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But…But…But…Marble Falls Has One!!!

I have opined previously on how ridiculous it is to try and match Marble Falls when it comes to expenditures [such as Christmas decorations] and paying our government workers [like city managers]. Marble Falls may be close to us in population, but there is about FIVE TIMES as much money sloshing around there. [I calculate this by noting that Lampasas sales tax revenue is around $120,000 to $150,000 per month whereas Marble Falls gets a check for more like $750,000 to $800,000 per month – that is a HUGE difference].

I think we all know this on a gut level. After all, they have not only a Wal-Mart but also a Home Depot AND a Lowes!! Their cup definitely runneth over.

But there is ONE thing we should have tried to copy Marble Falls on and didn’t – and that is their city council chambers. As you see below, it is quite modest…about 30 chairs, a big TV on one wall and a medium sized room.

What did OUR city do when they got this “city council chambers vanity project” in their heads? Sent Monica Wright out to view the city council chambers of Dallas, Austin and Round Rock to “look for ideas”.

Yes, I’m serious. I have that on very good authority.

Dallas and Austin are two of the biggest cities in the entire country and Round Rock is about 20 times bigger than we are. Yeah – makes total sense we would try and copy them – and spend several days driving around to ogle them! Maybe that’s where they got the idea to throw away our puny and embarrassing $34,000 A/V system bid and instead blow almost $100,000 on the “Ferrari of A/V systems” in a chamber with SEVEN TV sets.

In your face Marble Falls!

One of Finley’s talking points to justify this huge expenditure is that city council “needed more room”…but I’m wondering why? When I read every single council minutes for the last 4.5 years, there were rarely more than 20 city employees mentioned as being present. Call it 25, tops….and THAT was rare. Usually it’s more like 12 or 15.

So the “twice the size” new chambers and the “100 stackable chairs for $12,800” must be for all those concerned citizens who show up at the meetings every week, right?

Not exactly.

When a certain city council member was yelling at me that “all you do is bitch and moan like everyone else, but you never come to a meeting”

I then said “so not a lot of people come to the meetings, eh? Like how many show up? Three? Five?”

He said…and I quote…”If we’re lucky”. Having just walked him right into my trap, I asked “if nobody goes, then why do we need this fancy-pants, top-of-the-line, overkill A/V system with $8,600 worth of huge TVs costing almost $100,000.00?”

Bam. No answer for that one.

If Marble Falls tried to match US and blow a ton of money on a brand new city hall and council chambers, they would have to spend almost $8 million dollars and have 30 TV sets for it to be proportionately ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the citizens of Marble Falls would grab their pitchforks and torches and toss a few morons off that big bridge of theirs if they pissed away that kind of dough. And rightfully so.

New Fiscal Year Begins – Finley and Crew Get a Big Raise!

The new budget was finally posted…and the higher-ups at City Hall got an early Christmas present! Salary and benefits for City Manager Finley deGraffenreid and his assistant jumped almost 9% over last year. That line item went from $296,000 per year up to $322,000 per year – totaling over $300,000 for the first time ever. [For comparison, 10 years ago it cost $124,000 to “manage the city”. So it appears to go up 10% a year without fail] There were 54 resumes submitted for that Assistant City Manager job when it was created last year….now we know why!

The IT Department jumped a smaller amount…but don’t worry, they aren’t going to go hungry. IT Director and her one-woman “department”, consisting of Kristy Acevedo, are making a combined $180,881 in salary and benefits this year. You’d be hard-pressed to make that kind of money in the private sector with zero Cicsco or Microsoft real-world training certificates to your names. But this ain’t the real world, baby!

Add it all up, and those four people ALONE are costing the taxpayers over $500,000 every year. Cha-ching!! That’s the kind of money that buys the brains and wisdom to spend almost $100,000.00 on an A/V system that REALLY only costs $34,000!

The weird thing is that even with two highly-paid computer “experts”, the IT Department STILL hires outside companies to do consulting work and “IT support”, at even more expense to the city.

That’s right – TSM Consulting is paid $1,800 a month ($21,600 per year) for “IT support and includes on-site visits as well as remote management” for the City of Lampasas [City Council minutes Feb 22, 2016]. Isn’t that odd? I would think that our two experts could handle basic IT stuff…but apparently not.

Sounds to me like just paying TSM $21,600 a year [line item 505-5395] and getting rid of one of our IT “experts” would save a TON of money. But what do I know? I’ve never been paid gobs of money to “manage” or “direct” city government…I just use common sense.

Finley Pees on Taxpayer Heads – Tells Lampasas Dispatch it is a Refreshing, Much-Needed Rain

I guess Finley finally had to respond to the well-documented instances of Old City Hall cost overruns, waste and no-bid A/V contracts presented here in meticulous detail and using City Council’s own minutes. He did so in today’s Lampasas Dispatch (Sept 25, 2018). This was smart of Finley – the end of the fiscal year is in a few days, and the new budget will be presented soon…no doubt with large spending increases. Best explain how all these millions are actually for the community and not for City Hall employees.

Of course, I have to rebut his rebuttal with some facts that were ignored or left out:

First claim: The “approximately $1 million the city is spending to remodel”

Response: It’s actually $1.4 million and counting [using information from City Council minutes and detailed on this blog]. While $400,000 might not be a lot to those in the upper echelons of city government who are pulling down well over $100,000 per year in salary and benefits, it certainly IS a lot to the average Lampasas taxpayer who makes around $29,000 per year and who is footing the bill for this debacle. It is also 40% more than you state in the article…and they aren’t done yet. Expect more money to be spent.

Second claim: Finley uses the words “Buy Board” constantly like some sort of magic immunity phrase. He claims they went with Azbell and didn’t bid the project for several reasons…one is the magic Buy Board [we don’t have to because they are pre-approved…nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!] and the other is supposedly because “if the city didn’t use the Buy Board method, they would have had to spend an additional $10,000 to obtain a professional design for the system,” according to the article.

Response: I give you one date – August 25, 2014. You DID go out and get three bids. The lowest was Broadcast Works at $33,983. Azbell came in at $41,184 (still a far cry from the $94,683 Azbell is currently charging). Whitlock was $54,411.

Furthermore, as stated in the minutes from that meeting, the Broadcast Works bid specifically required the company to “work in conjunction with the architect, general contractor, and sub-contractor, in addition to attending pre-construction meetings” – which SURE makes it sound like they were going to do EVERYTHING themselves and wouldn’t require the extra $10,000 “to obtain professional design” that Finley is babbling about now as he re-writes history.

Even if it WAS true, the original $33,983 PLUS another $10,000 still only comes to $43,983. Which is FAR less than the $94,682 king’s ransom that Azbell is charging them currently.

So why weren’t the magic “Buy Board” words invoked back in 2014? Why did you get three bids the first time? How did Azbell’s initial $41,000 bid (which was rejected) morph into $94,600??

Maybe Finley would try and use the excuse that, “well, we changed venues”. The problem with that excuse, is that it is debunked in black and white in Council’s own minutes on August 24, 2015. It clearly states that “Monica Wright has discussed the change of location with the IT vendor for the A/V system, and it appears cost should be equivalent to quotes received for the previously proposed Council chambers.”

Oops. No help there either.

So, no matter how much lipstick Finley puts on this pig, the facts remain:

The City DID bid this the first time [Aug 25, 2014] and there was no mention of any magic Buy Board immunity phrases back then.
Broadcast Works was lowest bid at $33,983 and Azbell’s $41,184 bid was rejected
Despite the change in venue, Monica stated that the vendor said it was cost-equivalent [Aug 24, 2015]
This was reiterated AGAIN on Sept 28, 2015 with “the audio/visual vendor toured the building and saw no problem with doing the work.“
Suddenly Azbell appears in March 2017, charges $94,675, and nobody makes a peep about it.

What about Finley’s final argument in the Dispatch, that “this is for the community”? Well, we’ll get into that in the next few posts. I’m glad Finley brought up the LEDC (Lampasas Economic Development Corp) in his Dispatch article, because they happen to be my next example of egregious waste.

Old City Hall and Azbell Screw Job – Part VI (2018 – The Current Mess)

At the end of the last chapter, you could see Finley lubing up his fist and instructing City Council to bend over. He has some new info on the Old City Hall Hose Job….here is the home stretch leading us to today:

May 14th, 2018: Finley dumps the 1.4 million pound anvil onto Council’s pointy heads. Without bothering to present the losing bids, he states that ASJ Construction was lowest qualified bid…and the following is the current situation

Base bid $890,000
Alternate #1 $25,000
Alternate #2 $128,000
Total price $1,043,000

EXCLUDED from this bid are the $125,000 for the elevator….the $60,000 for fire suppression…the $88,000 already incurred…and of course the ridiculous $83,000 audio/visual screw job, which is apparently untouchable – though for some strange reason, it says in parenthesis “some savings possible” – which is hilarious because it will end up being almost $100,000 by the time it hits the newspapers 60 days from this meeting.

So we are now at around $1,400,000…which doesn’t include cabinets, counter-tops, dais, signage, and flat work. Unsurprisingly, Finley recommends Council take this deal [take it, good and hard]. Council says “thank you sir, may I have another??” and approves this unanimously.

May 29th, 2018: Unrelated item to enrage you – health insurance costs are set to increase nearly 7% for city employees (remember those awesome benefits!) which will cost the city nearly $80,000 this year since they spend over $1,000,000.00 per year on employee health coverage. Finley states that this could be reduced if city employees are willing to pay a higher co-pay for prescriptions and he’ll go ask them! BAHAHAHAHA. Seriously?? In a shocking answer, city employees told him “no thanks, we don’t want to chip in any more for our gold-plated coverage…let the city eat it all”. Christ. Must be nice.

July 23, 2018: Monica finally officially brings this Azbell monstrosity to Council. Why now? I have no idea…the fix has been in forever, as I have documented. She states “we have been working with Azbell since March 2017” [which is when they appeared in the minutes for the very first time] – the grand total is $94,674.57. Talbert calls for a vote [apparently having absolutely no recollection that she herself already voted to award Broadcast Works the A/V contract back in August of 2014] and this ugly turd is passed.

Not a single peep from anyone present that this seems like a ludicrous amount of money to spend. Nobody remembers the $34,000 bid for the same thing in 2014. Did anyone even look at the bid sheet? Four 70-inch LCD TVs for $2150 each is the VERY FIRST ITEM. They cost $900 at Wal-Mart. This is disgraceful.

News of this abortion is reported a few days later in The Lampasas Dispatch…whereupon The Original Lampasshole reads the article and blows a gasket…leading to this blog and the detective work you see on these pages.

Aug 13, 2018: Five days into a 120-day project, ASJ is already asking for another $10,800 for Old City Hall in Change Order #1. Apparently a bathroom needed to be reconfigured, and “the price of metal went up” [you literally can’t make this stuff up]. Council, who is already committed to wasting $1.4 million dollars on this, isn’t going to let $10,800 stand in the way. Change Order #1 is approved unanimously.

Sept 20, 2018: Forty-three days into project, we find out from Finley that “Council may recall approval of roofing repair to correct material failure and scupper height [no, I don’t remember this – never saw anything about it]. Based on non-performance of the selected contractor, Staff sought a quotation through the GC of the City Hall project. Based on their inspection, roofing contractor would not guarantee the repair due to overlapping seam. He recommended a complete re-roof of both roofs [the other roof is Municipal Court…why is this all lumped in together? Two-for-one roof day?] at a cost of $45,194.

I’ll be charitable and assign only half of that $45,000 to the City Hall remodel – or another $23,000 for Change Order #2 – it is unclear if this has been approved by Council yet since the minutes are not posted for the last two meetings.

The weird thing about finding out the roof is crap and has to be COMPLETELY replaced, is that back in May 23, 2016, JNW said the building “is in good condition” and then in October 2016, Finley handed JNW a check for $18,000 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” of the building. Guess they don’t count the roof as an important part of the structure? Beats me. I’m not an architect or an engineer raking in huge fees.

November 16, 2018: Lampasas Dispatch reports another change order (#3) for ASJ Construction in the amount of $16,417.

I will keep you all up-to-date on the project as it limps along to completion. Can’t wait to see what the next change order is!

City Hall and Azbell – Part V (Azbell Appears Out of the Blue – 2017)

Some fireworks and big questions are unearthed in this chapter….just slog through a few uneventful entries first….

Jan 9, 2017: Staff held initial meeting with Byron Hendrix, Hendrix Consulting Engineers. Hendrix met with City staff, reviewed plans and toured the facility. He said “his firm was capable of providing anything from a ‘basic’ set of plans to a more complex and thorough design”. City staff was generally impressed with his firm and approach and was hopeful that a proposal could be considered by Council by Jan 23.

Jan 23, 2017: deGraffenried presents Council a packet with the negotiated scope and fee for MEP services by Hendrix Consulting. The scope includes design and clean-up of electric feeds for the entire building, performance specs for the fire sprinklers and alarm, complete MEP for second floor and partial MEP for first floor. This will be a one-month project but would depend on plan specs by the architect. Councilman Williams moves to award Hendrix the MEP contract for $16,500. Seconded and carries unanimously.

Feb 13, 2017: deGraffenried provides Council a hard copy of the Old City Hall plan set. City Staff reviews the architectural plans, including structural plans, on Jan 31 and provided comment to JNW.

Discussion included timeline of bidding that could take 30 to 60 days and preference to bid by division and have City oversee the project, which would be a savings to the City. Talbert moves to authorize the project as presented…seconded and passed unanimously.

And here it finally is……

MARCH 13, 2017: Monica Wright explains to Council that the A/V system for Old City Hall will cover the main chamber area, executive session meeting room, and second meeting room. Wright says City Staff has been working with Azbell Electronics on a concept and design for this project that will be brought to Council at a later date. Chris Anelundi from Azbell is present for this meeting. Finley also reviewed MEP for the project.

[WOW!! Here it is…the very first mention of Azbell Electronics in the minutes going back 4.5 years. On Aug 25, 2014, Monica presented three bids for the AV system and Azbell was NOT the winner. The winner was Broadcast Works (who is still in business, by the way) and the price was $34,000. From that point until this day, there has NEVER been a mention of Azbell having the contract or anything about a price change. You can see EVERY post concerning the AV system for the last 4.5 years on this blog – starting with Part I of this series.]

So many questions! WHY is Azbell involved right now and not Broadcast Works? Who is the “City Staff” who have been working with Azbell, and why? Finley? Monica? Who authorized this? When did it start? There is STILL no mention of Azbell costing $100,000.00 so it must not have happened yet. After reading through 1000 pages of minutes, I watched City Council get bids on EVERYTHING (even $12,780 for 100 stacking chairs) so why is Azbell appearing now? If Azbell is a “buy board” company and other bids aren’t needed, then why did they get three bids the first time back in August of 2014? Why doesn’t City Council ask these questions NOW in March of 2017? I’d love to hear the answer – SOMEBODY has to know.

Furthermore, Monica and Finley keep yammering about “Azbell is a buyboard member so we don’t need other bids,” yet the LAST time they sent out bids for this very same job, Azbell was NOT the lowest bid and the bids varied wildly between $34,000 and $54,000 – so a competent person with an IQ over 90 should realize that since they weren’t the low bid last time, there is DEFINITELY a benefit to getting bids on this project, since it is quite likely Azbell’s bid would not be the lowest this time either.

March 27, 2017: Finley deGraffenreid reports that MEPs continue progress at Old City Hall. The City is planning to run emergency/backup power to the project – specifically the elevator. The city has also received the proposal for audio/visual equipment and is currently reviewing specs and scope of work.

June 12, 2017: Finley says the MEPs are 99% complete…that Bryan Ellis (building inspector) and Monica Wright are reviewing the plan set [what the hell does Monica have to do with this part??] They are in the process of drafting bid packets for Old City Hall.

July 24, 2017: City staff met with engineers from Hendrix Consulting to review and make final changes to Old City Hall rehab plans. Staff will finalize bidding documents in next few weeks with a construction start date of hopefully mid-September.

Sept 25, 2017: Finley says Old City Hall plans have been finalized…and they have received bids on phone cable installation, fiber relocation and audio/visual components [so where are the bids?]. He is putting RFPs together by division and hope to move into the building in 2018.

Oct 23, 2017: [This is unrelated, but…] applications are being received for the new Assistant City Manager position ($90,000 in salary and cost to taxpayer of $122,000 after including benefits and pension). The city received FIFTY-FOUR RESUMES. [I stand by my constant assertions that government salaries are TOO HIGH in Lampasas for MANY positions. Clearly, there is a LOT of interest at that salary – ergo, it is far too generous].

Nov 27, 2017: Finley says the basement demolition is completed at Old City Hall. Fire Marshall has been reviewing the space with fire suppression contractors to determine plans and pricing. Space is available for Council to tour.

Dec 11, 2017: City staff will begin utility work to bring the fire suppression line, emergency power and wastewater line. They have identified 13 different disciplines that will need to be bid and contracted including framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire suppression, finishes, insulation, drywall, plaster, data, flooring and millwork [OK – you will get bids on literally EVERYTHING except audio/visual??? Or does “data” cover that? Seriously…it REALLY looks like the fix is already in for Azbell. A/V is conspicuously left out of this list. How about it, Finley?? To paraphrase an old Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s: WHERE’S THE BID?]

Jan 8, 2018: Finley wants to update Council in anticipation of bid awards…share comments…review estimates…review trades/specialties that will need to be procured soon. Finley then gives some info out: $600,000 earmarked for this project…$86,348 already spend…bid docs prepared by staff. Partial estimates to date:

Fire suppression: $60,000
Elevator $125,508 [Hmm…this was bid $119,000 on Nov 14, 2016. Weird]
Phone $3,300
Fiber patch $4,210
Audio/visual $82,759 [THERE IT IS! Where did this come from?? This is the first mention of a huge number that differs wildly from the Aug 2014 quote of $34,000 from another company altogether]

So we now have a number getting very close to the current [August 2018] $96,000 screw-job from Azbell. Clearly, somebody has taken it upon his/herself to just pick Azbell and unilaterally squander a ridiculously huge amount of money. We know it is ridiculous, because back in August 2014, Broadcast Works WAS AWARDED A BID FOR A/V for $34,000…City Council at the time VOTED ON IT!!!

Again…I ask Finley and Monica: how was this decided?? Why was this not re-bid? Why was Council not informed of any re-bids especially since the cost nearly TRIPLED. I ask City Council (especially Talbert and White since they were there in 2014 and voted to award $34,000 to Broadcast Works) WHY WAS THIS $83,000 NUMBER NOT IMMEDIATELY QUESTIONED RIGHT HERE ON JAN 8TH??

As an unrelated aside, also at this meeting, Finley is being grilled about the Water/Wastewater Lab/Shop by White and Talbert. Specifically, Talbert is asking how “a project that started at $400,000 is now going to cost the city $1.2 million”. [It sure seems like the price of just about every project TRIPLES in a short span of time. I’m going to call this The Finley Factor.]

Feb 12, 2018: Finley says there is a general lack of bidding interest in demolition, framing, and special construction scope. He’s asking for direction and possibility of revision of scope into one bidding package.

A contractor was invited to explain. Lesley Greer of A&L Sanchez said there were a lot of discrepancies in the bid, and without a General Contractor for all of the project, it stalls the project. She said that most bids similar to this project are bid as one with a GC that leads the project [you may recall that the City chose to NOT have a GC run this project to try and save some money – I sure recall it. Seems like SOMEBODY should have known that going into this.]

Finley asks Council to let him bid this as one package and also to rescind all plumbing and HVAC/Electrical bids. Council agrees to this.

March 12, 2018: Finley reviewed a status update of projects earmarked for funding with the 2016 CO (Certificate of Obligation) Issue. Discussions include the need to increase funding on the Old City Hall project [surprise surprise…the Finley Factor strikes again…how high will the number get??]

In the next, and final chapter, we watch the cost for this project balloon to over $1,300,000.00!!

City Hall and Azbell Saga – Part IV (2016 – Slow and Boring Turd Polishing)

For the first part of 2016, the Azbell/City Hall turd remained buried in the corner of Council’s litter box…having been covered in gravel and forgotten temporarily. It seems that many Council turds follow this pattern: heavy activity, major screw-up, turd gets buried (but never thrown out – see: civic center or LEDC Business Park) and is then uncovered later, when they try in vain to polish the turd with more money. Nobody seems to learn that you CAN’T polish a turd.

The Old City Hall/Azbell turd was again unearthed in the May 23rd minutes, with our old friend Jennifer Walker – The Architect.

May 23, 2016: Jennifer Walker (JNW Architects) was present at the meeting. She said the Old City Hall building is in good condition. She reviewed fire protection codes, accessibility, means of egress and elevators – then reviewed her summary of requirements and recommendations.

Council asked Walker for a timeline. She thought she could have architectural plans to Council by next month and anticipated construction to begin Jan 2.

July 25, 2016: Finley provides Council with revised floor plan. John Walker, JNW Architects, is present. After review, Council approves with exception of excluding the stairs.

August 8, 2016: Budget workshop shows Renovation of Old City Hall at $400,000 in anticipation of use of CO (Certificates of Obligation).

[Also, Finley states that based on Operating Budget by Major Accounts, City worker benefits are approximately 40.8% of salary expense (24.3% is retirement, FICA and worker’s comp while 16.5% is health insurance) – something to remember when they create new positions out of thin air that “only” pay $65,000. You need to add another 40% on to that to see the REAL cost to the taxpayer.]

Sept 26, 2016: More budget workshops – Old City Hall rehab estimated cost $600,000 [no, you are not imagining things…it seems to go up in price every time it is mentioned]. Also deGraffenried explained that Council is asked to consider the attached Ordinance that would authorize the issuance of bonds to support the renovation of Old City Hall [among other things]. [Proposed City Operating Budget is $26,659,526.00 – just an FYI]

Oct 10, 2016: Finley gives Council a copy of the “scope of services” proposal from JNW Architects for architectural services for Old City Hall. Total cost is $38,500 – the breakdown is $20,000 for construction drawings “for construction in compliance with the City’s requirements” and another $18,500 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” of said analysis. Jennifer Walker was present for meeting.

Council asks about a time frame and feels a clause should be inserted to hold them to a deadline. Walker says 6-8 weeks…12 tops, if there are any unforeseen issues. Harrison moves to approve proposal with the insertion of a 12-week deadline [roughly mid-January of 2017]….seconded by Talbert and carries unanimously.

Oct 24, 2016: Bids are received for demolition plans as specified by JNW Architects. Quote are received from two local contractors:

RKJ Construction $13,500
Mike Hail Constructions $16,625

Councilman Harrison moves to award contract to RKJ…it is seconded and passes unanimously.

Nov 14, 2016: Demolition work is done in 14 days and 20,000 pounds of weight is removed from building.

deGraffenreid brings bids to Council on elevator equipment and installation. Bids were:

Austin Elevator Co $96,605
Trojan Elevator Co $206,909
RKJ Construction $119,532

Harrison moves to accept bid from RKJ – not the lowest bid – because “they are local and have done previous work for the city” [I get the local thing…but that’s $23,000…ouch]. Seconded by White and passes unanimously.

Nov 28, 2016: Requests for qualifications have been published and distributed for Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) services.

Dec 12, 2016: Seven RFQs received for the MEP work (can be found in minutes). deGraffenreid said than after review and scoring done by City staff, the highest ranked firm is Hendrix Consulting Engineers out of Round Rock, Texas….and “asked Council to allow City staff to negotiate with them. Once the City has a cost amount, it will be brought back to Council for consideration.” McCauley then moves to authorize…Harrison seconds and motion passes unanimously.

[That is all info in the minutes for 2016. Part V will follow and things get quite interesting there….it will cover 2017 and show this project balloon over a million dollars and counting]

City Hall and Azbell Saga – Part III (2015 Timeline)

Things were quiet for a bit after the previous fireworks. When I go through every single page of minutes, I not only read them all the way through, I also use keyword searches to make sure I didn’t miss anything – keywords like “Azbell”, “Monica”, “chambers”, “civic center” and maybe a couple more, as I am finding waste in other areas as well.

August 24, 2015: This is where things get a bit confusing. Near as I can figure, they were already renovating “Old City Hall” before all this Council Chambers mess and maybe decided that instead of building an entirely new structure JUST for city council, they will locate inside newly renovated “Old City Hall” which seems so logical, I don’t know why any other ideas were even entertained.

Regardless, we see from the minutes that “Old City Hall: city staff has met with a potential elevator shaft contractor, as well as an architect and structural engineer. After the elevator has been specified and located, staff will begin soliciting trade services for plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Monica Wright has discussed the change of location with the IT vendor for A/V system and it appears cost should be equivalent to quotes received for the previously proposed Chamber project”

[OK – so it appears the original $34,000 bid from Broadcast Works is still alive. There has been no mention of any other deal or re-bidding of anything – gotta assume they are still talking about Broadcast Works here]

September 28, 2015: Minutes state “Update on Council chambers” – since the “Council Chambers” project is supposed to be dead, I have to once again assume they actually mean “the council chambers inside soon-to-be-renovated Old City Hall”. Again, the way all this is worded is somewhat confusing. But the minutes tell us that “the audio visual vendor toured the building and saw no problem with doing the work” – and also that “Mayor Toups wants to know the probable total cost of this project before proceeding any further” [not sure if this means the cost of the ENTIRE City Hall renovation or just the council chambers portion – confusing, as it seems to be a habit of some of these people to get halfway through a project before discussing cost.]

Council member Harrison [who apparently has a learning curve that looks like a flat line] said he preferred working with JNW Architects [remember them?] since “Council had worked with them before on the previous plan” [yes they did…on a plan that resembled the Bay of Pigs invasion].

Council member McCauley preferred NOT working with JNW Architects because of all the screw-ups on the last project – “which was very costly “[circle gets the square, McCauley]

November 23, 2015: Finley hands Council a proposal to let JNW Architects [again??] cash yet another $18,500 check for “architectural services” for Old City Hall. Toups, not unlike a cow who has wandered into an electric fence one too many times, is wary of Finley bearing gifts…he asks “how many more ‘architectural services’ would need to be done after this phase and how much more cost could the city be looking at” [good question!!]

Jennifer Walker of JNW Architects [who could have played the Serpent in the garden of Eden to some acclaim] said that it depended on what was found and she couldn’t really give an amount, since no building plans exist [blank check alert!!!]. Finley backs her up: no floor plans can be found….just a few schematics.

Mike White [also clearly wary of the proverbial electric fence shock] states that “with so many unknowns, it could turn into an open-checkbook project [ding ding ding ding!!]

That is it for 2015….stay tuned for Part IV

Timeline for Azbell and Council Chambers Rip-Off – Part II (Talbert Digs In)

It’s starting to get good! Grab some popcorn…

April 27, 2015: Squabbling continues over whether to go forward with this disaster of a project. Here are some actual comments from the minutes that day:

Mayor Grayson says there is not enough money to cover this project. JNW Architects [smelling more fees, no doubt] says they can do scope changes and present as alternatives. Grayson will not give in…he says that “even taking some items out, this project is STILL over budget”.

Talbert is having none of it, however. She asks “without a cost analysis, how can we be sure?”…and Toups comes back AGAIN with “he is not comfortable spending that kind of money”...Talbert, [determined to set fire to a LOT more public tax dollars], claims she cannot make an uneducated decision without rebidding the project”

[Yes…the minutes say “uneducated decision” – I’m not sure if this is a typo or if it is hilarious foreshadowing. I’m going with the latter].

Toups and White keep after Talbert, saying they need to design a building they can afford to build and that this huge amount of money could be better used than spending it on a 3,600 square-foot building. Toups says “$375,000 has already been set as the amount…this is already a high number AND IT DIDN’T MAKE CITIZENS HAPPY AND THEY CERTAINLY WOULDN’T WANT MORE SPENT. He was turned off about this whole project and believed other necessities could be taken care of with this money. Even with re-bidding, I am not hearing savings of $400,000.”

[AMEN MR TOUPS! Hallelujah! Could not have said it better myself. But apparently, basic math escapes Misti Talbert…who is an accountant in real life. She refuses to believe that $750,000 minus $100,000 does not equal $375,000]

Talbert, in her best impersonation of a parrot, says again that “I can’t make that decision without doing a cost analysis” [I’m starting to suspect that Misti is the “wow! factor” person]

Chuck Williamson then chimes in [in a horrific example of succumbing to The Sunk Cost Fallacy] that “the City has already spent money on this project and for furniture [LOL!] so we should keep moving forward.

[NOOOOOOOO CHUCK!! You do NOT throw good money after bad. You take your $100,000 lumps and look stupid for wasting $28,000 on furniture and you move on. You DON’T keep going and end up blowing $1.3 million on an entirely new city hall to try and justify this disaster. My god. A man who doesn’t understand the Sunk Cost Fallacy should not be handing these sums of money.]

May 26, 2015: Toups is now sworn in as mayor. Council chambers project will be re-bid starting June 4th and there are 5 new contractors interested in bidding. Looks like Talbert and Williamson get their way.

June 8th, 2015: Project is re-bid. Results are as follows:

ASD $567,350.00
RKJ $678,000.00
MW Hail $688,777
Built right $720,000

Talbert wants to review and consider. Monroe and Williamson want to take no action tonight.

Toups (now mayor) reiterates his position – that this is $200,000 over budget and the money could be better used. Council needs to stick to its budget. Monroe waffles and agrees that this bid was not a complete bid and this project could end up costing a million dollars [talk about being prescient…it’s about $1.3 million and counting as of Sept 2018]

Talbert caves and moves to reject all bids….seconded by White…motion is carried by unanimous vote. So this thing should be dead and buried….but is it?? Stay tuned for PART III…..

Timeline and Questions for Azbell $100,000.00 A/V Rip-off – PART I (Birth of a Bad Idea)

OK – so, I have spent about 48 hours reading through every single page of every city council minutes since January 1, 2013 (first available online) to try and piece together this Azbell debacle. That means I have probably spent about 45 more hours than city council has spent on this to date.

Here is a synopsis timeline and my comments in bracketed italics. I know some parts may make eyes glaze over, but PLEASE read it through – you will be shocked. The incompetence is stunning. I have also broken all this into six separate blog posts, so as to be digested easier.

Late 2013 and early 2014: City council gets a bug up their butt about needing new chambers. I have no idea why new chambers were supposedly needed, but approximately $350,000 was earmarked for the project. They hire an architect [JNW Architect at a cost of $35,000] and intermittently argue at council meetings over the rest of the year about whether this is a good use of funds.

AUGUST 24, 2014: Monica Wright returns to City Council with three bids for an audio/visual system [yes, this seems very premature since there aren’t even any plans yet, but this is par for the course…]

Broadcast Works $33,983.00
Azbell $41,184.00
Whitlock $54,411.36

Monica then recommends they go with Broadcast Works. Then-councilman Chris Toups moves to award the contract, and then-councilwoman (and current mayor) MISTI TALBERT seconds this motion. It is then unanimously approved (Mike White is present at this meeting and approves).

All well and good. Three bids were gotten, the lowest one wins, and the matter is settled. Or is it? [Why are they getting bids on an AV system before anything else is even decided on or planned out? It would be like, oh I don’t know, buying $13,000 worth of chairs before you even had a blueprint….]

MARCH 30, 2015: Special minutes show that two bids came in for the new council chambers project.

MW Hail Construction: $778,502
RKJ Construction $793,379

OOPS!!! These numbers are more than DOUBLE what they have budgeted!!

Council members stare, mouth agape and eyes boggling, and ask why it’s so much money? They also asked why the bids were not broken down more. Then deGraffenreid said he met with city attorney JC Brown, and she suggested NOT to meet with the contractors so there would be no hint of favoritism. She suggested the bids be rejected and scope of services revised – she would then meet with the contractors and find out why bids were so high.

Jennifer Walker (JNW Architects) said she and city manager Finley will meet and try to figure this out. She could not answer what drove the bid so high because the bids were not by component or broken down [Duuuhh…don’t ask me! I’m just the $35,000 architect!]

April 13, 2015: This is where things really go off the rails and the sh*t hits the fan and fingers get pointed. This is a good one, so read it all!

Apparently the big cost overrun is related to the base pad. If they take out the base pad, and have the city build it, they can save $100,000 – but many contractors won’t build on a pad built by the city [liability, I’m guessing] and city crews do not have experience building pads. Not to mention, it will take them away from their city jobs AND the project is STILL at least $250,000 over budget. Mike White [to his credit] says he does not like the idea of the City crews building the pad.

Mayor Grayson, and council members Toups and White stated they do not feel comfortable constructing a building if it will cost $700,000 [YAY! Fiscal sanity for a brief moment]

[This should have been the end of this disaster. They wanted something…they budgeted X dollars…the bids were twice that…so they can’t do it. End of story. Who kept this train wreck going? Who acted like 4-year-olds and said “I want I want I want I want”?]

Mayor Pro Tem Wanda Biershwale, Council members TJ Monroe, Chuck Williamson and Misti Talbert stated they would like to see new bids.

[Toups, White and Grayson clearly saw that this was a disaster-in-the-making and pushed against. More than a few times, Toups stated the city had better uses for this money. Monroe, Williamson, Talbert and Biershwale kept this disaster alive another day. Biershwale is now gone but the others STILL sit on council and Talbert is mayor].

So…who bungled this so badly? Finley’s name pops up a few times in the following discussion of “why is the cost double what we budgeted?”. Some ‘answers’ were fleshed out:

It is then stated that the City has already incurred the following expenses for this debacle:

$28,338 on furnishings [yes, they were buying furniture before they even had a plan done – including $12,780 on 100 stacking chairs, because “we needed to spend our year end funds”]

$33,983 for AV bid [this is the Broadcast Works bid from above, and the minutes EXPLICITLY use the words ‘expenses INCURRED‘ – so did they already hand Broadcast Works $33,983? Nothing would surprise me with this group]

$35,000 to JNW Architect, the geniuses in charge who didn’t think to get a cost analysis done first. Total clowns.

$7,313 for curbing and a pad for a generator

$5,596 for Geotechnical engineering survey

With $100,000 already burned in this dumpster fire, Council goes looking for an explanation and maybe an ass or two to kick….and more than a few fingers are pointed at Finley. To wit:

Council asks why the cost is double and why wasn’t a cost analysis done? Now Finley does a bit of backpedaling, as the minutes state “the budgeted amount was suggested by Finley as just ‘a starting point for planning’ [ah yes…we can’t stick to a budget, so we’ll say it was just a starting point].

Furthermore, JNW Architect “did not do a cost analysis because it was not part of their contract with the city” – sounds like Finley bungling, since I’m guessing he wrote the contract (?). Pretty big screw-up for a City Manager who has been doing this for at least 7 years.

Also, JNW Architect “designed the building by what the city wanted and not by what was budgeted” – say what??? This is a MASSIVE screw-up on either Finley’s part or the part of JNW. This is a HUGE miscommunication at best. Downright extreme incompetence at worst.

Was anyone taken to the woodshed over this? Did heads roll? Of course not. This is City Government and par for the course. So now Council decides they have three options going forward:

Terminate agreements and end project [this is what should have happened].
Change to a metal building to maybe reduce costs.
Re-budget and cough up the money to “keep the WOW! factor the city deserves” [yes, they ACTUALLY SAID THAT…it is in the minutes. Some of the people in charge of millions of dollars are making decisions on based on “wow” factors. Presumably as in “WOW, they are a bunch of morons to get ripped-off like that” or maybe “WOW! They must let the mentally retarded hold the purse strings in that city”]

Well…we all know they chose the worst option. I will continue in Part II later today or tomorrow.

Hold the Phones Chuck…Monica Wright DID Do Her Job Perfectly (in 2014) – Why Is She Covering for Morons Above Her?

I may owe Monica Wright a partial apology! I have spent DOZENS of hours reading every page of the City Council minutes starting in January of 2013 (which are the very first minutes available on the website) looking for clues to the current A/V debacle….and let me tell you – there are some real nuggets in there. Waste and incompetence on a colossal scale. We are not talking $30,000 or $60,000 here and there anymore. We are talking in the millions now (between City Council and LEDC waste). Millions that could have been used to lower property taxes or fix the streets or fix water mains or beautify the parks and creek areas. Oh boy. Where to start?

Let’s start with this crazy fact: in August of 2014, Monica Wright DID get three bids for an A/V system for the new council chambers. Here is the screen shot for August 25, 2014:

Monica went out and got three bids and then recommended the lowest price – which was NOT Azbell and was just under $34,000 including warranty and training. City councilman Toups then moved to approve, it was seconded by then-councilwoman MISTI TALBERT (current mayor) and with a unanimous vote, the motion carried. Also present at this vote were Mike White and Finley deGraffenreid – who still both hold the positions today that they held during that meeting. Which REALLY makes me wonder why everybody was playing stupid last month when I asked REPEATEDLY and PUBLICLY why we only got one bid on the current $100,000.00 Azbell contract. Did Finley and Misti and Mike all forget completely that there actually WERE three bids and the lowest was for $34,000? I highly doubt it.

I have to say, I feel VERY justified now when I went insane over the current $100,000.00 cost – you can see right here, that is almost TRIPLE what is/was considered reasonable. I will also publicly apologize to Monica Wright for dumping 100% of this debacle in her lap – but I wonder WHY she has refused to mention any of this from day one, when I politely requested a meeting with her to discuss this. She did her job correctly and found a good price back in 2014…so why the silence all this time?

Now a ton of questions emerge: how did this number TRIPLE so quickly? Why did city council play stupid when I asked if there were other bids, when they knew damn good and well they DID get three bids? Did they know that if they gave me those three bid numbers, they would look even more idiotic now since they are paying close to $100,000.00 this year?

Much more to come – including city council buying 100 “stacking chairs” for almost $13,000 for a council chambers building that hadn’t even gotten out of the planning stages yet (but yes, they got two bids on the chairs!). Why did they spend nearly $13,000 on chairs before the building was even built, a sane person might ask? Actual answer as printed in the minutes: to spend our year-end funds.

My god. Can you screw up any worse? Can you be WORSE stewards of public funds? I wonder where those 100 chairs are currently being stored and how much they are paying to store them. Incredible waste and stupidity on display.