CLT
UPDATE
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
"Sun Kings" declare "The New Versailles"
With some court buildings around the state crumbling, the Commonwealth is spending $150 million or more to reconstruct the Old Suffolk County Courthouse, with lavish quarters for the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court, including all new furnishings amid marble, mahogany, and meticulously restored millwork....
No expense was spared in renovating the building, which is on the state and federal registers of historic buildings. Architects had to extensively rework the spectacular Victorian, classical, and French Empire building in Pemberton Square to meet modern construction standards. Already the project's huge price tag and the building's limited use have sparked criticism from some lawmakers and court insiders....
Critics complain about the spiraling cost and gleaming offices of SJC judges, which were refurbished, refurnished, and outfitted in marble, granite, mahogany, and leather. Since the renovation was first funded in the early 1990s, its price has snowballed. Originally estimated at $40 million, construction costs increased to $96 million by the time the project was put out to bid in 2001, said officials of the state Division of Capital Asset Management.
In the past four years, the total cost has jumped from $124 to $146.6 million. That number could grow higher still when outstanding disputes with the contractor are resolved, officials said.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Price tag $150m for top court makeover
After clashing mightily with the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees over former President William M.
Bulger, Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday suggested the board was rushing its consideration of a controversial bid to buy the private Southern New England School of Law....
Board Chairman James J. Karam fired back by strongly urging trustees to vote on the proposal Tuesday....
UMass President Jack Wilson is pursuing the merger - a plan that first surfaced in 2001 during Bulger's tenure with a $12.5 million price tag. UMass estimates it would take $600,000 to ready the school for accreditation - a cost the law school would pay. Opponents, including other law schools, say that accreditation would cost $40 million.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Gov blasts univ. board's bid to buy law school
So the skids are apparently greased for a vote today by the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees to acquire an unaccredited law school and make it their own....
Among the great unknowns is the actual cost of operating the school and upgrading its library and its full-time faculty so it has a shot at eventually being accredited by the American Bar Association.
A Boston Herald editorial
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
UMass boondoggle on the fast track
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
"Where would you cut?"
Ah, that persistent refrain; but as always, the real question
is where do we start?
Better yet, "Why do you ask?"
Millions can be saved right here, right now -- but is
anyone paying attention?
"Where would you cut?"
While taxpayers scurry around preparing for the
holidays (dare I say "Christmas" any more?), profligate state
spending goes on, running up a credit card debt for gifts we never
intended -- but then, when do we ever have a say over such lofty
government matters as spending, or taxes?
Our 21st Century "Sun
Kings" have about completed building their new Château de Versailles.
France's 15th Century King Louis XIV would be jealous, if not proud.
"Versailles became the home of the French nobility and the location of the royal court.... All the power of France emanated from this center: there were government offices here; as well as the homes of thousands of individuals. By insisting that nobles spend time at Versailles, Louis kept them from countering his efforts to centralize the French government in an absolute monarchy.
"While the Palace was grand and luxurious, it was also quite expensive to maintain. Historians estimate that maintaining the Palace, including the care and feeding of its staff and the Royal Family, consumed as much as 25% of the entire national income of the country of France."
That seems like a perfectly fitting description of
the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Kangaroo Court and its perceived
center-of-the-universe importance in the opening days of 21st Century
Massachusetts. ["L'État, c'est moi!" (I am the state!)]
They claim to honor John Adams, but can you even
imagine him advocating government grandeur? Instead, they reflect the ostentatious
King Louis XIV.
"Where would you cut?"
As taxpayers are focused on the upcoming holidays, in
the shadows pork-barrel state spending races forward. The rush is still
on by the taxpayer-funded state college system aristocrats to buy a
discredited law school -- which sooner or later we taxpayers will be
burdened to bail-out for millions, likely sooner than later. As we know
only too well, they dig the hole then we taxpayers will have
no choice but to backfill it behind their
"miscalculations."
Look at the "Big Dig." Look now at the
sky-rocketing cost of the SJC's palace. Is it ever different?
Like naive Charlie Brown holding that silly football
for Lucy to kick, will we never learn? And it is "we"
not them. They know how the game is played, all too well. Again
and again Charlie keeps holding that football on its tee, and so long as
it gets Lucy a laugh every time, who can blame her?
Where is the so-called Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation now? Silent as always when money taken from us
is squandered. Where is Michael Widmer with his incessant shrill cry
over "the structural deficit," the argument he wields whenever
railing against tax cuts for average taxpayers? All we hear is his
silence.
Happy holiday season, taxpayers -- and anticipate an
even happier one as usual for today's Sun Kings.
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Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Price tag $150m for top court makeover
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
With some court buildings around the state crumbling, the Commonwealth is spending $150 million or more to reconstruct the Old Suffolk County Courthouse, with lavish quarters for the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court, including all new furnishings amid marble, mahogany, and meticulously restored millwork.
The 1894 building, which was renamed the John Adams Courthouse in 2002, is set to open for court business next month, and a gala dedication ceremony to be attended by Adams biographer David McCullough and US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is scheduled for March 31.
No expense was spared in renovating the building, which is on the state and federal registers of historic buildings. Architects had to extensively rework the spectacular Victorian, classical, and French Empire building in Pemberton Square to meet modern construction standards. Already the project's huge price tag and the building's limited use have sparked criticism from some lawmakers and court insiders.
"It's completely shocking that the tremendous expenditure of money on one spot could be done at the expense and need for adequate facilities for people in the outlying counties, such as mine in Bristol County," said state Representative James H. Fagan, a Taunton Democrat and chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee.
"I don't begrudge them fixing the old courthouse, but it seems to me the price they're doing is so extravagant and extraordinary to at least raise some concerns that projects that need to be done to deliver service to people who need them are not getting done," said Fagan, who said the Taunton courts are the most run-down in the state.
The project, overseen by the Supreme Judicial Court, has defenders who say that rescuing a once-grand building that had fallen into a grim and dank disrepair was more than worth the cost
"The building was neglected for many years," said court spokeswoman Joan Kenney.
It was "woefully outdated and lacked any technology," she said. "Now the John Adams Courthouse is once again a Massachusetts treasure, historically preserved, restored, equipped and fully accessible for the public of this generation and future generations."
Critics complain about the spiraling cost and gleaming offices of SJC judges, which were refurbished, refurnished, and outfitted in marble, granite, mahogany, and leather. Since the renovation was first funded in the early 1990s, its price has snowballed. Originally estimated at $40 million, construction costs increased to $96 million by the time the project was put out to bid in 2001, said officials of the state Division of Capital Asset Management.
In the past four years, the total cost has jumped from $124 to $146.6 million. That number could grow higher still when outstanding disputes with the contractor are resolved, officials said.
The rehab of the granite Adams Courthouse, the facade of which appeared as a backdrop in the television series "The Practice," was supposed to be completed more than a year ago, but extensive structural repairs delayed construction, according to project engineer Stephen Needham.
The slate roof leaked, for example, and had to be extensively reconstructed. In addition, the front sidewalk had to be cut to accommodate a handicapped-accessible entrance. Outside the building's many balconies, a network of mesh wire was installed to keep away pigeons.
Inside, the 350,000-square-foot building was gutted and then rebuilt. The elaborately painted ceiling in the lobby's atrium was cleaned, repaired, and restored by artisans working atop staging and scaffolding nearly 75 feet high. The cleaning alone took six months, officials said.
Fourteen layers of paint were stripped and the walls repainted in colors that matched the originals. Decorative borders were exposed and recreated. Throughout the building, original oak woodwork was refinished.
Justices were each given an office or office suite, with their choice of furnishings, a small kitchen, and individual bathrooms.
In the deliberation room, where the SJC justices will decide their cases, a conference table faces one of the building's many fireplaces. An original nickel chandelier hangs over the table, matching sconces that encircle the room.
The spectacular main SJC courtroom is entirely new. Panels of makore, a reddish mahogany, line the walls, and a colored glass skylight overhangs the chamber.
The state also paid for the Social Law Library, a private nonprofit that previously had been housed next door. It opened earlier this month on two floors, with 77,000 linear feet of book space, twice its previous size. Its bookcases, many of them lit, are new, and the librarian's counter is travertine, a marble prized for its beauty.
In addition to restoring the building, the state spent millions updating systems and wiring the building for computers. Some court proceedings will be digitally recorded with built-in cameras and can be broadcast over the Internet via streaming video.
Some court officials say the state is spending too much on a building that will be used by the SJC and the Appeals Court, while most of the public have more contact with probate and district courts, relocated to a new building on New Chardon Street.
"It's an absolute disgrace," said Suffolk County Register of Probate Richard
Iannella. "When the state budget has been cut by millions, why do they need to build a museum? We need courthouses where people can work in every day. As president of the Mass. Registers Association, I'm very concerned. My colleagues are working out of rundown buildings across the state. I don't understand why we need to build such an elaborate building for such a small group of people."
Kenney said the building is designed to be more than a courthouse. It will open for tours, displays, and special events, with a focus on Adams, who wrote the Massachusetts Constitution.
"The John Adams Courthouse will be a vibrant, living monument to John Adams," she said. "Working with education organizations, such as Discovering Justice and the Freedom Trail Foundations, we are inviting teachers and students, and visitors of all ages, to observe the appellate courts in action and to learn about the role of the judicial branch and the rich legal history of Massachusetts."
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The Boston Herald
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Gov blasts univ. board's bid to buy law school
By Ann E. Donlan
After clashing mightily with the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees over former President William M.
Bulger, Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday suggested the board was rushing its consideration of a controversial bid to buy the private Southern New England School of Law.
Commenting for the first time on UMass' plan to acquire the unaccredited, 250-student school to add a public law school to the university system, Romney said in a letter he was disappointed the board is meeting Tuesday in an emergency session.
"While this is a decision that should come before the board, it is inconsistent with a thoughtful and deliberative process to schedule an emergency session of the board four days before Christmas, when full participation by all the members cannot reasonably be expected," Romney wrote.
Board Chairman James J. Karam fired back by strongly urging trustees to vote on the proposal Tuesday. "My clear view is that the university has studied this issue in-depth, has discussed it in detail and should now come to a decision," Karam wrote to trustees immediately after they received Romney's letter. Karam said he has contacted Romney's office for a meeting to inform the governor about the board's "extensive due diligence process."
UMass President Jack Wilson is pursuing the merger - a plan that first surfaced in 2001 during Bulger's tenure with a $12.5 million price tag. UMass estimates it would take $600,000 to ready the school for accreditation - a cost the law school would pay. Opponents, including other law schools, say that accreditation would cost $40 million.
The Southern New England School of Law, located in Dartmouth, is not accredited by the American Bar Association. It has failed to win accreditation in part because admission standards are too low and the graduates more often fail the bar exam than pass it.
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The Boston Herald
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
A Boston Herald editorial
UMass boondoggle on the fast track
So the skids are apparently greased for a vote today by the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees to acquire an unaccredited law school and make it their own.
In fact, the project is so well oiled that today's is an "emergency" meeting of the trustees - who have put this hot little item at the top of their list of priorities. (If only making an effort to keep public education affordable and recruiting top-flight faculty and students were as high on the list!) Among the great unknowns is the actual cost of operating the school and upgrading its library and its full-time faculty so it has a shot at eventually being accredited by the American Bar Association.
What's the rush to commit the university to acquire the Southern New England School of Law, which has been up for grabs since the trustees first attempted to pick it up in 2001? Well, good question.
It's the same question Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] finally decided to ask publicly in a letter sent to trustees at the end of last week. While reported to have privately expressed his disapproval of the project, the governor had - for whatever reason - not gone on the record in opposition. Even his letter to the trustees only criticized their haste as being "inconsistent with a thoughtful and deliberative process."
What the reform-minded governor should have said is that it's a costly boondoggle the trustees ought to avoid like the plague.
The only good news here is that final approval must still be given to the effort by the Board of Higher Education. Chairman Steve Tocco has pledged to have the board do real due diligence, which would surely include a realistic cost study. It's a good thing someone is minding the higher ed store.
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