Brownsville board continues to battle over architect
Almost two months after hiring Michael S. Molnar Associates as the architect for its high school/middle school renovation project, the Brownsville Area School Board remains deeply divided over the move. The board hired the firm 5-4, terminating John Conzolo and Associates of Pittsburgh, the district’s original architect for the project.
Directors Francine Pavone and Roseanne Markovich were so upset they left the May meeting without voting on the district’s 2002-2003 budget, which included a 12-mill tax hike. Joining them in voting against Molnar were Rocky Brashear and Ellen Rohrer.
At June’s regular meeting, Markovich made a motion to terminate Molnar as the architect and hire Altman and Altman Architects of Uniontown, but Director Stella Broadwater motioned to table the measure and won approval by a 5-4 vote, again with Pavone, Markovich Brashear and Rohrer voting no.
Pavone and Brashear said that in ousting Conzolo, board members disregarded the fact that the firm was listed as the leader in its market by PlanCon. A list of PlanCon projects approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education between 1995 to 2002 in eight counties comprising the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania was distributed at the meeting.
PlanCon ranked Conzolo number one of all the firms with 32 projects out of 181 or 17.7 percent.
Molnar was credited with projects in Albert Gallatin in 1996, 1998 and 2001.
“If Conzolo was so bad, then why was he so highly used?” Brashear said. “He was recommended by 20 school districts.”
Pavone said she could not support Molnar, mainly because he doesn’t have enough insurance coverage for the project and she couldn’t understand why any other board member would support him with such little coverage and without seeing a certificate of insurance.
“How could they hire a person who cannot produce a certificate of insurance. He doesn’t have enough insurance to cover a project of this caliber,” Pavone said.
According to a comparison sheet provided to the board by solicitor Matt Hoffman, Conzolo carried $1 million in general liability, Molnar carried $250,000.
In excess and professional liability, Conzolo carried $2 million each while Molnar carried no excess insurance and $250,000 in professional.
Pavone said she wasn’t surprised that Markovich’s motion to support another local firm was tabled.
“I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t vote for it because of the interest they have in Molnar. Why? Why would this board want to put this district at risk? Every time you pick up the paper you read about how he didn’t do something right. Why would you hire someone like this?”
Pavone said she was speaking about Molnar’s work at the new annex to the Fayette County Prison, which included several change orders.
Pavone said if it was just a matter of having a local firm, she didn’t understand why Molnar is the local architect of choice now. She said the board initially narrowed a long list of architects down to three firms, a large, medium and small firm.
She said Conzolo was the medium firm and Altman and Altman Architects of Uniontown was the small local firm of choice.
“We decided to go with Conzolo. It was a medium firm that had done a lot of building projects and no one knew (Conzolo),” Pavone said.
Brashear said he was upset because Molnar had several people phone him in order to “win his vote.
“I don’t appreciate that. I’ve never had anyone do that before. It didn’t sit well with me,’ he said.
“I would have voted for anyone but Molnar. I didn’t like the way he played his politics,” added Brashear.
Brashear also said Molnar’s original contract included a high percentage paid to him for the hiring of outside firms, required a 90 percent payment up front and also had change orders listed as the responsibility of the district.
“It’s an injustice to taxpayers if I supported that,’ said Brashear.