Kahl appointed to Building Commission (UPDATE)

The state Building Commission will have a new face at its next meeting.

State Rep. Robb Kahl, D-Monona, will attend his first Building Commission meeting Tuesday as a member and also will join the commission’s higher education subcommittee, which votes on projects proposed by the University of Wisconsin System. Kahl brings to the position experience working with the trades and real-estate industries.

He is the owner of Generations Title Co. LLC, Madison, and the executive director of the Construction Business Group, which acts as a watchdog to make sure contractors are following various laws governing the construction industry. Kahl was also the mayor of Monona from 2003 to 2011.

He joins the commission at a time of potential change. The draft budget Gov. Scott Walker introduced Feb. 3 would do away with the requirement that the commission meet to give a second approval to projects that already are in state plans.

Kahl said he is against the proposed changes and hopes lawmakers will be able to eliminate them when debating the governor’s draft budget during the next several months.

“I think everybody needs to take a step back,” he said, “and decide whether you want the legislative arm of government to relinquish so much authority to the executive branch.”

Kahl said the state’s building plans are particularly ripe for abuse for purposes of political patronage.

“We are spending lots of money,” he said, “and taking on lots of debt.”

The commission still would have to approve building projects before they could be included in the state’s initial budgets. But the panel no longer would have to vote to let projects whose designs are 35 percent complete move on to final design and be put out for bid.

Building plans instead could be approved through “passive reviews.” Commission members would not have to meet unless a majority of them requested it. Projects that are not acted on within 14 days would be approved automatically .

Mike Huebsch, secretary of the state’s Department of Administration, has defended the proposed changes by noting that few, if any, other state agencies get to vote on the same policy or proposal twice. According to the governor’s budget documents, the changes would eliminate duplicative approvals and help make the state’s building procedures more efficient.

Some, though, have objected by saying the proposal is nothing more than an attempt by the executive branch to wrest more power from the Legislature. Among the most vocal critics has been state Rep. Gordon Hintz, the Oshkosh Republican whom Kahl will replace on the Building Commission.

Hintz, who could not be immediately reached Monday afternoon, also has questioned why the Building Commission went four months late last year without meeting. The commission typically gets together every month.

With the lack of meetings, the value of the projects approved by the Building Commission in the current budgetary period has fallen behind the comparable figure from two years ago. From Aug. 7, 2013 — the first meeting held after the current budget took effect — to the commission’s January meeting, members had approved about $621.3 million worth of construction projects, according to minutes. The comparable figure for two years ago is about $796.24 million.

Yet , at the same time as fewer projects have gone through the Building Commission, officials are moving forward with one of the largest building projects in state history: a nearly $197 million reconstruction of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s headquarters on Madison’s west side. Rather than go through the usual bidding process though, the contract for that project is being awarded through direct negotiations with the DOA.

Kahl is one of many additions to the Building Commission this year. Every member of the board , in fact, will be new this year except state Sen. Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls; Walker, who is the chairman of the commission; and Bob Brandherm, the governor’s citizen appointee.

Besides Kahl, the new members include: state Sens. Jerry Petrowski, R-Marathon, and Janet Ringhand, D-Evansville; and state Reps. Rob Swearingen, R-Rhinelander, and Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam. Follow @TDR_WLJDan