Apparently someone is miffed I called out RKJ Construction for their elevator at the $1.5 million renovated Old City Hall building. They feel that just because they don’t like me using my First Amendment to voice my opinion that the City was hosed, they can accuse me of slander (it’s actually LIBEL if it is written, but it isn’t LIBEL if it is true or if it is opinion, ya dummy)
I am always METICULOUS about linking to my sources but I guess some people are too stupid or lazy to click on a link. So I will lay it all out right here – AGAIN – in a picture format more suitable for a lazy eight-year-old child to understand.
The City did NOT take the lowest bid for the elevator project. They took a bid FAR HIGHER to “keep it local”:
This is known as a FACT. Not libel.
The elevator ultimately (somehow) morphed from $119,532 into $128,400 – an increase of 7.4%:
$128,400 MINUS $96,605 = $31,795 difference in elevator prices….or about 33% HIGHER. This is known as a FACT. Not libel.
Finley said the elevator was holding up the Old City Hall project. It was supposed to be ready around March 2019. It wasn’t [link to minutes 3/25/19 page 4]:
MORE facts….not libel.
According to the September 17th, 2019 Dispatch (page 12), it STILL wasn’t complete in September:
September 17, 2019 quote in Lampasas Dispatch. Elevator NOT COMPLETED. FACT…not libel.
Since then, the elevator has broken down “about five times” in LESS THAN A YEAR. The Mayor HERSELF mentioned disappointment and unhappiness in the high cost and low quality of the elevator thus far. The City then moved to enter into a three-year, $16,920 maintenance contract:
Talbert may accept it as “normal” after asking “everybody”, but I don’t. I lived and worked in high rises for over 10 years of my life. I NEVER witnessed that frequency of breakdowns. A quick Google search confirms my suspicions. Not to mention, the elevator at Old City Hall is VERY LOW USAGE compared to the high rises I worked in (the Sears Tower in Chicago):
Given ALL of these above FACTS (not libel) I then gave my OPINION (also not libel) that if I was the City manager or on City council, I would NOT have immediately gone and wasted ANOTHER $17,000 on a maintenance contract. I would have FIRST gone to RKJ Construction with quite a bit of leverage on my side (we shelled out an extra $31,795 AND you were seven months LATE). I would have given them a chance to pay for the first two years of the maintenance contract (roughly $11,000). If they REFUSED to do this, I would have barred them from any future City contracts as punishment.
SO…explain to me where the “slander” is in this entire saga? Sometimes the truth is a bitter pill. But the sooner you swallow it, the better off you are, sweetheart.
It cracks me up that I am the ONE person in a town of 7,000 citizens who publicly calls attention to City government waste and even THAT is one too many, apparently.