For one year, 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte has loudly complained about what he describes as the “overpriced” renovation of Roanoke’s 35 year-old Poff Federal Building. Now, with the Republican Party in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Goodlatte’s complaints have been heard by a congressional subcommittee.
On Friday, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure heard testimony from Rep. Goodlatte, Julia Dudley, Clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia (located in the Poff Building) and David Ehrenwerth, regional administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration. During his testimony, Rep. Goodlatte acknowledged the process is probably too advanced to be halted, but wanted the subcommittee to review his concerns so as to prevent future excesses.
Rep. Goodlatte’s concerns are primarily the cost of the renovation, the transparency of the bidding and procurement processes, failure to address security issues and the hardships and inconveniences the renovation project will incur upon the veterans—many of whom, the congressman notes, are disabled—who seek services from the Veterans Affairs office in the Poff Building. In more detail:
• The GSA’s Inspector General audited the project and found that the agency provided the maximum contract amount, in violation of federal procurement laws, giving bidders that information and depriving taxpayers of a fair process to determine the true cost of the project. It is not known how many millions of dollars the taxpayers would have saved if the GSA had not told the contractors how much to bid in violation of the law.
• Other than a two-page summary prepared after the project was commenced, the agency has never provided a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis showing that the renovations would be more fiscally responsible than constructing a new building.
• Nor have they considered a number of other alternatives that could be less expensive and more effective including not doing major renovations, selling the building, building a new Veterans Affairs building as was suggested by Virginia Senators Warner and Webb, or building a new courthouse
• The GSA bypassed the normal procurement process – similar to what was used to build a new Social Security Administration building in Roanoke – preventing the full disclosure of the supposed benefits and project costs of “green” updates.
• The safety and security of the Poff Building has been given only cursory attention despite the structure being located along a major thoroughfare in Roanoke’s central business district. I attended a meeting in October of 2010 with members of the Poff Building’s Security Committee and GSA officials to discuss the security of the building. To my knowledge, no action regarding the security of the building has been taken since then. In addition, any security upgrades to the building will need to be done with additional funds – the planned $51 million renovation does not include funding to address the security needs of the building.
• The project’s cost has ballooned by more than $10 million due to the need to relocate Veterans Affairs offices to four different locations in downtown Roanoke for up to three years, posing logistical concerns and inconveniencing veterans, many of whom are disabled. Many concerns have been raised about the disruption of the processing of claims, inadequate work facilities, problems with employee morale, files being separated in five different locations. Central file storage will remain in the Poff Building while under construction, creating problems with delays, access to files and the security of files as files are shuffled to and from central storage to temporary offices. I have received many complaints from veterans’ organizations and individual veterans as well as from many employees in the building. In fact, one local veterans’ organization filed for an injunction seeking to block the relocation of the Veterans Affairs office while the renovation project proceeds.
Perhaps the most humorous example of waste in the Poff Building renovation was this anecdote from Rep. Goodlatte’s prepared statement:
$7,246 was paid to an arts conservation firm in Ohio to determine how an iron sculpture outside the PFB will be affected by the renovations. The consultant came from Ohio, took a look, and said “move the sculpture.”
Not only does this price seem ridiculously high, Roanoke prides itself on its vibrant arts community. Was there no comparable firm in southwestern Virginia that could have been asked to undertake this review?
The green renovation is projected to make the Poff Building more energy efficient, yet, as Rep. Goodlatte and others have observed, if the $51 million-plus renovation reduces the building’s energy bills by 40 percent, the yearly savings will only be $233,659 per year, or $7 million over the next 30 years. Is spending $51 million-plus to save $7 million really the “no-brainer” that Mr. Ehrenwerth claims?
Ultimately, the renovation, one of President Obama’s much-touted “shovel-ready projects” (which still has not been started), was panned as “probably illegal” by members of the subcommittee. For more information on the hearing, read the prepared testimony or to watch the video of the proceedings, visit the hearing’s page.
