BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Former sewer director Tom Quinn calculated a reimbursement to a developer using a method that would always result in overpayment to the developer, said a city audit report released Tuesday.
A second report, also by the city auditor, said Mr. Quinn put the city-county sewer agency at financial risk for up to $407,000 by accepting responsibility for a storm sewer on Anderson Ferry Road without inspecting it first.
The reports are two in a series of six that have been issued this summer by City Audit Manager Greg Hanfbauer, following calls for investigation of the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) by Cincinnati City Council and the Hamilton County Commission.
Mr. Quinn resigned in April amid charges of mismanagement. A grand jury is reviewing his actions.
The city released the reports Tuesday as a result of an Enquirer request under Ohio's open-records law.
One charge Mr. Quinn's top managers leveled at him was favoritism toward developers.
When developer John Niehaus built a sewer for his Aston Oaks development in North Bend, he built in excess capacity at the MSD's request and Mr. Quinn proposed reimbursing him $210,000 more than a senior sewer district division chief said the excess capacity was worth.
The auditor's report said neither Mr. Quinn nor the division chief, Joseph Niehaus (no relation), had the right number.
"The method recommended by Quinn was determined to be irrelevant because it would always result in a significant overstatement of the appraisal and result in a subsidy of the developer's project," Mr. Hanfbauer wrote.
The MSD had no policy on how to buy excess capacity from developers at the time of the report, June 1. The county has since adopted a policy to clarify calculations and MSD agreed to pay John Niehaus $413,609. The sum is higher than the $399,230 Mr. Quinn suggested. However, Mr. Quinn did his calculation when some costs were unknown.
The second report said that the MSD should have inspected the Anderson Ferry Road sewer before it assumed responsibility for it from the county engineer's office.
The cost to repair the sewer is estimated between $201,200 and $407,000. The report, dated July 15, suggests that the MSD and the county engineer share the cost.
