More than a year after starting work on Paul Brown Stadium, Hamilton County is considering hiring an independent auditor to make sure taxpayers are getting their money's worth on the $280 million project. Critics say it's about time the county ensured that proceeds from a sales-tax increase are well spent.

Hamilton County administrators are in discussions with two companies that could provide auditing services for Paul Brown Stadium, scheduled to open in 2000, and a Reds baseball stadium that will open in 2003.

"It sounds like a pretty good idea," Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said of hiring a construction auditor. "We're not finished yet with Paul Brown Stadium, so one of the questions I have is: Would this be appropriate to consider with (the work) we have left?"

Others wonder why a good idea now wasn't a good one before the football stadium construction began.

"I'm glad people are finally catching on," said Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes, who has been calling for an outside auditor all along. "We're talking about the biggest projects ever done in this community and they're too important to trust to a lick and a promise."

Construction auditors check on things such as quality and quantity of the materials being delivered, hours worked, overbilling or subcontractors' records of accounting practices.

Controversy over a stadium contract surfaced this week when a WCPO-TV (Channel 9) report questioned what services a local consulting firm provided for Turner-Barton Mallow-D.A.G.

RMG, a firm owned by businesswoman Lovie Ross, has a $200,000 contract with the construction management team to help the companies "develop programs beneficial to the minority community," said Ken Butler, Turner Construction Co.'s vice president and general manager.

Neither the county nor Turner, however, has explained exactly what Mrs. Ross did to meet the terms of the contract. Mrs. Ross declined to comment.

The Hamilton County prosecutor's office is reviewing the matter to determine whether that information - and the RMG contract - is public record, said County Administrator David Krings.

Mr. Butler said he doesn't mind sharing the information if the county, his client, says it's OK. "There's nothing secret," he said. "She did what we asked her to do."

Currently, the stadium auditing responsibilities fall on three entities: the Hamilton County Public Works Department, project management company Getz Ventures and construction manager Turner - Barton Mallow - D.A.G.

The only Democrat holding a non-judicial county office, Mr. Rhodes said construction auditing is a specialized field and needs to be done by a professional.

Mr. Rhodes said companies already involved in the project may be more concerned with getting the stadium built on time than watching for cost overruns. Particularly, he said, with a "guaranteed maximum price" contract, which acts as a ceiling to cap construction costs.

The man who wrote the contract for football stadium work says the auditing function is built into the contract.

Jim Harper, who now is Ohio's deputy treasurer but wrote the construction contract for Paul Brown Stadium as chief assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County, said having the construction manager perform the audit is the standard practice when building stadiums.

Getz built the football stadium for the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, where his company performed the audit function.

Still, Mr. Harper said the idea of bringing in an outside auditor is "worthy of review."

"That (auditing) is the very nature of the job of the construction manager," Mr. Harper said.

Suzanne Burke, the county's director of administrative services, said she started looking into hiring an independent auditor in January when a company pitched its services to her. The county currently is having discussions with Audit Force and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"We're still at the exploratory stage," Mrs. Burke said. "I believe they would be a valuable addition, but I want to have more opinions than my own."

There is no estimate on how much the county would pay for an independent construction auditor.

Construction auditors are a way of life in business. Cinergy, for example, has between three and four construction auditors on its staff to oversee its projects. The size of the staff varies depending on the amount of work being done, said spokesman Steve Brash.

Rich Townsend, president of R.L. Townsend & Associates Inc., said auditors need to be involved before a construction contract is signed.

Mr. Townsend, who teaches construction auditing seminars at the University of Wisconsin and heads the Dallas-based company, said the national average of recovery is between two and eight percent of a project's cost when construction auditors are used.

Common scams on big projects are providing workers of a lower skill level than the contract calls for, providing lower quality material, or a company allowing its insurance to lapse, he said.

"The only way to sort it out is to go in there and look at the records, and that takes expertise," Mr. Townsend said.

"You need someone to pull receipts of the materials purchased to make sure what went in there."

Commissioner John Dowlin said he, too, is glad county staff is checking into an independent auditor.

"The major thing is, this is a huge project, so how do we know everything is being done?" Mr. Dowlin asked. "We are concerned about this."

Reporter Lucy May contributed to this report.

Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Enquirer