The Final Post (For Now): Diverted Money and the November Revolution: June 8 Meeting, 2009

No. 20 -- VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

Forget what I said about things moving in a positive direction in a previous post. I was wrong, and I'm not surprised. Apparently some information I got came from a Comrade who has bought into the Central Committee's New Five Year Plan, and this Comrade may also be happy to see his own city's Carson City Convention and Visitor's Politburo gaining power, so he told me it was a good meeting.

I guess a good Comrade would see the November Revolution that way. Kurensky is gone, it's November and Lenin's on the scene.

WARNING: VERY LONG AND VERY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

In stream of consciousness format... for more structured notes please see the Gold Hill Historical Society Website... BUT YOU'LL MISS THE FIREWORKS

Now just to avoid any suspense, about three-quarters of the way through I get so totally disgusted that I quit. While I reserve the right to never say never and post occasional thoughts on this blog, I will no longer waste my time watching these ignorant bureacrats suck up the tax dollars. This was a pretty scary meeting, if you actually read this whole post then I am impressed. Have fun!

-- Bonnie Weber usually comes to these meetings late. Following the saying, "better never than late" she just didn't show up to this meeting of the Nevada Commission to Reconstruct the Virginia and Truckee Railway.

-- Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell made a funny amendment to the minutes from the mid-May budget meeting. The minutes said he "made a notion" and he amended it to "made a motion."

(Be sure to read the full post to see where the Commission may make a big left turn at Albequerque!)


This confirms (former Chairman) Bob Hadfield's (false) claim that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA/stimulus/porkulus) money going to the Commission were the first construction project in Nevada funded by pork-, I mean, stimulus money. Hadfield made a point of clarifying that it was not the very first stimulus money, but instead the first "construction" project funded by stimulus money.

But according to NDOT officials that's not true, there are already road projects out to bid under ARRA. But since Hadfield continues the claim, I was correctly quoting him during my call to the Rush Limbaugh show.

-- Maybe we do need a new Chairman. Bob Hadfield continues to handle public comment differently from the process outlined in the meeting agenda. The agenda says:

• PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDIZED AND NON-AGENDIZED ITEMS: Discussion may be limited to three minutes per person at the discretion of the Chairman. No action may be taken on a matter raised under this portion of the agenda until the matter itself has been specifically included on an agenda as an item upon which action may be taken.

So this means ALL comments are to be heard at the beginning of the meeting. I take credit for this change. In most public meetings, as in past V&T meetings, the public would comment ONLY on NON-AGENDIZED items at the beginning of the meeting. Under Nevada Open Meeting Law, this means comments on AGENDIZED items can be made as each item comes up.



At a meeting last year, after a Janice Ayres rant, Bob Hadfield broke Nevada Law by preventing me from making a comment on Janice's nonsensical claims. That's another story, but rather than file a formal protest, I agreed with the AG that they would simply let Bob know he broke the law.

So, because they didn't like my comments, at that time the Commission adopted the change and required ALL COMMENTS to be made in a three-minute period at the beginning of the meeting.

Despite language in the agenda saying this, Bob asked for comment on non-agendized items and indicated that the public could comment on agendized items as they came up.

-- There was no update in the Treasurer's report since the Mid-May budget meeting. It's still unclear to me why they took a loan for $500,000 to buy a $420,000 locomotive, and then reserved $80,000 for the first years payments of principal and interest that cost less than $20,000 a year. It's still an open question where the other $60,000 went.

-- H&H fixed the switch at Donovan siding, Ken Dorr said some parts were put on backwards on a switch. The Gold Hill crossing was updated to accomodate a hi-rail vehicle to avoid dealing with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

-- There were rail mismatches on previous H&H work, according to Ken Dorr. Dorr noted that the Commission paid H&H extra money to bring the rail matches up to Class III standards. So now this tourist railroad can accomodate a coal train, I guess. It's just my opinion, I've never had anything construction related to criticize Ken Dorr about, it's the Commissions decision to overbuild this railroad. They will only need to run at Class I speeds of 15 MPH, they are building the railroad to Class II standards, supposedly because that's the only standard NDOT has to judge by. Here they are paying extra to meet Class III standards on a Class II railroad.

There's a famous quote from a project consultant, "It tourism, not interstate commerce." Tell it to the Commission, and they wonder why the next phase of track is costing well over $1 million per mile.

-- Dorr noted he expected FHWA to release the next $3 million of pork, oh, I mean stimulus so the next phase (3A) can be bid out on June 11, 2009.

-- They are working on getting the Carson River Canyon engineering ready for the next round of stimulus funding. Unlike nearly every other public project, they do not yet own all the needed right of way.

-- Ken Dorr identified a piece of property on the way to Drako Way that "there's a significant right-of-way acquisition cost over and above what is going to be required on the first two parcels. We don't know exactly what that is but we'll have a little better handle on that shortly."

Gee, and the meeting was going so well. This is what happens when government project do not acquire all the right of way up front. In this case, the Commission would acquire a piece of land and immediately start laying track. In the short term it gives them a sense of completion and something to brag about.

In the long term, it makes the project more expensive by a large factor. More importantly, it makes it so a total budget cannot be given. This works in their favor politically, so over time they raise the project costs instead of socking it to the voters all at once.

Just to repeat myself, the statement above is a key piece of evidence showing THE COMMISSION STILL HAS NO SOLID IDEA WHAT THE PROJECT WILL COST! "Trust me, I'm a politician" is going to get old, fast!

-- Now it really gets interseting. Just after 27 minutes into the meeting (for those watching on ACCTV.org, June 8, 2009 meeting), Dorr suggests an item for the Commission to take action on.

LET'S CHANGE OUR MINDS, AGAIN!

Because of some huge land cost on the way to the Drako Way terminal, because of the unknown costs of land and depending on whether the project gets significant funding...

Dorr suggests that a balloon (turnaround) track be built at the future end of track in the Carson River Canyon. He also suggests a balloon track and temporary station be built off the small airport/Flint Drive access to the tracks just south of where the tracks cross highway 50. He then suggests that operations could leave the temporary station near the water tank, go down to the Canyon, return to the station of possibly continue up to Gold Hill!

A LITTLE HISTORY, PLEASE

I have to remind you of a little history here. Way back when this project started, they had to ask the question, which end do we start building at? The Gold Hill end or the Carson City end? I am told they started building at the Gold Hill end because the Gray's (REAL) Virginia and Truckee Railroad was the chosen operator. After much water under the bridge and the false starts the Commission is famous for, they now are looking at focusing operations on the Carson City end of the line from a temporary station off Flint Road.

IF they had been smart in the first place they would have acquired all the right of way when it was cheaper, back in the 1990's. Of course, there's a lot of history packed into that statement, because it assumes the Commission could have met the fundraising promises they made back in 1993, which they never did. So in this alternate Bizarro-world, Ron Allen's and Mayor Marvs and Janice Ayres claims would have actually meant something, they would have raised money, gotten the state matching grant that was offered until 2003, bought the right of way all the way from Carson City to Gold Hill AND THEN....

and then made a choice of operators and a decision about which end to start building from. As it is, if operations are as Ken Dorr proposes, where the train runs from Flint Drive (actually near the water tank well east of Flint Drive), runs down the canyon, then MAYBE back up to Gold Hill, they will indeed be in direct competition with the private Virginia and Truckee Railroad that has made tens of thousands of happy tourists lo these last 34 years WITHOUT A SINGLE DIME OF TAXPAYER MONEY!

These are the people we want running the banks and automakers! Well I guess it's consistent to have people who don't understand railroad operations running a train, when we just saw a guy "is going to learn about cars" installed as the Chairman of Government Motors, why should we expect the railroad reconstruction Commission to make up their mind in advance?

Dorr wraps up his project-changing proposal by saying that they don't have the environmental planning (EIR) done for the Drako Way site, and somehow presents this as a reason to add two turnaround tracks and a new station that have not appeared on any project maps to this date. Granted, the original plan back in 1993 envisioned a station at Mound House, NV. This idea was vociferously suppressed as recently as 2008 by former Chairman Bob Hadfield. However, once the Commission lost the 2008 sales tax increase vote in the local Carson City election, they started to make noises that they might be broke for some time, and talked of running trains from Mound House to Gold Hill, keeping the emphasis on the Gold Hill/Virginia City end of things.

Because the powers that be in Carson City liked punishing Lyon County (where Mound House is located) for contributing very little funding, the more recent plan was to convert the building at Drako Way into a station, have passengers show up there, board a bus for the TWO MILE trip to Mound House where they would board the train. I was told at the time that an actual station in Mound House was not feasible because the EIR didn't exist. Now Ken Dorr is telling us the EIR for the Drako Way terminal doesn't exist.

Nowhere in any of this does anyone discuss how nice it would have been back in 1993 to run the line to "downtown" Carson City. By now the City has developed to the point where this is impossible, so no matter what the final plan, the terminal for the railroad will be nowhere near the tourist center of Carson City.

I warned you this was stream of consciousness, right? It's a blog post, not a college thesis, so forgive me if this post meanders a bit. Just for fun, before we get back to the meeting, let's remember that somewhere out there is also a plan to build a Chinese Cultural Center near the V&T Recon station to honor the Chinese culture and the Chinese miners and railroad workers of the Comstock era. There were even officials from China who visited the site and said how great the Chinese Museum would be. These museum planners have not been heard from for some time. For a glimpse into another underfunded boondoggle project that probably won't break ground for another decade, see this Nevada Appeal article on the Chinese Workers Museum. Note where former Carson City Mayor Marv Teixeira says the Chinese government will have to pay for the museum, to be built in "far-east" Carson City next to the now vaporware V&T depot.

OK, back to the meeting...

Before anyone gets the idea that Ken Dorr is proposing a staggering change in the scope of his project on his own, Bob Hadfield jumps in. He explains that he asked Ken to make the proposal. He then goes on to say that because of various funding that may come available, he felt they needed flexibility to break the project into segments and have realistic cost estimates to provide to the delegation in Washington, DC. Well, I have to give him credit for admitting that the Commission has been working all these years without realistic cost estimates!

I might also note that on the agenda, this sweeping proposal to expand the scope of the project, to change the nature of the project, was put on the agenda as a "Manhard Consulting Contract Amendment!" This might pass the legal test but it doesn't pass the smell test. It might not even pass the legal test, so I will be contacting the Attorney General's office to complain that the scope of this item was not adequately explained in the agenda.

Hadfield opened the subject up for discussion among the Commissioners. I have to wonder how many of them knew this was coming. We'll see, as I start watching the meeting again at 32:26.

Bob Crowell immediately lost points in my book by saying, "you did the right thing." Soon to be appointed Chairman Dwight Millard asked about the funding source. Hadfield said it came out of current funding. Funny, this was not mentioned at the mid-May budget meeting.

Then Hadfield did something truly scary. He referred to the proposed funding to do the engineering to remake the whole project an "investment!" Hadfield then echoed Ken Dorr by characterizing the right-of-way acquisition to get to Drako way as such an unknown that they may have to go with this option instead. If you ever want to know how our government got so screwed up you just have to watch these guys in action.

More steam-of-consciousness historic recollections: At a meeting early in 2008 I heard the Commission say something that led me to believe they had no idea what the project was going to cost. I was much more naive about this project back then and got up to ask, "did I just hear you right that you don't know how much this project is going to cost?" Hadfield asked me if I was in the construction business and lectured me that you can't know project costs down to the dollars and cents.

What I came to understand, what is clearly being reiterated today, is that the Commission doesn't understand the costs down to the nearest ten million dollars! Or, for those who voted for Obama, they don't understand the project costs to the nearest billion pennies.

Hadfield then said that making massive changes to the scope of the project will be a "marvelous" way to show the public how great the project is by having trains be able to operate. This makes little sense if you assume they will run trains up to Gold Hill, because they are not planning a balloon track (or turnaround) in Gold Hill. They are planning places to turn trains around in the Carson River Canyon and south of Highway 50 east of Flint Road at a temporary station.

This doesn't make any sense unless the plan is now to simply run trains back and forth from the canyon to the temporary station, as Ken Dorr stated in his presentation. If the trains were going to run up and down to Gold Hill without changing direction, they could easily run a couple-few extra miles past the brothels into the canyon and back. No, IMHO, it looks like they now want to sell the project in Washington as the "middle of the Carson River Canyon to a field east of a small airport near a water tank east of Flint Drive Railroad." So now, IMHO, we are beginning to see a modern abandonment of the Virginia and Truckee Railway government boondoggle project in favor of the "MCRC & FESANWTEFD RR." For those of you in Rio Linda, we'll call it the Field to Canyon and Back Railroad, or the "FC&BRR."

Millard then asks a non-clarifying clarifying question that was pretty much irrelevant. Hadfield is going to press his case. What was worrying in Millard's question was his expression that the Carson River Canyon and Drako Way extension plus the Drako Way depot only represents "millions" whereas that grand part of the boondoggle probably represents $12-17 million. Oh, well, this is what we get when representative democracy is then allowed to appoint unelected members of a board with the power to petition the federal government for tens of millions of dollars when they don't have a fixed idea where they are going with the project. This is what we get for putting people in Washington who would be willing to take money from the taxpayers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Arkansas and give it to this poorly planned Northern Nevada Pork Project. Hadfield is a true believer...

At roughly 37 minutes into the ACCTV video, Hadfield argues that all existing engineering should be done, plus the addition of the "temporary station" and two never before disclosed balloon tracks, so he can be penny-wise and not pound-foolish. He refers to the EIRs and engineering of these two balloon tracks as "something a future commission down the road would have to do anyway" and argues that doing it now will save a future commission the trouble. He says it will be a way to "request funding with a specific plan."

Again, Bob, thanks for admitting after all this time that you didn't have a specific plan! We've been saying this all along, but you sound so much better saying it!

Since this radical expansion of the project scope is inevitable, it's funny how it was never brought up in the last fifteen years and wasn't clearly put on the agenda for the public to see. Please enjoy this post, because this project has gotten so disgusting on such a large scale, and so few people are willing to do anything about it, that I will retire from following the commission when I finish this post.

At 37:20 Bob Hadfield says he wants to do these cost estimates now so he isn't accused in the future of having said something would cost $10 million and have it cost $15 million. He concludes, "I just wanna get this over with and throw real numbers out." Yes, REAL NUMBERS would be a huge change!

Ken Dorr then makes an argument that the Carson River Canyon and Drako Way Extension/Depot engineering should be done in case he and others "win the lottery and go away." He says he wants to get that work "in logical order" and then explains that the work is scattered "in various computers in various sorts of completion." No comment. He finished his comment by saying he wants to do the work to be able to "shelve those plans." WOW. I mean, like, WOW. Did I already tell you the scope of the project was being changed right under your noses. That's what that smell is, it's not your dinner burning.

Millard (I think, it wasn't on camera) then asks, wasn't that in the previous amendment to your contract, Mr. Dorr?

Now I thought this meeting was already amazing. I thought what was already being discussed was a revolution, plain and simple. I wasn't ready to be floored, because I was already on the floor. So what Dorr said next has left me numb. I will quote him exactly, then I will analyze what he said. Then you decide.

Dorr said, "Well it was, Dwight, and what happened was with the previous amendment with Bob's (Hadfield's) approval we made the modification of the scope to proceed beyond the 60% plans for Phase 3A, 3B, to be able to take advantage of the potential stimulus funding. So we basically rolled into the 90% level on and the funds for Phase 3C and Phase 4 were diverted to the stimulus plan preparation package way back in last November." He said this with a straight face.

With a similarly straight face, Hadfield said, "and we got 3 million dollars because of it."

John Tyson must be in on the deal, because he spoke up, saying he had a problem with Phase 3C and Phase 4, because they are so far in the future. He said they can't take extra money now and put it to better purposes.

I have to remind you that just three weeks before, Hadfield said they could get another $20 million and finish the whole project. That presumably included Phase 3C to get through the Carson River Canyon, and Phase 4, to get to the Drako way depot and build out the depot. Do you see why I call this a revolution? Tyson is clothing his argument by saying, let's not spend the money to finish the engineering on Phase 3C and 4, let's do something tangible now. But that's what Hadfield and Dorr are proposing, to engineer new turnaround balloon tracks and make the FC&BRR.

Ron Allen jumped in to provide a defense. He and Tyson are usually on the same page so it's hard to believe they aren't arguing for the same thing. Allen says, "let's leave this as a package deal and get it done." But they aren't "leaving" anything, they are making a new package deal.

John then says "let me play the devil's advocate for a second, please. Suppose we have to eminent domain (a new verb!) the rest of the right of way, what's that going to cost?" ANSWER: The same as if you brokered a fair deal with the landowners. Whether by eminent domain or by negotiation, you will have to pay the "highest and best use" price for that land. Either way it will cost roughly the same, so Tyson is playing devil's advocate for a false choice.

Tyson goes on (and on) but along the way he mentions, "with money being as tight as it is, and with so many contingencies we haven't dealt with yet..." At least we're getting a little more fresh and new honesty from the Commissioners that they have had little clue what the total project costs and operational plans will be. This is a classic government bait and switch, where they present a sudden crisis and force a radical decision. Since I am watching this for the first time as I write this, I don't yet know how this will turn out.

Ken Dorr has never been turned down on an engineering contract. Because Ken (like project attorney Mike Rowe) is providing a "professional service," Nevada law doesn't require competitive bidding on these contracts. We not not seeing a Commission considering several options from various vendors, we are seeing the guy who's really been in charge all along making a sweeping revolutionary proposal under the guise of an under-noticed contract amendment. Perhaps I'm wrong but I predict Ken will get his amendment approved. This has happened time and time again where after endless debate and triangulation, the yes vote happens.

To give Tyson a little credit, he does appear to be suggesting that the land acquistion be handled before the engineering work is done. ALL THE LAND ACQUISITION SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE YEARS AND YEARS AGO! Too little too late, Tyson.

Let's see how this turns out... I am leaving most of the rest of the discussion out, to see it for yourself watch the video from 42 minutes on.

Oh, wait, at 43:39 there IS NO MORE DISCUSSION BY THE COMMISSION! They either already have their minds made up or don't realize what's happening right under their noses. Which is it?

MORE AMAZING, THERE WAS NO PUBLIC COMMENT!!!

Hadfield opened the topic up for public comment. I really expected at least couple people in the room to get up and talk against the new balloon tracks, the radical redifinition of this project. Perhaps because they are from Carson City, they see this as a good thing! Perhaps they were hypnotized by Ken Dorr and Bob Hadfield's lilting voice? Perhaps the oxygen level in the room was temporarily low and they were numbly sitting there without realizing THIS IS THE TIME TO SAY SOMETHING, to get an objection on the record, TO POINT OUT THAT AFTER THE COMMISSION VOTED ON HOW ENGINEERING FUNDS WERE TO BE HANDLED THAT Ken Dorr and Bob Hadfield diverted those funds to other purposes?

To the people I see sitting in the audience, who attend meeting after meeting, complain, complain and complain, NOT ONE OF YOU GOT UP TO POINT OUT WHAT'S GOING ON! I freaking give up! Hadfield said "Seeing none," and closed the public comment period.

Again, being stream of consciousness, I feel OK throwing this in. Before Dorr admitted that he and Hadfield diverted funds that had been allocated by a Commission vote on a written contract, Bob Crowell said, "you did the right thing" to Bob Hadfield. So Crowell is in on the revolution, Hadfield's in on it, Ron Allen's in on it, Tyson may or may not be but as he is so fond of saying, "I'm only one vote." I hope the suspense is building to see how this turns out. It's about time to make a motion.

I think I've already made it clear that they are about to vote on a radical redefinition of the project, and so far Larry McPhereson, Bonnie Weber, John Flanagan and the new Douglas County rep Johnson have nothing to say. Hadfield hatched this whole scheme, Allen and Crowell have supported it, Millard has questioned it but seems mollified and Tyson has given a disguised protest. Tyson often speaks against an idea and then says, "I have no choice but to vote yes for this."

So how does it come out? Before the motion is made, Johnson asks what for him is a clarifying question. He asked, if we do approve the engineering for Phase 3C and 4 that does give us a better chance at future stimulus funding, is that correct? He is told yes.

Well, we see where this new guy is coming from, at least he's honest. Instead of pretending for year to be focused on private fundraising only to take federal dollars, his only question is to take federal dollars straight out of the chute. He's probably a nice guy, I have never met him, but yikes.

Hadfield says, "it does that but it also gives us something we can give to our Congressional delegation to finish this project and if nothing else to get it into the Highway Reauthorization Act."

Double yikes! But I thought the Northern Nevad Railway Foundation was going to sell t-shirts in August! And apply for grants they won't get fifteen years too late. (Hey, did I mention they're going to build a Chinese Worker's Museum with Chinese government dollars?)

Ron Allen makes the motion to approve the amendment to the Manhard consulting contract "as outlined."

There was no further discussion, everyone but Tyson said "Aye" and since he wasn't a swing vote Tyson was free to vote no. A real politician would have jumped ahead in line and tried to table the motion so he could do some behind the scenes work. Can we believe Tyson wasn't ready for this, and therefore couldn't have asked some better questions?

Well, I shouldn't give him such a hard time, at least he voted no. The rest of the pack really deserves the blame.

THE REST OF THE AGENDA

Millard brought up the idea of the "disposition" of the McCloud #18. Millard has previously spoken of selling the #18 and getting out of the operation business altogether. I don't think this is in the cards. Millard does mention making the #18 available to the REAL Virginia and Truckee Railroad on the same terms as it was made available to Sierra Railroad. Let's see if this goes anywhere...

Overall the decision is delayed until the July 10 workshop, which is cutting it a little close for getting it shipped up here from California for an August event. Hadfield suggested putting it off until the July 10 workshop, and mentioned that they could discuss the FRSL #8 (under Tyson's care in Gold Hill) at that time.

Tyson then dropped a bomb. He said he was very interested in getting the #18 to Nevada because "I haven't even seen it yet." I may have my history wrong, but I thought Tyson and Allen were part of the "operations committee" that chose to buy the #18 in the first place! A year ago, Steve Saylor's wife Johnnie made a public comment to the effect that Tyson and Allen never went to McCloud to personally inspect the #18, and Tyson's comment at the time seems to confirm that. At the time Mrs. Saylor got a dirty look from a dismissive Bob Hadfield who basically said, "and so?" In fact the whole operations committee was the previous effort by Tyson and Allen to assemble a 1:1 scale model train set on the Commission's dime, and that effort had previously been stamped out by Teixeira and Hadfield AFTER they bought the wildlife condos/birdcages that are not rotting in Portola. But that's old revolutionary history, we're taking about Bolsheviks now, not Mensheviks. Kursensy is gone, Lenin is the big thing now! It's November!

Comrade Millard agrees to put the issue off to the workshop. Comrade Hadfield asks if there's more Comment from the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. No more Comrade Comments, so Comrade Tyson makes a dictat, er, motion and the matter is delayed.

ONE IGNORANT GOVERNMENT BODY PASSES THE BUCK TO ANOTHER

It's a one-liner: the Carson City Convention and Visitors Politburo, who has even less knowledge about trains than Bonnie Weber, will be assigned the right to operate the Central Committee's track and then apply the same five-year plan to any potential operators. The Carson City Convention and Visitor's Politburo doesn't have as many enemies as the Central Committee, so it hopes to manage the Proletariat in a better way for the good of the state.

Comrade Candy Duncan is holding a CCCVP meeting directly after the Central Committee meeting, and her excellence and lack of railroad knowledge will advance the goals of the state.

AND AT THIS POINT my connection to the ACCTV server glitched out and the video cut off. I don't know what happened and I don't care. Marx was right ... for now, and that's all I have to say.

"Be Seeing You,"

Your Comrade, Jim "Vladimir" Lohski

Postscript: If you thought that was scary, here's the real scary part. What are they really up to? They are probably repackaging the project in such a way to get the funding and then go back to their original plan. There probably is no real plan to ever build the balloon tracks, it's just a facade to get funding. Welcome to the United Soviet States of America!