Paul Benoit: As Aquatic Center Project Assistant
The Piedmont City Council will be asked to approve $106,000 to hire Paul Benoit, former Piedmont City Administrator, to Serve as Special Assistant to current City Administrator Sara Lillevand on Pools Construction.
Measure UU was the first successful capital bond measure in the City’s history. The $19.5 million bond was approved by 68.5% of Piedmont voters on November 3, 2020. Measure UU bond funds will be used to Pay Benoit the $106,000 maximum annual cost of the proposed employment agreement.
Benoit served as Piedmont’s City Administrator from 2014-2019 leading the process to develop the Aquatics Master Plan Conceptual Design, which was accepted by the City Council in 2016. As a California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) beneficiary retiree, he will be subject to certain restrictions in order to avoid putting his retirement pension in jeopardy. The City must enroll and report the hours worked to CalPERS through the system currently used to report payroll. His initial tasks will include leading the efforts to hire project management services as well as the architectural design team.
READ THE AGENDA HERE.
Jan. 17, 2021
Piedmont City Council
C/o John Tulloch
Re: Jan 18 Special Assistance Paul Benoit
Dear Mayor King and Council,
I supported UU and am glad to see the project move forward. The ill-fated Piedmont Hills Underground Utility District (PHUUD) fiasco cost taxpayers millions and a core problem was the lack of a single experienced project manager free from the constraints of City politics. The PHUUD management was done by committee and City Engineer John Wanger attempted to bring reality to a rapidly deteriorating situation. His expertise was ignored. At a Sep. 22, 2009 meeting with other principals, including Larry Rosenberg and Anne Swift, he informed those present that the situation is now of “career ending issues” and it is going to get “pretty ugly pretty quickly (Nov. 11, 2015 deposition).” His advice is ignored, the digging continues and by Oct. 12 the City is told the undergrounding project is $340,000 over budget and the entire $560,000 contingency has been spent. The next day Crest Road collapses costing taxpayers another $296,000. Undergrounding utilities is of special benefit to those residents in the District who I speculate should have borne the cost of overruns. The Pool is a public benefit and should it go over budget the cost will be borne by the public.
Paul Benoit is being named as a “Special Assistant” to our City Administrator. Who will be the pool project manager?
Sincerely,
Rick Schiller
1/19 Council meeting revealed that Paul Benoit is being brought on to specifically develop the RFP for Project Management and related issues. The City is approaching this thoughtfully and we’re off to a good start.