Shiny Objects being eliminated
Yesterday I attended part of the beach meeting and learned:- 1. The beach redevelopment is projected to cost us $2.7 million dollars over the original budget of $5 million if we stick to the original plan.
- 2. If we stay with the basic upgrades, without the shiny stuff, the beach will cost us $6,648,208 or $1.6 million over budget per Kimley-Horn.
- 3. Michael Singer was upset that his vision of windmills was being eliminated and other shiny objects saying that the beach will now just be a generic park.
- 4. His co-worker, Jason, implied that no one was watching the store...bids were not sought on many occasion, etc. Without it actually stated, I interpreted the comment as perhaps estimates were being padded thus the run-away costs and that we should have been able to refurbish our beach at the original estimate.
- 5. Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell suggested that the city hire a project manager to oversee everything on the beach redevelopment. There was no discussion on this idea.
Let's stop this spending. Let's refurbish our beach. Let's find our missing beach fund money and put it back into the beach fund. Let's not spend millions to redesign parking lots. Parking lots are what will bring in the money to the beach. The more that we have, the more money that we will make at $2 bucks an hour.
We can have a beautiful beach without the shiny objects and all this pie in the sky stuff. We don't need solar. We don't need windmills. We don't need playground special surfaces as we don't need a playground at all. There is no fear in my mind that once completed, this beach will be a destination in spite of all those shiny things no longer in the plan. These can always be done in the future, if we so desire, when our city is healthy once again.
15 comments:
Scott you were here, when Rodney finally responded to Laurence's and my repeated year long requests to repair that Beach site , with enormous potholes in road and parking space, a totally neglected park area,dying trees etc, but with strong treated wooden sculpted shaped Boardwalk railing along the seawall!!!
For $220,000,-!!!!!!!!!!Singer wants to replace our comfortable wooden railing with cheap steel prison wire railing,Hitlers' legacy!Yet $2,600,000 cost overrun???
Correct the legal discrepancy in the assignment of OUR Lake Worth Beach, Municipal site restoration job,we received a $5,000,000,- Bond money from the County for our City not for Kimley Horn or Singer Studio.
I shall ask an attorney friend to investigate this,the County Inspector,State Attorney and FDLE.
These Companies were brought in without public bidding,for this $5,000,000,- job by one Commission member only as a friend,, Hit-and Run Commission member Varela, who inflicted this U.F.O. Rach.. on us,
and sheepishly ,with knowing nothing about it, anarchist, (unrest inciters specialist only), Cara Jennings' concurrence!
Then he disappeared!
Our Charter clearly Mandates, that all Municipal jobs,( over $15,000,-also Ordinances Book)
must be put out for public bidding to get the best,i.e., lowest bid in
with at least 3 comparable ones..Failing such, must be put out for bidding again till the required result has been achieved,in our interest,who pay the bills!
Demand to see the results of those bids.
It turns out that Kimley Horn(do you know they do not own Lake Worth?) put our Beach site restoration job out for bid, to satisfy their financial profits' wishes???
Singer,who does not own Lake Worth Beach either, brought in Kimley Horn, in an unknown business deal, benefiting them and Kimley Horn,
trying to rob us of $2,600,000,- overcharges?You will not allow that!
We need Bona Fide bids with estimates from at least three qualified(check records,backgrounds and prices)Companies, and the lowest estimate is the one, you all can accept, as our Charter Mandates, which you swore to uphold!
It can be done for less than $5,000,000,- do not let your lack of rehab.knowledge allow you to become victim of snake oil salesmen, who all want rob us, when they notice(Greater Bay) sucker and devious Commissions!
which we have unfortunately had thus far.Show us the difference,worthy of the election!!!
Dee McNamara, Citizens' Interests' and Charter protecting watchdog.
Please take back this illegally assigned job, in violation of our City Lake Worth Charter
Among the mostly incoherent post above I do find some truth and righteousness.........
Clarity of contract language written by the bidders (contractors) will always be in their favor. In my short time in LW, I'm yet to hear of any city contact were issues and misunderstanding weren't present. It takes skill and experience when trying to reduce to writing the spoken word. I'm venture to say that the main problem is the result of poorly defined Scope of Work. I'm no master of the English language,(remember I'm a naturilezed citizen) I'm willing to to bet a dime to a dollar I can do better than the purchasing staff and our city atty... in respect to any project undertaken in LW, the powers to be have assigned Project Managers in title, but to the best of my knowledge not one have had the designation of Project Management Professional (PMP) awarded by the Project Management Institute. These indiviudals are trained to plan, estimate time and money, manage and finally deliver projects on time, on budget and within the scope for which it was designed. Shame on the LW past administrations for they bear the responsibility for having done a half-arse job.
Now, we the tax payers are looking at what is going on as a view from a Proctological Perspective, or a view from the other end... my thoughts.
Did anyone ever wonder what would have happened if we had not gotten rid of Greater Bay? Many believe that they would have been unable to perform the deal and we would have seen them back out of the deal. If that happened, we would have saved ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that we have paid to date and are still paying. But if they really built the new building it would have been up and running. The old tenants would have had a place t stay during construction and the city would have had no financial responsibility for the building. $500,000 a year plus would be coming into the city's revenue fund and all of that extra costs that we now face would be GB's problem. We would be eating dinner tonight at one of the beach resturants. But that is what could have been if everything went right. Instead...
You are totally delusional.
Greater Bay lease was a disaster. We were obligated to pay for lifeguards and pool expense, almost $1,000,000 a year. We would have lost half a million a year. Get a clue.
Agree 100% in the blog and also that Greater Bay was just another rip-off of our beach.
Let me see. Who pays for lifeguards and pool expenses now. Who pays if the tenants default, who pays the interest on the loan, who pays for all the extras we are being hit with. Who pays all the legal fees and what everyone is afraid to even talk about, who pays if Greater Bay wins their case. It's us delusional taxpayers with no clue.
Do you know the Greater Bay situation? It is rather apparent that there are financial geniuses living here in the city who feel that we should have just given our property to these flim flam guys. However, there are two sides to this argument and that is why it is in court. We say that they failed to perform. They say that we obstructed their willingness to perform. Our attorneys say they are wrong. Obsiously you would like us to LOSE THIS CASE just so that you can say that YOU WERE RIGHT. SICKO CHIT.
Laurence,who know Contract Law(PSC) could have read any City Contract, to assure that the Conditions, are in favor of OUR City, Lake Worth ,not the Contractor,and that the Contract were issued after public bidding for our Municipal jobs, which we have to pay for.County Bonds are paid for by Residents of the County,i.e.,us!
This Commission must insist that the job be done within our $5,000,000,- limit,as they represent Lake Worth Taxpayers.
They can declare it illegally issued, without public bidding of any City jobs over $15,0000,-!
If the new Commission upholds our Charter they will issue a new RFP for the site rehab(Rodney did for $220,000!)stipulating OUR cost limit,and what we require what must be done!Ever heard of job description?No Contract from Lake Worth ever included that.We just had to pay!Laurence McNamara would not have allowed that general practice,(culture of neglect of Legal and Commission to protect our inetersts,while eating snake oil))and put every detail onder a magnifyng glass for correct status,legal,City favorable conditions and accurate work analysis!
The Casino will be paid by revenues at the casino and beach. The redevelopment is being paid by a $5 mil bond. There are rent guarantees in the leases where most are paying 6 to 12 months up front in case of default. If they do default, we will find another tenant to replace them. Why do you focus on the negative all of the time? Look to the positive and what this new project will mean to LW.
My original post was simply a question wondering what would have happened had we stayed with GB. It was not meant to be pro or con GB. A point was made that under the GB deal we would have had expenses that were bad for the city. My response to that point followed. Why would you think that I want GB to win this case. I am a taxpayer that is now being told that the deal we were sold of the new project costing us 6 million was off by millions of dollars. I have every right to now question the logic of ending the GB deal and the costs associated with that. Attacking me for asking the question or pointing out the facts will not solve this mess. I really believe that GB would not have been able to getthe job done and if that was true we would have been rid of them with no law suit. I think we played into their hands and now we have created a black hole that no one wants to talk about. Lets hope we learn from this mess and get a real attorney with brains representing us.
Ok--I ask you why you think we don't have an attorney with brains? That is so far from the truth. Our outside council, Brian Joslyn, is excellent and someone I would want on my side if I were in this predicament. I do think that the case has dragged on way to long, however. Look up Joslyn at Casey, Ciklin.
Interesting post Lynn. Joslyn is so smart that they wrote this contract and made big bucks off the city. Joslyn than told the commission that they had every right to get out of the deal per the terms of the contract. Than we got sued. Than Koslyn told us we would win the case easily by moving to dismiss the case. I went down and looked at the court file and read the motion that Joslyn made for the city. It could have been done by a first year law student. We lost that motion and now Joslyn is earning hundreds of thousands of dollars off the city. When this case is over they could earn over a million dollars in fees. Not bad in a recession when many firms are hurting. I question the city using the same lawyer that wrote our contract and got us into this mess to defend us in this case. I believe Joslyn is very smart but I would be more comfortable with a new set of eyes handling this case from it's inception. You don't use the doctor who messed up your heart operation to fix it. Same logic should have applied here but the commission does not have a city attorney with litigation experience. This needs to change ASAP given the amount of litigation we are involved with in the last few years.
Point well taken John. However, Joslyn knows where all the BS is buried. I will say that certain aspects of this case have dragged on for fees. Can't prove that charge, of course,...just a feeling because I am a cynic. GB is still looking for $$$--a settlement of some kind, just like everyone else who comes here and sues. We will see. All along they have said "No case."
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