Full Disclosure & the New High School

It was a great day for the City when, last summer, Mayor Ragucci announced that the National Park Service had finally approved the City's parkland replacement plan that would allow the city to move forward with the construction of a new high school on the Terraces at Glendale Park. Since that time, the specs have gone out to bid and, perhaps not surprisingly, have come back significantly higher than originally anticipated. This leaves the Ragucci administration on the horns of a dilemma -- how will the City pay for the new high school?

According to an "article" in the Everett Advocate last week (although we suspect this was a press release from the Mayor's Office masquerading as a news story), it was reported that the low bidder on the project came in at $64 milion -- $13 million higher than the original bid submitted in 2001. The 2001 bid was obtained prior to the delays encountered due to the efforts of the Coalition to Save Glendale Park to stop the project from going forward. The key, of course, is to take steps to prevent this additional cost from being passed on to the taxpayers.

This project is crucial to the continuation of other projects in the city -- the reconfiguration of the land at the old Hale School (which has already been demolished) and a 7 acre park at the old General Electric site. It is critical that the City explore all avenues available to see that the project moves forward. It is also critical that the process be as thorough -- and as open -- as possible. The Ragucci administration and the City Council need to put aside political machinations and put all their cards on the table.

The Joint Finance Committee of the City Council is scheduled to meet tonight (Thursday,
Feb. 10), and this issue will be up for discussion. There is a rumor going around that some of the members of the Committee want to rush the piece through, no questions asked, so that at a future date they can claim "no one told us about this" if the worst case scenario -- a tax increase -- becomes a reality. The Mayor and his financial team must put together a viable package for review and must be willing to answer all questions posed to them to achieve an agreeable outcome. There will be those who will be tempted to grandstand, this being an election year, and attempts will be made to demonize the process and assign sinister motive unless all information is out in the open.

The public has an obligation as well to be informed, to ask questions, and to hold our elected officials -- ALL of our elected officials -- accountable in this process. This project is too important to the city and to the future of our young people to allow politics to rule the day.