NORDLAND — The State Auditor’s Office this week issued a scorching critique of Washington State Parks’ management of water and sewer work at Fort Flagler State Park on Marrowstone Island.
An ongoing series of projects and failures of projects between 2000 and 2009 resulted in a “gross waste of public money,” the report from the office of state Auditor Brian Sonntag said.
As water and sewer problems were discovered at the 784-acre shoreline camping park, what started as a simple $140,000 replacement of an RV dump station resulted — $7 million later — in an entire new state-of-the-art water and sewer system.
The final work closed the park to all patrons during the winter 2008-2009 season, and it remained closed to campers until late spring, said Sandy Mealing, spokeswoman for Washington State Parks.
Neither the Auditor’s Office nor Washington State Parks was able to pinpoint exactly how much money was spent because records for the early period were either incomplete or could not be located.
“We’re not even clear that there was a waste of money,” Mealing said.
“We know there was mismanagement and lack of accountability and documentation problems,” she said.
Mealing said the lack of records also makes it impossible to know whether any fraud occurred.
The agency response to the auditor’s report indicates it recognized part way into the project that there were problems with internal controls over contracting procedures and oversight, and it took corrective action before a January 2009 whistle-blower complaint, which prompted the investigation and report.
“It was during the time frame of about 2004-05 when we learned that a staff member let the contractor deviate, but again, we don’t really have the documentation,” Mealing said.
The person or persons responsible for the problem are no longer with the agency.
“I know there was personnel action taken, but I don’t know what it was,” Mealing said.
Mike Zimmerman, park area manager for Fort Flagler, Anderson Lake and Mystery Bay state parks, was unavailable for comment, but Zimmerman did not have oversight responsibility for the construction, said Virginia Painter, parks spokeswoman.
“That’s managing operations of the parks, so he’s not managing contracts,” Painter said.
“We had a central person who oversaw contracts for that region,” she said, she but declined to name the person.
The Auditor’s Office was especially critical of State Parks’ failure to put out a bid for sewage pumping that ultimately resulted in a $740,000 bill and failure to select an installation firm that met state Department of Health installer qualifications for the initial sewer and water system.
The 2004 system later failed, but the agency’s flawed contract prevented it from recouping costs.
By 2007, the agency was able to obtain funds from the state Legislature to install a membrane bioreactor designed to deal with the difficult soil conditions at the fort and protect Puget Sound.
Design and construction of the so-called MBR system cost $4.5 million of the total $7 million spent during the period, and the agency defends that final process.
Communications Director Mindy Chambers said the Auditor’s Office finds contracting problems in many state agencies and has taken the position that there needs to be a statewide oversight office to handle contracts and contract monitoring, which many state agencies are not set up to do well.
“It could relieve pressure and standardize monitoring,” she said.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Phone her at 360-385-4645 or e-mail juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
