City on forefront of school public-private partnerships
STAMFORD — Stamford officials have repeatedly said the city could become the first place in the nation to employ a public-private partnership model for the construction and maintenance of five new district schools by 2024.
But a county in Maryland has already begun to pioneer the idea, and even more, public-private partnerships are used for infrastructure projects across the country and world, with varying degrees of success and failure.
According to reporting from The Washington Post, Prince George’s County is set to become the first jurisdiction in the country to use a public-private partnership for school construction and maintenance, a plan county leaders say is a cost-effective and efficient way to address the schools $8.5 billion building and maintenance backlog and rebuild several schools.
“The commitment of the money and the awarding of the Request for Proposals is intended to happen this calendar year,” Maryland State Sen. James Rosapepe, who pushed for the use of public-private
partnerships in the state’s public schools and represents Prince George’s County, told the Advocate.
That county’s decision to move forward with a public-private partnership, commonly known as a P3, for its schools came after about a four-year process in which two commissions studied the best way to bring down the costs for school construction and maintenance, said Rosapepe.
“It was a lot of very public discussion over a period of years,” said Rosapepe.
Public-private partnerships, including the kind Stamford is exploring for its schools, often combine the various elements needed for a project, such as architectural, design and construction services, into one procurement, which is then awarded to an individual private partner to take over the project.
“The theory behind a P3, at base, is it creates and starts a process focused on efficiency and really helping to streamline and focus everyone on the public sector objectives and what is trying to be solved and built,” said Jason Washington, executive director of the National Council for Public Private Partnerships.
These supposed benefits of P3s drew him to the idea, said Rosapepe.
“With public-private partnerships, it’s all integrated, so you get a significant cost-savings and can fix and maintain schools better and faster,” said Rosapepe.
The need for a financially manageable and quick way to rebuild a chunk of its schools is also driving Stamford’s probe into public-private partnerships.
The seed for such an idea was planted a year ago after the scope of a ferocious mold crisis in Stamford schools, and the cost of repairs, became apparent. Since August 2018, mold has been found in at least half of the district’s 21 public school buildings, posing a significant financial challenge for the school district.
City Director of Mike Handler has been spearheading the P3 idea for Stamford schools along with the three other members of the Stamford Asset Management Group — Superintendent of Schools Tamu Lucero, Special Assistant to the Mayor Cindy Grafstein and city Engineer Louis Casolo, who oversee care of district facilities.
Handler’s timeline for the project is significantly more expedited than that of Prince George’s County. The idea was first introduced by Handler and Lucero at public presentations in the fall, and according to Handler’s timeline, a private partner will be chosen by April or May.
Handler has already released a Request for Qualification to see which firms are capable of completing the desired work, but other elected officials in the city have asked to put the pause button on the speedy move toward implementation of a P3.
On Monday, the Board of Representatives voted 25-3-6 to hold on the decision of whether to appropriate $250,000 for professional services to support drafting, evaluating and managing RFQs and RFPs for private partners to design, construct and manage the school facilities.
Many representatives said they need more options against which to compare against the P3 plan and better information about the financial models underlying the proposed plan.
In his presentation, Handler claimed the traditional model for school construction and operations is 70 percent more expensive than the “public-private partnership” plan and that the annual cost of the traditional model will be about $19 million compared to an estimated $11 million annual cost for the sale-leaseback plan.
While relatively untested in U.S. schools, publicprivate partnerships have been widely used for construction and maintenance of transportation infrastructure, such as toll roads and highways, but has only recently moved into the market for social infrastructure, including courthouses, airports, and now — in Prince George’s County and Stamford — with schools, said Washington.
Despite the large role of the private sector in these arrangements, Washington said they still require public support.
“The appropriate approach is a lot of public engagement and to make clear what the objectives are and what you’re trying to accomplish. What makes P3s successful is clear public buy-in and understanding of what’s going to happen,” said Washington.
For the many proponents of public-private partnerships, there are also critics.
Jeremy Mohler, communications director of In the Public Interest, a national think tank that studies public goods and services, told the Advocate that according to his group’s research, P3s are often more expensive than the traditional model for construction and maintenance of public infrastructure.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Mohler cited the example of Nova Scotia, which signed a publicprivate partnership to construct over two dozen schools in 1999, but then a decade later discovered the public could have saved $52 million if it had gone the traditional route, according to a report by the province’ auditor.
Proponents of P3s often think the model is cheaper based on ideological beliefs in the efficiency and speed of the private sector, but the traditional route may often be the better route to go, said Mohler.
“I would say the biggest issue after the numbers is the issue of public control,” said Mohler. “With this contract, residents may be giving away decision-making power of their schools.”
At least for now, the ball’s in Stamford’s court to decide which way to proceed for the future of the schools infrastructure.