Inspector General 2022 report posted: $17 million additional change orders for Family court project

                                                                                   

The Nassau Inspector General's 2022 annual report was posted on the county website this morning after a week-end delay.

Inspector Jodi Francese says she emailed the report to county leaders and the county IT department for posting just after 6 p.m. Friday -- just squeaking through a charter-imposed March 31 deadline.

        "§192. Reporting.  Not later than March 31st of each year, the Inspector General shall prepare and
publish a written annual report summarizing the activities of the office during the immediately        preceding fiscal year. The report shall be furnished to the County Executive, and the County Comptroller as well as the Presiding Officer and the Minority Leader of the County Legislature. The annual report shall be posted with a link on the Inspector General's web page."

                                                                              

Arguably, the most interesting portion of the 65-page report is about change orders in the never-ending project to turn the county's former social service building into a new Family Court and Matrimonial Center, proposed in the mid-2000s and still not completed.

Former County Social Services Building

After a "First Phase" of the project, which cost about $86.8 million, the county legislature in March 2020 approved a contract to build the "Second Phase," projected to cost $86.5 million.

Franzese had questioned the second phase contract and continued to monitor the project through 2021 and 2022.

She reports that by March of this year, there had been 33 change-orders, boosting the second phase cost to $102.5 million -- an increase of about $17 million.

But the report points out, the county public works department originally wanted a blanket change order of $25 million, which did not include the usual details, specifics and transparency. The proposed change order also appeared to include double counting of about $3 million, the report says.

After the inspector general notified the county attorney's office in November of its concerns about the large change order, the report says, the public works department agreed to unbundle it and return to individual work changes.

Still don't know if the project will be finished this year, as projected.

Here is a portion of the report on the Family Court and Matrimonial Center: