When a bureaucracy actually acts like one, it brings a sneer. And when it comes to the bureaucratic pigheadedness that recently confronted the town of Morrison, it’s more like a scowl.
Morrison had to replace a wooden roadbed on a small bridge over Bear Creek. So the town of 430 people applied to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) for $59,000, half the total cost, and got the grant. The money came from CDOT’s share of federal highway funds, and so the project had to qualify for the “Buy America” program, designed to protect American jobs by requiring that any permanently installed steel in a funded project be made in the U.S.
No problem. Morrison’s roadbed wouldn’t even need steel. At least not until the old roadbed was removed and some defects in the steel support structure were found. So the local contractor went to a vendor in Chicago for the steel. And that’s where the trouble started. Since the order was too small for his Chicago plant, he had his Canadian subsidiary handle it. The steel itself was cast in America, but shaped across the border in Canada — although still in an American-owned plant.
No one in Morrison even knew about any of this until they put the final paint job on the project and prepared to pay the Chicago vendor’s invoice. Someone noticed that some work had been done in Canada. Not a lot; just a bit over $3,000 worth. But it was enough to violate the letter of the law for Buy America. So they reported it.
But can a bureaucracy recognize such a distinction? Perish the thought. When Morrison asked for an exemption for this small oversight, CDOT had to ask Washington. Washington said, if you used foreign steel, you can’t have our help. Even if your intent never was to rob American workers of jobs. Even if the town never knew there was a foreign component. Even if the foreign-rolled steel had nothing to do with the roadbed replacement funded by the grant. Even if we’re only talking a few thousand bucks. As Morrison’s town administrator told me, “To them, it’s all black and white.”
Just last month, Morrison asked again for an exemption. Without it, the town faced two choices: give back the $59,000 it was originally granted, or spend $30,000 to take some of the bridge apart, remove the steel, install all-American steel, then put it back together. Finally, the week before last, the bureaucracy gave Morrison a pass.
Canada’s Denver-based consul general said this incident should serve as a reminder that we ought to have “policy that expands trade and strengthens — rather than restricts — the close, integrated relationship between Canada and Colorado.” Yes, we should, but it also should serve as a reminder that bureaucracies are governed by rules, which have no brains, but staffed by people, who do. They ought to use them, the first time.
Greg Dobbs of Evergreen was a correspondent for ABC News for 23 years, then for HDNet television’s “World Report.”
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
