a letter to the editor sent to the Timberjay:
4/22/12
What are JCI and the school board trying to hide?
Mr. Helmberger:My recent letter led you to an important exception ……. your suspicion of my contention that Keith Dixon, Duluth School Superintendent, was a major player in JCI’s selection for and execution of Duluth’s “Red Plan.” I contend that:
JCI would NEVER have been engaged to conduct the development of Duluth’s Red Plan without the direct, personal and deliberate input of Keith Dixon.
I then realized that you may have also been reluctant to believe that Charles Rick, St. Louis County ISD 2142 Superintendent of Schools, was complicit in JCI’s selection for their restructuring. Even without written evidence it is easy to link Keith Dixon’s persuasive influence over Rick’s decision to also hire JCI to conduct a similar study for ISD 2142.
JCI would NEVER have been engaged to conduct the development of St. Louis County ISD 2142’s restructuring plan without the direct, personal and deliberate input of Charles Rick with help and encouragement from Duluth’s Keith Dixon.
As an outside observer with many years of experience in the public/private professional services procurement process, JCI would not have been chosen to conduct those projects without Dixon’s and Rick’s support ……. and vice-versa.
I find Administrative Law Judge Eric Lipton’s double rejection of The Timberjay’s request for information about JCI’s professional services for ISD 2142 legally and ethically suspicious.
Judge Lipton and The Timberjay’s attorney Mark Anfinson should contact the Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design; the American Institute of Architects; the American Council of Engineering Companies; The American Society of Civil Engineers or The Minnesota Bar Association for clarifications of the roles and duties of “owners” and their professional consultants.
I am baffled that an official Minnesota board, responsible for the standards of practice of duly qualified and certified Minnesota professionals did not intervene or stop JCI from functioning as an uncertified pretender to Duluth and St. Louis County ISD 2142.
The assertion that JCI’s role in the planning, design and construction monitoring of ISD 2142 building projects was “not a governmental function” is absurd …. an intellectual insult and professional outrage.
JCI and its contracted sub-consultants were acting as legal “owner representatives” making independent decisions on ISD 2142’s behalf conforming to long-established national standards of professional consultant conduct. (Sometimes too independently)
All such ISD 2142 and JCI records are … and must be available for public inspection and scrutiny. What are JCI, ISD 2142 School Board members or Charles Rick trying to hide?
Charles Torkko
Denver, Colo.
and one comment:
On 4/23/12 at 12:01 PM, orrcountry wrote:
As a former Purchasing Manager and Contract Administrator, I concur. Here, here… Mr. Torkko.
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