A sequel to my Second Class Mr. Citizen post. Part of an irregular series on how thoughtless, shallow decisions trash both the public interest and real human beings.
Sorry to hear about your busted hand Tomi….sounds like no fun at all! Nice job in spite of that on this piece. It looks straight forward enough to provide a lesson learned for VcComm. In my opinion as a life long construction dude, this thing really stinks. It will be interesting to see what the final cost of this project is.
I think you nailed it with this statement, “Public Construction takes no back seat to Big Finance and Big Politics in the sleezy underground world of vacuuming up public funds.”
Since you were the guy who schooled me on 'change orders,' I would have been deeply disappointed if you didn't see your influence in this piece. As for the hand, as I noted, I find ways to break bones. So long as I avoid busting my skull, I'll keep on truckin', though Valley County politics makes me want to bang my head against a wall. That's what they invented wine to fix :)
By the way, schedule is more often than not the reason used to justify a change order. “We don’t have time for the bidding process…..we have to get our people out of that building that could fall down tomorrow!”
I think this doesn't follow that scenario, let me know if I'm wrong. The contract has just been let for "up to" $250,000. Any change order as you have described it, would happen after the signing of the contract. The loophole the commission chose is a legal one if it survives challenge. The challenge will target that very concept of emergency. What I was trying to get at is that 1. the mechanism by which the original contract was let is legally tenuous, putting the taxpayer at risk to challenges. 2. the contract was let in such a hurry and without any serious inquiry into the disparity in project cost, that it begs the question, will the difference be made up in change orders (as you originally described the process to me)? In other words, scheduling was used as a reason to bypass initial bidding process. My suspicion is that the change orders to come will not have anything to do with scheduling. They will execute as a consequence of lack of due diligence in the bidding process. "The materials cost was far higher than we anticipated". The contract probably has an escape clause for that...etc. Does that make sense in your experience?
The way you’re looking at this make sense. They played the schedule card to bypass the bidding process. So one would think the basis for future change orders would be for other reasons, right? But “differing conditions” almost always have schedule implications. “Differing” meaning different than what was included in the bid documents. I think it’s highly likely that the bid documents left a lot to be desired, so lots of opportunity for change orders.
Yup. That's the way I see it. I have a regular periodic calendar reminder to ask the county for expense accounting relating to the project. Given the fire under this thing, it shouldn't be more than 6 months before we get the answer. I mean, it's a $250,000 project ferShitSake. Around here, garages cost that much :)
Sorry to hear about your busted hand Tomi….sounds like no fun at all! Nice job in spite of that on this piece. It looks straight forward enough to provide a lesson learned for VcComm. In my opinion as a life long construction dude, this thing really stinks. It will be interesting to see what the final cost of this project is.
I think you nailed it with this statement, “Public Construction takes no back seat to Big Finance and Big Politics in the sleezy underground world of vacuuming up public funds.”
Since you were the guy who schooled me on 'change orders,' I would have been deeply disappointed if you didn't see your influence in this piece. As for the hand, as I noted, I find ways to break bones. So long as I avoid busting my skull, I'll keep on truckin', though Valley County politics makes me want to bang my head against a wall. That's what they invented wine to fix :)
By the way, schedule is more often than not the reason used to justify a change order. “We don’t have time for the bidding process…..we have to get our people out of that building that could fall down tomorrow!”
I think this doesn't follow that scenario, let me know if I'm wrong. The contract has just been let for "up to" $250,000. Any change order as you have described it, would happen after the signing of the contract. The loophole the commission chose is a legal one if it survives challenge. The challenge will target that very concept of emergency. What I was trying to get at is that 1. the mechanism by which the original contract was let is legally tenuous, putting the taxpayer at risk to challenges. 2. the contract was let in such a hurry and without any serious inquiry into the disparity in project cost, that it begs the question, will the difference be made up in change orders (as you originally described the process to me)? In other words, scheduling was used as a reason to bypass initial bidding process. My suspicion is that the change orders to come will not have anything to do with scheduling. They will execute as a consequence of lack of due diligence in the bidding process. "The materials cost was far higher than we anticipated". The contract probably has an escape clause for that...etc. Does that make sense in your experience?
The way you’re looking at this make sense. They played the schedule card to bypass the bidding process. So one would think the basis for future change orders would be for other reasons, right? But “differing conditions” almost always have schedule implications. “Differing” meaning different than what was included in the bid documents. I think it’s highly likely that the bid documents left a lot to be desired, so lots of opportunity for change orders.
Yup. That's the way I see it. I have a regular periodic calendar reminder to ask the county for expense accounting relating to the project. Given the fire under this thing, it shouldn't be more than 6 months before we get the answer. I mean, it's a $250,000 project ferShitSake. Around here, garages cost that much :)