From the campaign of Bruce Paterson
Candidate for Union County Freeholder

Monday, September 13, 2004

Out of this world Juvenile detention center costs

"Now what are the 'pseudo-democrat' Freeholders up to?" Asks Bruce Paterson, Republican candidate for Union County Freeholder. "I say 'pseudo-democrat' because real democrats care for the people and their taxes and all these freeholder guys do is worry about themselves and their cronies."

At the last freeholder board meeting in September, they introduced for first reading a bond for $8 million for the construction of the new Juvenile detention center being located in Linden. They stated that they have decided to only go out to bond for a portion of the construction. That is odd, because government entities normally bond for all the costs at once so they can lock in the rate and also get a more favorable rate and incidental costs with the larger bond number. For 25 years, I am a project engineer in construction and I understand the industry. This raised a red flag in my eyes. Just what are they trying to sneak through?

To those who may not be following the progress of the new Juvenile Detention Center nor attending the Freeholder meeting, this is an abrupt change in their direction. In fact the saga is interesting regarding how the construction costs are developing. Back in April there was an article in a local paper where the reporter asked Mr. Guzzo, director of Human Services in Union County, how much would the Juvenile detention center cost? The reporter stated that if there are 80 cells and the average cost to build a cell in New Jersey is $200,000, then the total would be $16 million. Director Guzzo stated it would be closer to $20 million. Fair enough, adding 25% would cover any problems, land acquisition or even some unethical pay to play inspired studies or professional services for their construction and engineering cronies. The Freeholders are proven famous for that. But then the bombshell dropped back in early July when they introduced that the Juvenile detention center bond would be $37.5 million. But wait it gets better. The next meeting they revised the cost upward to $39 million! Whoa, the cost almost doubled from their already inflated number of $20 million. The newspapers in August grabbed this huge number and ran with it.

I then spoke with Director Guzzo one day in August and said the costs are way out of line. Ricci Associates did a rough layout of the center and it isn't that big. Using construction standard metrics, such as the $200,000/ cell gives you a reasonable forecast of costs. I ran out some additional metrics using square footage and even cubic footage costs of the detention center and each time I came out with numbers around $12 to 16 million. Add in $5 million for cost of land and $20 million is tops. This $40 million now comes out to be $500,000 a cell. Preposterous, but why don't they buy 80 new McMansions around the county for that much and have the juveniles live like royalty!

The Freeholders now realize that the public with the help of the watchdog republican candidates are scrutinizing their action and it just can't be politics and spending as usual. Now they are trying to slip this through, piece by piece, but all this is doing is driving up the cost of the Juvenile Detention Center. We sorely need this new Detention Center since through county negligence at the outmoded detention center a young offender hung himself. It should never cost twice as much, even for "Dressing it up," as Freeholder Sullivan is quoted in a local newspaper.

The team of Joe Renna, Patricia Quattrocchi, Frank Arena and Bruce Paterson for Union County Freeholders want to assure that the county spending is reasonable and accountable. Vote for all 4 of us in November. To learn about the issues or to contact us please visit our website at unioncountygop.org or call at 908-789-0200.