Friday's award for chutzpah award goes to the trifecta of ingrown toenails in Heather Carlson's story posted on the Rochester Post Bulletin's site, County rail consultant also did work for private rail group.
None of those paying or gaining in this arrangement see any conflict of interest whatsoever, Carlson reports:
A rail consultant working for Olmsted County also did consulting work for a private company seeking to build a high-speed rail line from Rochester to the Twin Cities.
Chuck Michael had a consulting contract with North American High Speed Rail Group last year on projects outside the state of Minnesota at the same time he had a contract with the Olmsted County Regional Rail Authority. His work with the county has included helping coordinate an environmental study for a the proposed Zip Rail project, a publicly funded high-speed rail line that would link the Med City with the Twin Cities.
Olmsted County Commissioner Paul Wilson said Michael did not tell the county board he was doing consulting work for the rail group. He noted that Michael is an independent consultant and said he doesn't see any cause for concern.
"I don't see anything here that would be a conflict of interest," Wilson said. "If he's working on something out of the state, that would be a different project. I'm sure an independent contractor has more than one venue." . . .
Michael was paid $153,324 for consulting services providing to Olmsted County in 2014 and was paid $104,723 as of August 2015, according to Anita Greden, the county's financial reporting manager.
Richard Devlin said Michael did not tell him he had done work for the North American High Speed Rail Group.
"But he is a private contractor. He can do that. He's not required to do that, but if it was anything significant, we'd certainly want to know about it," Devlin said. "And I don't think it was, or I know he would have disclosed it."
Well, that settles it, especially since those out-of-state projects on the part of the North American High Speed Rail Group are so deadly serious. Like that one between Vegas and Southern California.
Sperber out as CEO
Meanwhile, Carlson also reports:
There has also been a shakeup in leadership at the Bloomington-based rail group. Joe Sperber is no longer CEO of the company. Meadley said he left that position in December.
"He is pursuing new opportunities and we wish him well," she said.
Joseph Wang, who has served as the group's chairman, is the company's interim CEO.
First the website for the EB-5 regional center that Sperber and Wang were involved in disappears, along with its pitch for the ghost EdCampus. Next, the plan to partially fund the "Velos" line between The Cities and Rochester with EB-5 visaholders' investments vanished Now Sperber's out.
How to win friends and influence investors
That, along with the news of the consulting engineer's engagement with his clients, should continue to build confidence in the project. Already, a leading critic has responded, Carlson reports:
Heather Arndt, a leader of Citizens Concerned About Rail Line, said she is "thoroughly enraged" to find out Michael did work for the rail group and did not disclose it. She said she believes it is a conflict of interest and raises questions about the work being done in the Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement.
"All of it compromises the integrity of the taxpayer-funded study," Arndt said.
As readers may recall from an earlier post, the private rail group wanted findings of studies funded by federal grants transferred to them, as well as requesting that Michael stay on with the project.
From the NAHSR Group's Transition Request (embedded below, page 3) email from form CEO Joe Sperber:
It is our desire to transition the current Zip Rail Project from a publicly funded transportation project to a privately funded transportation oriented development project with high speed rail corridor development in the center of it all.
At this time, North American High Speed Rail Group (NAHSR), a Minnesota company is requesting the transfer of all rights and responsibilities related to the completion of the Tier 1 EIS feasibility study, the service development and business plan components. Additionally, if relevant and within the county’s rights and responsibilities, the right to go ahead with development upon successful completion of the appropriate federal, regional and state level authorizations and approvals including the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
In order to successfully transition this important economic development project for Minnesota and the Southeastern region of Minnesota including: Olmsted, Goodhue, Dakota, Ramsey and Hennepin (the affected counties along the proposed corridor), the North American High Speed Rail Group requests the project management collaboration and continuity of the current Project Manager, Chuck Michael through 2015. This also allows for the significant relationships and knowledge created and cultivated at the city, county and regional levels to continue to be leveraged to the success of the project.
Who would argue that "the significant relationships and knowledge created and cultivated" were created? The memo underscores Heather Arndt's point.
In a separate story in Friday's Post Bulletin, Brian Todd reports in Group brings anti-zip rail message to MNDOT meeting:
. . . Arndt and her group have several problems with the project, she said. First, if the project does not run along the public right-of-way between lanes of U.S. Highway 52, then the state and any private partners would need to invoke eminent domain laws to get the right of way for the rail line. "We are not somebody that they can just disregard and take our property," she said.
Another complaint Arndt made was that the state is not being transparent about its plans and any information it has uncovered. Finally, the passenger rail plan would be a financial boondoggle, she said. And that makes little sense when transportation dollars are already looking tight well into the next two decades.
After the MnDOT presentation, the crowd seemed uniform in its concern that with transportation dollars already short of the state's projected need of $36.4 billion over 20 years, spending money on passenger rail was unnecessary.
"This is a really costly project, and the costs are mounting," said John Meyer of Stewartville.
Meyer, who has attended several meetings on the topic, said the state's own plans show that U.S. Highway 52 is more than adequate to handle traffic between Rochester and the Twin Cities. "Their own plans show it can handle 37,000 cars per day," he said. "And once it's all controlled access, it goes up to 70,000."
We'll continue post about this astonishing project.
Photo: The Snow Piercer is looking more real than the private rail project with each passing month.
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