Better Safe Than Sorry – RHS Building Committee votes to cut $10M from construction budget

Advocate Staff Report

The Revere High School Building Committee late last month voted 8 to 5 to support city CFO Richard Viscay’s motion that the $412.5 million construction budget for the new school be cut by $10 million.

It wasn’t an easy vote.

While the committee supported the idea of a cut, about half of the members said they would rather wait and see specifically what was going to be cut from the project.

“I would feel more comfortable seeing the value management list,” said Susan Gravellese.

Viscay was asked how he arrived at his $10 million figure.

“I think it’s a reasonable number to start with to bring down the cost of this project” said Viscay. “It’s easy to get to without affecting the educational programing.”

School Superintendent Dianne Kelly suggested that the committee wait until their June meeting which would allow time to gather a list of cuts to make up the $10 million.

Viscay said it would be best to commit to the cut and work through the details later.

“It’s very important for us to bring down the cost of this any way we can,” said Viscay.

Mayor Patrick Keefe said the cut would not affect the bond authorization and the $10 million would move to the contingency account for any unexpected problems or costs.

“It would move to project contingency, and it would live there, and we would try to never touch it,” said Brian Dakin, senior project manager. “We would be reserving it, never aiming to spend it,” he added.

Keefe said that contracts for work on the building would be awarded on a percentage basis of the total budget. Thus a $10 million cut would lead to subsequent savings.

Still some committee members resisted unspecified cuts.

Kelly suggested that because Viscay’s motion wasn’t on the agenda, a vote on it could be a violation of open meeting law.

But Keefe said it was a voice motion and there was no violation of open meeting law involved.

“I think it’s prudent of us to reduce the budget by $10 million,” said Keefe. “We’ll still be able to do everything we want to do. We will just make sure we can do it within our means.”