The Rio Rancho city council learned indirectly at Tuesday’s meeting that a second opinion for the proposed Special Assessment District 7 would cost roughly a million dollars.

That’s because the city’s financial director Dick Kristof told the council that an extra $500,000 is needed to pay Wilson and Company for engineering services.

The city has already paid $400,000 for services, but Wilson has completed almost $900,000 of work. The councilors unanimously approved the budget adjustment, moving $500,000 from the general fund to the SAD 7 project fund.

To put the numbers in perspective, the city’s total operating budget is roughly $56 million.

SAD 7 is a $70-million flood control project that is estimated to cost affected property owners $14,000 a piece.

District 6 councilor Marilyn Salzman, who along with former District 4 councilor Howard Balmer, proposed the SAD after the monsoon-like downpour in 2006 that caused widespread flood damage in the northern part of the city.

Kristoff explained that in the past on SADs, consulting firms did the work up front and were paid when the district was established and the bonds issued.

This SAD, however, is different because of its size, complexity and considerable opposition.

In February, the city council split the SAD into two different projects. SAD 7A has been approved and the council will vote SAD 7B on on April 23.

If SAD 7B is approved, then the city will be reimbursed the $500,000 by property owners benefiting from the SAD.

If SAD 7B is not approved then the city may eat the cost.

Salzman expressed her displeasure with the process at the council meeting.

“This is fuzzy math to me and I’m not comfortable with this,” Salzman said. “How do we know if this is enough? It is pretty disconcerting to find out during the city council meeting that there really is no process for processing invoices from vendors.”

Salzman asked why no one ever noticed a bill and said the process needs to change quickly.

“Most contracts that are let out have a contingency, so when you reach a certain point that if you’re going to go over by five or 10 percent it’s allowable. Well, five or 10 percent of 400,000 is 20,000 to 40,000,” Salzman said. “You would imagine when you get into the several $100,000 limits, somebody should be blowing the whistle.”

Engineering manager Scott Sensanbaugher told the council that engineering costs are usually 10 percent of the total project.

He said that it was understood that the project would cost anywhere from $400,000 to $7 million.

When asked by District 5 councilor Larry Naranjo to grade Wilson’s performance, Sensanbaugher said they have not done a perfect job, but have done their best.