hot sauce, based on their venerable The Green Hot Sauce, but aged for an extended amount of time in a freshly emptied Medianoche barrel,” said Neil Fisher Co-Owner, Head Brewer of WeldWerks Brewing Co. “Immediately after the barrel was emptied, we used the hot sauce barrel to age our Taco Gose, brewed with over 600 lbs. of fire roasted tomatoes, sea salt, chili powder, paprika, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin. The result was Hot Sauce Barrel Aged Taco Gose, and it was one of the first beers we kicked at all four sessions of GABF this year.”

WeldWerks is the most innovative brewery in this beer crazy state and it’s no wonder that they needed a GABF volunteer to manage the line for every session of this year’s event. In fact, the line was so long one evening, the fire marshal paid a visit to reroute how the line was formed.

“Fortunately, for those not as excited about our savory sours, we had nine other beers available at the fest, including four variants of Medianoche, our barrel-aged Imperial Stout,” said Fisher. “According to Untappd metrics from GABF, three of the beers we poured ranked in the top 10 out of more than 4,000 beers at the fest and all 10 of our beers ranked in the top 150. We also finished the fest as the highest rated brewery and the most checked-in brewery out of more than 800 breweries at the fest. Those stats, coupled with the two medals we brought home from the competition, make 2019’s Great American Beer Festival a tough one to top for us.”

The next group of beers were complete surprises to these reporters and deserve to be mentioned with any award-winning beer that is found at GABF. Ology Brewing Co. from Tallahassee, Florida, brought the latest in their Juice Lab series. Ology rotates fruit for this series and this version had blueberries and raspberries in the brew. If you can imagine drinking a beer smoothie infused with an incredible amount of fruit, this is the beer you would crave. It is difficult to settle on a favorite beer of the entire festival, but this one is at the top. It is a fantastic beer and another brewery added to the must visit list.

Great Notion Brewing located in Portland, Oregon, had lines growing throughout the weekend. Blueberry Muffin and Sticky Bun were crowd favorites and as you stood in line to get their beers you overheard countless festival goers marveling at these two beers. Blueberry Muffin was perfect for anyone who was hoping to remember what a homemade blueberry muffin tasted like. Sticky Bun is an 11.3% ABV monster imperial breakfast stout with melted brown sugar, toasted pecan and cinnamon. It is almost like the sticky buns were fresh out of the oven.

Another beer on the list of notes was right there with Juice Lab as a favorite — Wake and Cake brewed by Burning Barrel Brewing Co. out of Rancho Cordova, California. This beer is a desert-inspired pasty sour loaded with pineapple, coconut, passion fruit, vanilla and marshmallows. A 9% beer that had so much flavor, it made you get back in line to try it again, and again to make sure you didn’t miss one of those flavors listed above.

Last but not least, remember in the ’70s when Coors was only sold west of Texas? The Tank Brewing Co. is following in their elusive footsteps, but in reverse. Their exceptional craft beer that’s brewed in Miami, is not currently available outside of Florida, so the GABF provides a rare window of opportunity for beer lovers to sample their award-winning liquid innovations. This included La Finca Miami (World Beer Cup 2018 Gold Medal winner).

GABF never disappoints when it comes to unique beers. And the ones listed here are just the beginning. If you do your research, you can try so many different styles and types of beer. Don’t be afraid to step outside of a comfort zone. If you are, you might just miss some great beers.

Mark your calendar for 2020 as the 34th Annual Great American Beer Festival is set for September 24-26, 2020. Visit www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com for more information and for a list of all winners.

CDOT IN TOTAL DISARRAY

by Charles Bonniwell | Oct 28, 2019 | Main Articles

Crony Bidding And Gross Incompetence Reign

Part I Of A II Part Series

by Charles C. Bonniwell

At a time when Coloradans are desperately pleading for improved and new roadways the agency in charge of the same, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), is mired in the greatest crisis of its long-storied existence according to insiders.

Formed in 1917 to administer state government transportation responsibilities it long had the reputation for the most competent and least politically comprised department in Colorado government. Unfortunately, according to people who currently work with CDOT, that is no longer the case.

Perfect Storm

The convergence of two events has turned CDOT upside down. The first was the Orwellian named “Keep Jobs in Colorado Act of 2013.” Previously under CRS Sec. 24-92-109 all public projects in excess of $50,000 had to be “awarded by competitive bid.” The drawbacks to this method include occasional “bid rigging” by competing contractors. In addition, so-called “change orders” can drive up costs of a competitively bid project. But overall this method, which was used for decades by CDOT, was the least subjective and generally viewed fairest method to have projects completed at the lowest cost.

The 2013 act substituted the “lowest bid” method with the so-called “best value” model in which bids come in as either (1) Design Build; or (2) Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC). While these techniques have various theoretical advantages, especially for unique highly complex projects, including potentially cutting down the time to complete a project, it is a highly subjective selection process with the opportunity for corruption massively increased. To prevent cronyism and exorbitant cost increases, it requires high expertise and absolute diligence on the part of CDOT. What CDOT got was the exact opposite.

Washington Insider

In December 2018, Governor Jared Polis appointed 35-year-old Shoshana Lew as his new Executive Director, a history major at Harvard University with an M.A. in American History from Northwestern. She replaced Governor Hickenlooper’s appointment of 56-year-old Michael Lewis, an engineer with extensive public construction management experience. Lew’s appointment was a shock to CDOT employees.

Lew’s primary qualification, according to insiders, was her close relationship to Michelle Obama who called the newly elected governor for a favor — find a job for Shoshana Lew. Lew is the daughter of President Obama’s Chief of Staff and later Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew. Ms. Lew is considered by some as an example of how the rich and well connected can use their positions to secure favored treatment in and outside of government.

While originally intending to get a doctorate in history and become a history professor, she instead joined the Washington based liberal Brookings Institute as a policy analyst. Almost magically, although in her 20s with no experience, she entered the Obama administration and soon became a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and policy adviser at the White House Domestic Policy Council. With no financial background whatsoever, she next was appointed Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) as well as garnering other impressive titles.

As the Obama administration began winding down, she parlayed her position as CFO of USDOT to become the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) in the spring of 2017. After a controversial reign as COO for RIDOT of just over one year she was appointed Executive Director of CDOT in December 2018 by Governor Polis — a job, according to CDOT employees, she was wholly ill prepared for. CDOT employs over 3,300 people and has an annual budget in excess of $4.5 billion.

Are Our Darn Roads Even On Her List?

On October 7, 2019, Lew gave an interview with Colorado Public Radio to discuss her job as Executive Director. A horrified listener, Jane Glenn of Sterling, wrote to the South Platte Sentinel:

Basically, she’s bike lanes, big buses, walking paths, light rail, and electric cars.

Are our darn roads even on her list?

The answer is, of course, no. She is a history major with no background in engineering or construction management. But, of course, there are plenty of people in and outside of CDOT who have years of experience in both of those fields and with the hen house opened up with a largely clueless Executive Director and the CMGC bidding process easy to abuse, they rushed to take advantage.

Revolving Door

CDOT has had a massive exit of its top personnel, all of whom have left once they became eligible for early retirement with PERA benefits. They joined consulting firms who now have overtaken the jobs, including design, testing and inspection, that CDOT once performed internally. If you have a firm for any such functions and are not heavily filled with former CDOT employees, you are highly unlikely to be contracted with CDOT.

In theory under the CMGC method, the owner has a different construction manager and general contractor, but not in Colorado, where the functions are combined with one more check and balance disappearing. CDOT no longer has enough civil engineers to begin the design process to start a project and must hire a design firm filled with former CDOT employees. The design firm often works with CMGC entities on other projects, so each has every reason not to cut costs or bring up any areas of conflict of interest to the attention of CDOT.

The CMGC bidding process for a CDOT project is supposed to be competitive, even if highly subjective. However, local construction firms have ceased to enter the process since only one of two national and international firms are chosen for any important project. The two firms are Kraemer North America who is owned by Obayashi Corporation, one of Japan’s largest construction firms, and Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 contracting firm based out of Omaha, Nebraska. Over 75% of the $3.2 billion in recent CDOT contracts have gone to these two firms with the percentage ever increasing.

The 2013 law which mandated the change in bidding, the “Keep Jobs in Colorado Act,” has essentially ensured that Colorado firms and their employees are almost never hired, except for smaller CDOT projects that Kraemer and Kiewit are not interested in. There is one group of Colorado residents that has handsomely profited from the new regimen and that is the scores of former CDOT employees who have joined the dozens of consulting firms hired by CDOT. Not only are they scoring six figure salaries, but are also enjoying their PERA benefits, essentially doing the same job they did at CDOT at a fraction of the remuneration. CDOT itself evolved into little more than an admin organization and, in part, that too will be outsourced over time, although the CDOT state budget is not expected to diminish.

Added Cost

It is estimated that the excess profits by Kraemer and Kiewit, and the tens of millions of dollars paid to consulting firms filled with ex-CDOT employees, adds as much as 30% to the cost of every CDOT project and that percentage is expected to grow in coming years. It is questioned why Colorado taxpayers would want to pay more taxpayer money to a department as corrupt and inefficient as CDOT which is headed up by an individual as uninterested in roads as Shoshana Lew.

As for Ms. Lew she has not only garnered the disrespect of the people she oversees, but her ineptitude has reportedly angered at least some of the 11 commissioners from across the state who oversee CDOT. Her job is apparently safe, however, unless and until Governor Polis cares enough to stop the total destruction of, what once was, one of the most respected government agencies in Colorado.

In Part II of this series on CDOT we will review individual projects that CDOT has undertaken in recent years including the infamous Highway 36 sinkhole and why taxpayers can expect more shoddy workmanship and massive cost overruns.

The original article mistakenly indicated that CDOT has 330 employees. The number is actually 3,300. A zero was inadvertently omitted.

Body Snatching: How Biological Resource Center Profited From Infection

by Ashe in America | Sep 20, 2019 | Main Articles

by Robert Davis

Court records obtained by Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle detail how Biological Resource Center (BRC), a willed body donation company headquartered in Arizona, illegally brokered infected body parts for profit.

Four years ago, the families who donated their loved ones to BRC filed a civil lawsuit alleging that BRC misled some customers to believe that their deceased would be left intact after donation. Instead, BRC dismembered the bodies and sold the parts across domestic and international borders. The lawsuit is ready to stand trial in the Maricopa County Superior Court on October 21.

One invoice recorded the sale of two heads for $500 apiece to a medical school in Israel. On another, a pair of shoulders went to Athens, Greece, for just $300. Someone’s arms made their way into a surgical workshop for $750.

This happened to families in Arizona, Michigan, and Illinois.

“It’s really body snatching without them having to dig up the graves,” Michael Burg, a Denver-based attorney representing eight of the plaintiffs, said in a press release about the case. “[BRC] lied to them.”

Background

The initial FBI investigation began in 2013 after officers in Houston caught wind of International Biological, Inc. (IBI), a body brokerage, shipping body parts across the southern border. State agencies recovered thousands of bodies and dozens of boxes of records from IBI’s offices in Michigan. Those records also implicated BRC and Anatomical Services, Inc. (ASI) in the crime.

After a lengthy investigation, it was determined that the three companies had been acting as one since at least 2008, when it began selling body parts to international clientele.

As a brokerage, the business marketed itself as one that didn’t sell infected parts. But, the investigation found that it made most of their money from bodies of people who suffered from sepsis, hepatitis B, C, and HIV, even when family death records explicitly stated so.

BRC’s warehousing process exposed much of its inventory to cross-contamination. A deposition from one of the FBI officers who raided BRC’s Arizona office revealed that body parts were often organiz-ed by limb after they were dismembered with infected parts mixed with clean ones.

Customers were never given access to any of the death certificates, medical records from donors, or medical social history questionnaires administered by BRC among caregivers or next-of-kin. If a customer found out the body they purchased was infected, BRC would offer to sell the body at a discounted rate in order to ensure the sale.

This is not the first time BRC owners Stephen and Sally Gore have been in a courtroom over their business practices. AZCentral reported that Stephen Gore had pled guilty to federal charges for the illegal use and sale of human body parts in 2014. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but served no time because of good behavior.

“Placement” And “Matching”

BRC also told donor families that they treated the deceased with dignity and respect. They offered services like the recovery of and “placement” and “matching” of tissue with scientists and medical researchers to unsuspecting customers. They printed details of these services in brochures and pamphlets that were given out in their offices.

To an untrained ear, this language sounds as if the deceased will be kept intact during transportation. But, as one customer who worked in the non-profit organ donation industry noted in her deposition, the terms “placement” and “matching” are code words for dismemberment.

“These words are meant to disguise the fact that BRC was helping medical providers find organ donors even after body donors asked them not to,” she said.

That customer’s mother came to be known as BRCIL-2013164. Her whole body was sold to IBI for $5,000 because her body contained hepatitis B. It was later dismembered and shipped on an international course.

Will Power

Typically, an individual’s last will and testament dictates how their body will be disposed of after death. However, enforcing the power of wills can be tricky because it falls under the broad domain of gift law.

According to the Clinical Journal of The American Society of Nephrology, the primary law governing organ donation in the United States is the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA). UAGA was enacted as a part of the Uniform Codes, which are passed from state to state.

UAGA is “uniquely designed to support the system of transplantation” in that it “excludes [transplantation] from the federal prohibition, and because the donee of the anatomic gift is the transplant recipient, such payments do not abrogate the legal construct of organ donation as a gift.”

A key aspect of the law is consent, which differs from what doctor’s refer to as “informed consent.” Organ donors must consent for their organs to be harvested for transplants, which is as simple as having “ORGAN DONOR” on your driver’s license.

On the other hand, doctors are required to gain informed consent before treating a patient. Informed consent describes the process of discussing the risks and benefits of all available means of treatment with a patient. Since body donations don’t include the element of risk or benefit to the deceased because the transaction occurs after death, therefore, informed consent is not necessary.

BRC prepared questionnaires for customers asking if they wanted the deceased’s body organs to be placed and matched. However, those services didn’t only extend to those who marked “YES.”

Arizona has an especially lax enforcement system for these laws, which helped make it one of the nation’s hotspots for whole body donations. The entity in charge of overseeing these companies, Arizona’s State Health Department, focused its resources on combatting the opioid crisis instead of cracking down on illegal organ harvesting, according to an AZCentral report.

In contrast, Colorado has strict laws governing the operation of body donation companies and funeral homes, both of which are regulated under the same statutes. For starters, someone who owns a funeral home cannot simultaneously own a body donation company. Colorado also requires owners of either company to maintain records of where human remains are distributed.

Nearly 4,000 people — approximately seven percent of the state’s population — are whole body donors. That is roughly five-times the national average, the Illinois-based Cremation Association of North America says.

This ecosystem helped BRC expand its territory across the Atlantic.

BRC made little effort to conceal its business dealings, according to the court documents. Potential customers would contact BRC’s office in Illinois. If that location didn’t have the requested body parts, Gore provided the body part from Arizona. Records for all of the transactions were stored in each of the company’s offices.

To Burg and the other lawyers representing the plaintiffs, the case does not question organ donation as a whole. It asks if the consent of the dead matters as much as the will of the living.

“If someone says we’ll pay for expenses and cremation and your loved one’s body will go to specific places (to help cure diseases), you are pretty much going to say, ‘Sure, why not?’” Burg told AZCentral. “Am I saying none of these places are legitimate? No. But there have been a sufficient number of cases where misrepresentations have been made. There’s a price list for everything from a head to a shoulder, like they are a side of beef. They make money, absolutely, because there’s no cost in getting the bodies.”