Madison Mayor Mory Howkins-Butler commissioned Richard MAfee of PMA Consultonts, LLC, to
perlorm a "review" of Madison County's engineering pradices and fees. Please find listed below the
lacts relating to each of the false ollegotions the report contdined.
lssue 1 - The lack of proper checks and balances created a situation where the County Engineer designed
and approved his own work.
Response: lf Mr. McAfee were a licensed engineer in the State of Mississippi, he would likely know
that each of Mississippi's 82 counties hires a county engineer, either individually or through an
engineering firm, for the express purpose of performing engineering services for that county. To
suggest that there should be another engineer to approve the work of the county engineer is no
different than suggesting that there be another lawyer to approve the work of the county attorney. lt
would result in substantially increased costs to the county, and the unnecessary and wasteful
duplication of fees. Neither Rudy Warnock, as principal of Warnock & Associates, LLC, nor any other
county engineer violates rule 17 of the Mississippi Engineering Code of Professional Conduct by simply
performing the work that they are engaged to perform on behalf of a county. Mr. McAfee should be
advised that Madison County, like all other Mississippi counties, has a county administrator whose
duties include reviewing invoices prior to approval and submission to that county's board of
supervisors, who has finalapproval authority. ln the case of Madison County, Mr. Mark Houston, a
well-respected auditor who worked for several decades with the Mississippi State Auditor's Office,
serves as Madison County Administrator, and he reviews and approves all invoices before submission
to the Madison County Board of Supervisors for final approval.
lssue 2 - The contract requirements regarding notification and consultation with the County regarding
subcontracts appear not to have been enforced by the County and appear to have been breached by
Warnock & Associates, LLC.
Response: Note McAfee's use of the term "appear" throughout his "report." Because McAfee's
review was limited to the superficial and incomplete information that Hawkins-Butler provided him,
he did not see that, for subcontracting work performed by Warnock & Associates under its general
seruices agreement with the county, comprehensive information on all subcontracts is furnished to
the Madison County Board of Supervisors, which votes on them in open board meetings. Although
Warnock & Associates is permitted to have a 5% mark-up on these subcontracts, which are allowed
for the purpose of offsetting overhead, among other things, Warnock & Associates does not mark-up
any subcontracting work performed for Madison County under its general services agreement.
lssue 3 - The contract requirements regarding reimbursable expenses appear not to have been enforced
by the County and appear to have been breached by Warnock & Associates, LLC
Response: Warnock & Associates has billed only what was allowable by the contracts in place with
any client, including Madison County. Curiously, however, the Mayor of Madison has executed
contracts that allow for the same type of expenditures that were alleged in this observation. Please
see ATTACHMENT A, Madison Avenue Widening Engineering Services agreement between the City
-
of Madison and Neel-Schaffer Engineers. On the 8th page of the contract, it allows vehicle charges as
well as CADD and computer charges. Traffic counters are also an allowable charge by contract. These
2289? vl
allowances are typical in many contracts Hawkins-Butler has executed. On June 16, 20{Xr, Hawkins-
Butler executed a contract with Williford, Gearhart and Knight for "Soccer Field Lighting." Under the
compensation schedule, Hawkins-Butler allowed WG&K reimbursement for the use of a four-wheeler
at a rate of S40 per day, see ATTACHMENT B.
lssue 4 - The county contracts, rather than incentivize the Engineer to control costs, reward him for
construction cost growth. The report states, "This arrangement is flawed and most certainly not in the
interest of the public. lt is so fundamentally flawed that the practice is universally prohibited in Federal
and State contracts."
Reponse: lf Mr. McAfee were familiar with standard engineering practices in Mississippi, he would
likely know that this is a standard engineering practice in engineering conffacts issued in all of
Mississippi's 82 counties. Indeed, the Mississippi Department of Transportation, Office of State Aid,
uses this type of engineering contract on a daily basis. Projects throughout the state are designed and
including
constructed based upon publicly bid and final construction costs. All 82 county engineers -
Madison County's Rudy Wamock are required to execute the same standard contracts.
-
lssue 5 - The County contracts shift significant liability and risk from the Engineer to the County.
Response: The limits of insurance that Warnock & Associates, LLC provides on each and every contract
are in compliance with state law and incidentally are the same as the contracts Hawkins-Butler uses in
the City of Madison. Attached is Exhibit C, a contract between the City of Madison and ABMB
Engineers. On page 3 of the contract, ABMB limits its public liability at Sl,Ofi),fiXland limits its
professional liability at S500,fi10.
lssue 5 - The fee rates paid to Warnock & Associates appear high.
Response: Warnock & Associates charged 7 percent for design engineering and 7 percent for
construction engineering in the contracts McAfee reviewed. The Office of State Aid allows for 4.8
percent for design engineering, 7.2 percent for construction engineering and 2 percent for testing,
which is a total allowance of 14 percent. The total fee charged by Warnock & Associates is 14 percent
in all cases because the design and construction allowances include testing services. However, in cases
where Warnock works under contracts for State Aid, it charges rates as outlined in its standard
contracts: 4.2 percent for design engineering, 7.8 percent for construction engineering and 2 percent
for testing. McAFee implies that Warnock & Associates is overcharging for engineering services, but
his analysis is misleading. Submitted as Attachment D is one of many engineering contracts that
Hawkins-Butler has executed that exceed the standard 14 percent allowance. The attached example is
a contract between the City of Madison and Neel Schaffer Engineers dated July 17, 2OO7, for a City-
Wide Traffic Signal Project, which was estimated to cost S235,0fit. Neel Schaffer presented a
Construction Engineering fee of 535,007.71. That means that Hawkins-Butler, using city tax dollars,
paid 15 percent for Construction Engineering services, and that did not include Design Engineering
services.
Also, in cases where Warnock and Associates bills by the hour, it charges 5120 per hour for its
engineering seruices. Neel-schaffer has a contract with the city of Madison in which it charges $185
per hour for its engineering services more than 50 percent more than Warnock for the exact same
-
seruices.
To reiterate, Warnock & Associates charges its clients a total of 14 percent for both design and
construction engineering services in all cases.
lssue 7 - The County appears to have paid Warnock & Associates twice for Utility Permit Oversight.
Response: Hawkins-Butler furnished McAfee with a general services contract between Warnock &
Associates and Madison County, dated January 2005, that required that, as part of the firm's
professional retainer, Warnock & Associates would oversee all utility permit applications as part of his
professional retainer. Then, in July 2006, in conjunction with Madison County's hiring a Geographic
Information System (GlS) director to coordinate dititizing data, Madison County requested that
Warnock perform utility permit application oversight and include digital locations for all utilities being
installed within county right of way. Because of these additional and more involved duties, the Board
of Supervisors unanimously voted to remove these responsibilities from Warnock's monthly retainer
and determined that Warnock should be paid hourly for the additional work. Hawkins-Butler failed to
provide McAfee with the minutes from the Madison County Board of Supervisors meeting July 3,
2fi!6, {Attachment Elthat memorialize the board action concerning WarnoclCs compensation.
When Warnock's contract was renewed in 2008, it clarified that the responsibility for utility oversight
was to be paid hourly. Had Hawkins-Butler provided McAfee with a current contract or supplemental
material for the outdated contract she provided, it would have been clear that Warnock & Associates
did not double-bill for these or any other services.
CONCLUSION:
The report furnished by Richard McAfee of PMA Consultants, LLC is factually and substantively wrong on
each of its seven conclusions
- in part because of the prejudicial and incomplete materials provided by
Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler to McAfee, and in part because of McAfee's unfamiliarity with Mississippi
standard practices and regulations. lt appears that Mr. McAfee undertook this project as a hired gun and
in violation of a standard of ethics professional engineers are bound to including his unauthorized and
-
illegal use of the "professional engineer" title in a state in which he is not licensed. One can only
speculate that political animosity motivated Mayor Hawkins-Butler to effect such a transparent and
ineffectual attempt to discredit and besmirch the reputation of Rudy M. Warnock, Jr., P.E., and the
employees of Warnock & Associates.
CALHOUN STATION PARKWAY BILLING HISTORY SEPT 2OO5 'MAR 2A1A
CLASSIFICATION HRS
EMPLOYEE NAME
PRINCIPAL 66
RUDY WARNOCK
ENGINEER L74
JOHN GRANBERRY
ENGINEER 20
DUNCAN WELCH
INSPECTOR 3
CHRIS PICKETT
INVOICE r/fiGINAL
EmployeeTitle Description Hourc Rate Amount
Sprvices:
LBn007 Forrst Tech. SIOrM WAtCr CNOI & SWPPP 6.00 $70.00 $420.00
hafi S:totn Wdter CNOI ond StormWater ft.thttbn
Prcuention Ptan-
tt4D007 Adm. Assistant Storm Water CNOI & SWPPP 2.50 $50.00 $125.00
epg and enpile &ofln Ulsrs BUP afunru*n fw tte
SWPPP.
ll5l2007 Adm.Assistant Storm Water CNOI & SWPPP 1.00 $50.00 s50.00
Copy and a npile SWPPP attaclwnent it{ormatiott
u5no07 Folest Tech. Storm Water CNOI & SWPPP 5.00 $70.00 $350.00
hafi turm Water CNOI atrd SWPPP.
! Aug 11,2006 ;
INVOICE
Date EmployeeTitle Description
(f
Invoice
-1
Date i i
-*- InvoicE Num i
Aug 11,2006 1A1764
L
Billing To i
Services:
7/5/2006 Forest Tech. Wetlald Permitting 3.50 $70.00 $245.00
Drafi wettands delineatbn informatbn and mapping for
permit appli.utbn qhmiltaL
@ DATE
9/25/2006
BILL TO
2,E13.29
PASTDUE
9Vl t!f awgv l4.lw I rla! vw lravr lvt
Page 4 of 6
INVOICE
EmployeeTitle Description Hourc Rqte Amount
Services:
51312006 Forcst Tech- Wertand f)el inearion & Determinauon 6.00 $70,00 $420.00
Wettatd frcld delitleation ctrd assessrnelf'
.PDl,
,?{v|-
W-amitckAnd A€€odtEs
160 WestCcritsr Sbeet
Ganbn, MS X904ti
1t15t10
t"w$fl ,.tj
3/t5/10
*'#liEt':$:li$ii$ e51i1;Eg,riSiisr:;,,5-; s
OFFICE HOI'RS ROV\IAI.IO PIAT PREP 't2 50.00 600.00
RE:2006-1395:
Calhoun Station Phase lll
For professional services rendered on the above referenced project for the period ending June 30, 2009
For your convenience, we accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards. Please contact our offrce with your credit card information.
We appreciate your business.
BillQuick Standard Rsport Copyright 200E. Last Modified on:716t2009
Page 14 of 90
RE:2006-1395:
Calhoun Station Phase lll
For professional services rendered on the above referenced project for the period ending April 30, 2009
Reimbursable Exoenses:
4121D009 DBS ATV - Environmental 1.00 @ $100.00 $100.00
4NIDOO9 DBS Environmental Mileage 84.00 @ $0.55 s46.20
TotalExpenses: $146.20
:
Amount Due This Invoice: $1'781.20
Thisinvoicetffi
BillQuick Sfimdard Report Copyrigfit 200E. Last Modificd on:5lEt20@
Page 15 of 90
RE:2006-1395:
Calhoun Stiation Phase lll
For professional services rendered on the above referenced project for the period ending April 30, 2009
For your convenience, we accept Visa" Mastercard and Discover cards. Please contact our office with your credit card information.
We appreciate your business.
BillQuick Standard Report Copyright 2008. Last Modified on: 5/8/2009
PageT of 34
] Invoice Num i
i 103952 j
i Billing To i
i Dec31,2008 i
RE:2006-1395:
Calhoun Station Phase lll
For professional services rendered on the above referenced project for the period ending December 3 l, 2008
Reimbursable Expenses:
12/10/2008 JCC Environmental Mileaee 38.00 @ $0.585 s22.23
Total Expenses: $22.23
Account Summary
I
I
Services BTD I
E^I!:l:-u-"_BJD..
"]
$ 16,485.00 I $ 1,010.15
..t
I
!,,.*-'
.- €.*l"*:.
r.y
INVOICE
Date EmployeeTitle Description Hours Rab Amount
Services:
lA3nOOT Envr. Scientist Wetland Permitting 3.50 $80.00 $280.00
Permit aordination ubh the USACE. Drafi mapping
information for submittal to tle USACE.
I Invoice Date I
Invoice Num
I Nov7,2007 | 102819
f-Bin Billing To
I Oct01,2007 I kct3J, rool_]
INVOICE
Date Employee Title Description Hours Rab Amount
Thisitwoice@ifi
I,q"'*lo.pr j
'"t-*'/
INVOICE
EmployeeTitle Description Hours Rate Amount
Serviges:
IOB2;Cf'T Enw. Scientist Wetland Permitting 1.00 $80.00 $80.00
Coordination of feW revieut uith OE USACE.
;#pyiI
'.
INVOICE
EmployceTltle. Description
Services:
gnTDWt Enw. Scientist Wetland Permitting 2.N $160.m
Praje nd@ uith t E U,9{CE to dctennine penininA
starfus and, Wrmit anditions.
Thistnoice@i
INVOICE
DaE EmployeeTitle Description Hours Rate Amount
Services:
Enlf2nT Envr.Scientist Wetland Permitting 6.00 $80.00 $480.00
Drafr. uEtland.s pennil appliation submittal and
nappittg.
INVOICE
EmployeeTitle Description
Seryices:
7/20/2007 Adm"Assistant Wetland Permitting
Drafi,uatlann datuform.s, untlmd mapping ond permit
$s0.00 $200.00
apptiatbninformntbn-
INVOICE
EmployeeTitle Description Houlg Rate
,,.
INVOICE
Date EmployeeTltle Descrlption Houns Rate Amount
Services:
415/2007 Principal Wetland Permitting 5.00 $100.00 $500.00
Sfre uisit ,o rcuieut untland. inpad areas ard. determtle
aseage of aossittg ilrl'po;rf,s.
INVOICE
Date EmployeeTitle Description Hourc Rate Amount
3114/2007 Envr. Tecbnician Wetland Delineation & Determination 2.00 $70.00 $140.00
Draft uetland. mapping an d GPS oordhrotes
- Thisitwoice@i
r.d.rvv|,vvvv.
INVOICE
Date EmployeeTitle Descriptlon Hourc Rate Amount
Services:
31512007 Principal Wetland Delineation & Determination 4.00 $100.00 $400.00
Wetlan ds fuld delteotion and nuppittg.
31712007 Enw Scientist Wetland Delineation & Determination 8.00 $80.00 $640.00
Wetlands freA debvatbn and nupping.
INVOICE fifrtntw+t,
Date EmployeeTitle Description Hours Rate Amount
Services:
2/6/2007 Principal Wetland Delineation & Determination 4.00 $90.00 $360.00
Drafi site maps plntographg auerage. Drafi
and. oeriol
soils informatbnfor field delh.eatbru GPS aordinates
for prefened route enter tine.
2/15/2007 Forest Tech. Wetland Delineation & Determination 8.00 $70.00 $560.00
Site vistt and uetland.s field delineatbn and. mapping.
211512007 Enw. Scientist Wetland Delineation & Determination 8.00 $80.00 s640.00
Site vbit and uetland freld dehneatian and mapping
2/20/2007 Forest Toch. Wetland Delineation & Detennination 3.00 $70.00 $210.00
Field. delireation mapping and GPS aordinate mapping,
. Dcctlpdon
S€i potnts on g€s line hbrsectionE ulih calhoun statiql phase 3 tlght d 270.00
urry and cenbrline a[gntnentu.
catqrhhtg pointu lbr stakhg 25.m
Paymentrlcledits
Balance Due $295.00
Invoice
Invoice #: S70
Invoice Datp; lnlnOrc
Due Date: 2|1OIZO1O
Bill.To: Prclect:
Wamock & Associates P.O. Number:
160 West Center Street
Canton Ms 39O46
Paymentslcredits $0.00
lnvoice
L .
Wanock And Assocld€s
160 West Cdrter Stre€t
BILL TO '_-:l
'-_]
Canbn, MS3SO40 I
"_J
Dt,E DATE
DESCRIPTION
REIUAIN]NG 20% OF LUMP SUM TOTAL BILLED FOR CONTOURS AT CALHOUN STATIOI.I
CALHOUN STATIONf6118
I
Total 2100.00
L
2 lnvoice
lnvoice #: 557
Involcc Date: t1l16t2009
Due Date: 1180t2009
Protect:
BillTo:
P.O. ilumben
Warnod & Associates
160 West Center $treet
Canton Ms 39046
Descrlfilon
Job # 6118 Work Oder# 1 1,800.00
ADDITIONALTOPO INFORMATION FOR CALHOUN STATION PH 3
WITH Inbrsection of MS HwY 22.
Payments/Gredite $0.00