Seems like we just had one of these! Oh yeah…we did back in November:
As I said in April of 2024 when they approved $2.2 million for the “facelift” of the Hostess House:
“…halfway through the construction, a LOT of new charges will come in as the contractor “surprisingly” finds issues nobody knew was there. These are called “change orders” and it’s the oldest trick in the book to grab more money from a government that is now trapped.“
Well, we have yet ANOTHER TWO this week for $43,807 and $62,457 [see page 89, 90 and 95] for “full replacement of roof,” “structural changes,” a “power study” and other assorted bullshit.
The ORIGINAL bid for roof items included $9,639. But wouldn’t you know it? Once they “got in there” they then discovered “failures in the existing roof system”!
No way! Who ever could have seen this coming?!? Don’t forget that the ORIGINAL budget for this debacle was $200,000. We are now approaching $2.4 MILLION.
I’m already losing track of these additional charges. Here are a few other ones I have written about….
Hostess House Additional Cost Alert! [July 2024]
As Predicted: “Unforeseen Structural And Electrical” Disasters Strike Hostess House Money Pit. NINE New Change Orders. Mo Money, Mo Money! [November 2024]
Hostess House Change Order For Over $57,000. Final Farewell Nut Sack Punch For Finley As He Retires. [November 2024]
Hostess House Debacle Not Only Over Budget But Now Apparently Eight Months Late As Well. [December 2024]
We are now WAY over $100,000 in change orders – which fulfills yet ANOTHER Lampasshole prophesy from way back on April 18th, 2024:
Since there will be no turning back at that point, the City will pay all that shit too. I’ll guess it’s another $100,000 at a minimum.
Something very similar happened with the Old City Hall “remodel” that ended up costing $1.6 million on a $350,000 budget:
#1 – The “experts” (JNW Architects, that time) charged a lot of money at the start to do a structural analysis.
#2 – The City paid big money for this supposedly-accurate analysis.
#3 – Then a few months later they come back and say “oh, the roof is fucked…we need more money to fix that.”
Nobody thinks to ask the ORIGINAL assholes who did the structural analysis “why the hell did you miss this in the initial inspection?!”
No, they just pay up again to someone else.