Tonight’s council/town hall meeting will NOT be held at the $1.5 million dollar Fishbowl Vanity project. I have no idea why – except, perhaps, they don’t want an official record (audio and video) of their discussions about the $120,000 Halff Associates “Comprehensive Plan”.
Considering the massive sums wasted on the City council chambers and the constant justification that “we need more space”, it seems odd NOT to use this fancy building for the big “community meeting” tonight.
Funny – back in 2014, TALBERT HERSELF justified a new City council chambers by saying they needed MORE SPACE to accommodate the public:
The money wasted on her pet project was substantial. Originally, they budgeted $375,000 for the project. Bids came in at around $750,000. The two smart people on City council said “we should drop the whole thing”.
But Talbert and Williamson (shocker) were not deterred! They were determined to waste money on this thing. So they bought back a building they had sold only 15 months earlier – for triple the price:
Brilliant! But we need MORE SPACE!! Finley assured us (as only a government bureaucrat could do) that this idiocy would actually SAVE money:
Finley was wrong, of course. As he always is when it comes to spending money. The project went from $275,000 t0 $375,000 to $750,000 to eventually over ONE POINT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!
Finley went public with damage control as costs spiraled higher:
“City Manager Finley deGraffenried said the City Council’s vision is to have a facility that encourages public participation and “that could be seen as a hub” for a variety of meetings, civic activities and community groups.“
Oh. Like town hall meetings?
The project was one frantic fuckup after another. Starting with council dunces agreeing to spend $33,983 on an A/V system but then BREAKING that agreement for no reason. Instead somebody unilaterally decided they needed a $95,000 system instead. Who the dumb-ass was who did this remains a mystery to this day, despite me spending hundreds of hours digging through City council minutes.
Only government shit heads could make such a mess of things and waste this much money. Don’t even get me started on the elevator screw-up:
RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator
So….as you can see, the dunces in charge wasted a LOT of money on the new City council chambers. They said it was for the community! They said they needed it bigger so the throngs could attend!
Yet tonight, they choose not to use it. Absolutely pathetic and inexplicable.