Delta's $62M hole

Written by Press staff / San Joaquin News Service
Friday, 27 June 2008

Delta College will have to slash $62 million from its list of promised construction from a $250 million bond voters passed in 2004.

STOCKTON — San Joaquin Delta College’s new bond team admonished the board Thursday that it had passed the point of no return on building a Mountain House campus — despite the fact that Measure L bond projects are $62.5 million over budget.

“There was a decision that was made that says you guys are at Mountain House,” bond program manager Kathy Roach said, adding that switching gears by moving the planned Mountain House center to Tracy could cost an extra $30 million “and a lot of time and energy.”

The college's new bond team, made up of consultants and college administrators, updated the board Thursday on the cost, scope and completion date of all of its purposed projects. They delivered the grim news in an all-day meeting, where they barred any discussion of past mistakes or public questions about last week’s release of a scathing grand jury report.

After crunching numbers, the team estimated that the Measure L bond projects planned for the Stockton campus and for satellite campuses in Mountain House, Lodi and Manteca are over budget and need to be cut by $62.5 million.

Measure L is a $250 million bond passed by San Joaquin County voters in 2004. The grand jury harshly criticized Delta trustees for mismanagement of the Mountain House project, leaking closed-session information to developers and squandering millions of dollars.

The trustees will meet again July 15 to discuss the grand jury report — and also decide what bond projects will have to be cut. Another public workshop may be planned before that meeting.

Many of Delta’s future plans are marred by previous mistakes, said Lee Belarmino, who heads the bond team.

“We didn’t do things the best way at times up to this point.”
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