Got transparency? UO says 'Yes'
EUGENE, Ore. - Drive down Franklin Boulevard near the University of Oregon's new $200 million basketball arena, and you'll notice a billboard across the street that riffs on the "Got Milk?" slogan - and has many people riled up.
The billboard reads: "University of Oregon - Got transparency?"
The proximity of the billboard to the Matthew Knight Basketball Arena is not a coincidence. A similar billboard popped up several months ago when work started on arena project, part of a wave of criticism lobbied at the UO regarding construction of the area.
The billboard directs people to nobidcontracts.org, where a group representing laborers and their contracts says they want the university to release records on the project.
KVAL News called the executive director of the Fair Contracting Foundation, a group critical of the project. He would not comment on the issue, but gave the name of someone who could. That person could not be reached for comment.
KVAL News also spoke with Darin Dehle, director of capital construction at the University of Oregon.
"We're probably getting as much bad press as good press from those types of billboards being up," he said, "and it's frustrating for us because we think the economic impact for the community is huge."
Dehle said the university chose Hoffman Construction for the general contract because they'd participated in the original design and pre-construction, and that other groups simply were not the lowest bidders.
He said the school has released all records, just sometimes not in the most timely manner.
"There has been a ton of paperwork on this project and we have a lot of people working on it," he said. "So occasionally it takes a little bit of digging to get the things that they're after."
He said the process was done legally. And while the message on this billboard hasn't changed, the way the UO does business with contractors is not going to change, either.
"Sometimes you get the job and sometimes you don't," he said, "and when it's a $200 million project, it's a bit more painful when you don't get it."
