Tag: RKJ Construction

Some People Have a Hard Time Swallowing Truth Pills

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.

I Was Wrong

It takes a big man to admit he was totally wrong. I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I could not have been more wrong.

Back on November 8th of last year, I wrote a piece entitled “RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator“. I was lamenting how RKJ screwed our City manager one last time at delivery by jacking up the price a teeny bit more ($8,800) on the elevator the City had ALREADY paid a THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLAR premium for. The elevator that was about SEVEN MONTHS LATE and held up the entire $1.5 million dollar City Hall remodeling debacle.

I was wrong: RKJ Construction was NOT done kicking Finley’s ball sack. They have actually kicked it a LOT more over the last year. Apparently this elevator (which City council stupidly agreed to pay $128,400 for when there was a perfectly good $96,605 bid on the table) has had to be serviced FIVE TIMES already!

Mayor Talbert is “disappointed” and “unhappy” that Finley’s nuts have been pummeled like this. But, she says she has asked if FIVE elevator repairs in a year is normal, and “everybody” says it is.

Really?

Of course, she probably DIDN’T complain to RKJ Construction – the ones who raked the City over the coals on this piece of shit elevator.

I lived in the Big City for quite a while. I worked for 10 years in the same skyscraper. The elevators there actually went up and down 110 floors hundreds of times a day, and I don’t recall them breaking down every other month. Those were HIGH USE. Same goes for the high rise I lived in. Maybe broke once a year, at most.

But HERE at City Hall – which has a whopping TWO floors and is probably used only 10 times a day, the thing breaks down constantly! Amazing! RKJ Construction must do quality work.

So now, the City (after a careful discussion of approximately 90 seconds) unanimously agrees to enter into a SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLAR maintenance agreement! Are you kidding me???

Do you know what Mr Lampasshole would be doing if HE was the City manager? Here’s what:

You get on the phone with RKJ Construction and say “Hey buddy! Remember that elevator we paid an EXTRA $30,000 for to “keep it local”? Remember how you screwed the pooch and held us up because it took you an extra SEVEN MONTHS to get that overpriced elevator installed?”

“Yes, well, it’s a huge piece of shit that has broken down every other month. So we’d like you to go ahead and pay the first two years of our new wildly overpriced $17,000, 3-year maintenance contract. It’ll cost you about $5,800 a year. Considering you fleeced us an extra $30k for this thing, I think that’s a fair deal.”

If RKJ Construction are a bunch of assholes and says NO to that request, you inform them politely that “you will NEVER, EVER see another dime of City contract money. Thanks very much”

THEN you make sure The Lampasas Dispatch prints THAT in their newspaper and publicly humiliates RKJ Construction.

I mean, Jesus Christ. Didn’t ANY of you idiots on City council or City Hall think to take this route? Get Rickie Roy on it. He’s one of the few guys in City government who seems like he DOESN’T have his head up his ass.

No. Nobody thought to grow a pair of testicles and play hard ball with RKJ Construction. Instead, they just bend over and waste ANOTHER $17,000 on it. What a bunch of wimps and punching bags.

Oh, and thanks again ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison, for your brilliant motion as councilman years ago to overpay RKJ Construction by 30% because they are “local”. You complete moron.

5 Easy Elevator Hacks That Will Help Give You An Express Ride

Quick recap:

  • The City sends out the elevator contract for bids WAY back in November 2016. Austin Elevator Co is the lowest bid at $96,605 but our idiot former City councilman “Greasy” Chris Harrison motions to go with RKJ Construction at $119,532 [page 6] to ‘keep it local’. Motion seconded by Mike White and passes unanimously (includes TJ Monroe, Talbert and Chuck Williamson).
  • The next time the elevator is mentioned in the minutes, it has somehow morphed to $125,508 [Jan 2018]. I never saw an explanation for this.
  • The Old City Hall renovation is held up for MONTHS because of the elevator.
  • Old City Hall project FINALLY done in November/December 2019
  • RKJ bills City $128,400 for elevator – FAR MORE than originally agreed to.
  • Elevator breaks constantly over the next 10 months (‘about’ 5 times, according to Finley)
  • Dummies on City council decide to enter into a $470/month service contract for three years ($17,000) rather than make a simple phone call to RKJ to demand decent treatment.

RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator

RKJ Construction – the company in charge of the overpriced elevator for the Old City Hall project – apparently kicked Finley in his nut sack one last time on their way out the door. Jamming the City for $128,400 on a project initially bid at $119,532.

A quick recap of the elevator debacle:

  • The City sends out the elevator contract for bids WAY back in November 2016. Austin elevator is the lowest bid at $96,605 but our idiot former City councilman “Greasy” Chris Harrison moves to go with RKJ Construction at $119,532 [page 6] to ‘keep it local’.
  • The next time the elevator is mentioned in the minutes, it has somehow morphed to $125,508 [Jan 2018]. I never saw an explanation for this.
  • The Old City Hall renovation is held up for MONTHS because of the elevator.
  • Old City Hall project FINALLY done in November/December 2019
  • RKJ bills City $128,400 for elevator – FAR MORE than originally agreed to.

You’d think RKJ Construction would give the City a small break on price after (1) getting their bid accepted despite it being $30,000 HIGHER than the lowest bid and (2) screwing up so badly and delaying their entire project for months on end. You would be wrong.

In a final act of humiliation for Spinley, the City was billed a grand total of $128,400 for the elevator. A full $8,800 (7.5%) OVER their initial accepted bid of $119,532.

What was even more odd was they broke it into TWO separate checks: LAST month, the City cut a check (#153218 page 41) for RKJ for exactly $100,000 for the elevator. I thought to myself “how nice! They actually gave them a huge break on the price for being so incompetent and holding up the project for months on end”.

WRONG!

THIS month, the city cut ANOTHER check (#153799 on page 51) to RKJ for the elevator in the amount of $28,400.

I realize that being ripped-off for $8,800 is very small potatoes compared to the hundreds of thousands the City wastes annually, but Christ Finley – grow some balls and demand a few concessions from the clowns who couldn’t even get the thing done on time in the first place! You are supposed to pay LESS for incompetent work….not MORE. Absolutely pathetic.

Wow! Factor Vanity Project Just Keeps Going, And Going, And Going….

The current delay for the $1.5 million Vanity Project? The elevator, of course! As I had speculated all along. This is the Energizer Bunny of construction projects, apparently. Let’s look at the string of missed deadlines for this disaster:

November 14, 2016: Finley “Spinley” deGraffenried brings bids to Council on elevator equipment and installation.  Bids were:

  1. Austin Elevator Co $96,605
  2. Trojan Elevator Co $206,909
  3. RKJ Construction $119,532

“Greasy” Chris Harrison moves to accept bid from RKJ – not the lowest bid – because “they are local and have done previous work for the city”.  Seconded by Mike White and passes unanimously.

August 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” [LOL].  [You will notice that 115 days from August 13th would mean a finish date of around December 6th, 2018].

November 16th, 2018: Change order #3 for $16,417 and “City officials now hope the building will be ready for use in early 2019,” according to a Lampasas Dispatch article. [Nice and vague – another 3 month delay]

March 10, 2019: Finley assures City Council that the elevator for the City Hall Boondoggle would “arrive in mid-March” and take a week or two to install.

March 24, 2019: According to Finley and city council packets, “production for elevator equipment has been pushed back two to three weeks”. The arrival time is now “projected for the first or second week of April…and crews will take approximately two to three weeks to install.” [This implies a new finish date of approximately May 5th, 2019]

July 30th, 2019: FOUR MONTHS of minutes have showed ZERO further discussion of Old City Hall renovation and The Seven Goldfish seem to have forgotten it completely, as it never appears on Spinley’s reports or Council minutes/packets. I myself wondered out loud why it wasn’t finished yet, seeing as how the last supposed completion date was back on May 5th. I even publicly speculated it was probably the wildly overpriced elevator.

September 17th, 2019: Six weeks after my musings on why the hell the Vanity Project wasn’t done yet, The Dispatch states today that “although the City manager said he hesitates to predict exactly when the renovation project will conclude, he said the project is “very close” to completion. The City is also waiting on “final elevator adjustments”, whatever that means. Yeah, that’s the same elevator that Spinley assured us was going to be done in March…six months ago.

Just a reminder: City Council COULD have given the elevator bid to Austin Elevators for $96,000 but then-Council-genius Chris Harrison wanted to “keep it local” and give the contract to RKJ Construction for $126,000 (originally $119,000). How’s that working out for you?

Mayor Talbert City Hall Vanity Project Delayed Yet Again – Due to Overpriced Elevator

Wow. What a difference a week makes!

Just a 14 days ago, Finley assured City Council that the elevator for the City Hall Boondoggle would “arrive in mid-March” and take a week or two to install.

Not anymore.

NOW, according to Finley and city council packets, “production for elevator equipment has been pushed back two to three weeks”. Seriously?!?!? The arrival time is now “projected for the first or second week of April…and crews will take approximately two to three weeks to install.”

You will recall, back on November 14th, 2016…City Council approved an elevator bid from RKJ Construction for $119,532…and which later ballooned to over $125,000 – despite that fact that Austin Elevator bid $96,600 for the exact same job. Former city council genius Chris Harrison made a motion to accept the inflated elevator cost because “[RKJ] is local”

Let’s all take a moment to thank our stars that Harrison is a FORMER council member now.

Production?? WTF? Are they JUST NOW building an elevator for the Lampasas-Misty-Talbert-Finley-DeGraffenreid-“WOW Factor” $1,500,000 City Hall Boondoggle which has been in the works for years? How is that possible??

So, despite paying an extra $30,000 for an elevator to “keep it local”, and despite the fact it was bid on OVER TWO YEARS AGO, it is STILL not ready! What?? You’re telling me it is being specially constructed as we speak? Last I checked, an elevator is a simple box and was invented a century ago, at the least. What is the hold up? Once again – you can blame former genius Councilman Chris Harrison for this one – he made the motion to piss away an extra $30k for a local elevator – and council rubber-stamped it unanimously…as usual.

Just another delay and cost-overrun for the bloated and ridiculous City Hall “WOW Factor” renovation which is the centerpiece of the Talbert Administration. I’m seriously shocked she is running again after this debacle. I’d go hide my head in the sand, if I were her.