DART News Release
Media Relations Contact: March 5, 2008 Board forwards Financial Plan to cities for review
Following more than three months of study, the DART Board of Directors has voted to send a draft long-range Financial Plan supporting future rail projects to its 13 member cities for a 30-day review. The Board is scheduled to adopt a final version of the plan as early as April 8.
"These changes, while difficult, help us have better day-to-day oversight of these very complex projects," Thomas said. "They will help us monitor project costs more aggressively and will support our efforts to communicate our progress to our stakeholders and customers." Work on this new management alignment has been in the works for the last few months but was subsequently delayed as DART staff focused on solving the financial challenges of the rail projects. "I am using the best minds throughout the agency to insure controls are in place which better address market anomalies as they occur." The changes are effective immediately. Thomas says he is implementing recommendations from the audit process including improving internal communications and ensuring on-going updates to the Board and member cities, at pre-defined time periods, that cover industry trends, inflationary issues, market conditions and any other factors that have the potential to impact the agency projects. Thomas says he must now concentrate on moving the agency forward while acknowledging lessons learned from this experience - specifically his decision to delay informing the Board of Directors of the dramatic spike in the rail expansion project costs. -- 30 -- |
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