El Paso Inc. published this article Sunday (11/25/2012) about tearing down city hall.
A previous post City Hall Relocation pointed out that the city was telling us before the bond issue that the cost of relocating city hall was about $33 million.
At that point the costs that City Council had agreed to were at $37 million without relocation costs or land renovation.
The article yesterday pointed out a problem with emergency communication equipment being in the building. They were interviewing the City Engineer who has evidently stepped out of that job temporarily to become “project engineer for the stadium project” and wrote:
- “The city is modernizing and replacing much of its public safety communication system but the current system atop City Hall will have to continue operating.”
- “The intent is to have it up and running before we tear this building down, which means the current system will still be in the building when we implode it,” he said.
Let’s think about this. They plan to leave the old communication system in the building when they tear it down. Are they going to run the old system up until the moment of the implosion? I doubt it. I wonder what the salvage value of the old system is and why they do not take the issue to the open market. Oh–that would require bidding–something that the City has a lot of trouble with.
City Council has already agreed to obtain the new system for a mere 20 million dollars. They have also agreed to buy a new 6.9 million dollar phone system.
Let’s do the arithmetic:
- $11.8 million for 801 Texas Street
- $13.7 million to renovate the Luther building
- $11.5 million for the El Paso Times building and parking lots
- $20 million for the new emergency radio system
- $6.9 million for a new for a new phone system
So now we are at 63.9 million dollars and still have not paid for relocation or land renovation or whatever else comes up. Where did they come up with the 33 million dollar figure?
Are they lying to us or are they incompetent? Either way we need new management.
We deserve better!
elpasospeak 
When you ask “Are they lying to us or are they incompetent?” are you ruling out the fact that it could be, and likely is, both deception and incompetence? The follow-up to your question, however, should be: if they are lying, why?
Much of the resistance to the stadium project from the “crazies” (Joyce Wilson’s label for those who do not bow to the local gods) was rooted in the belief that the City and the Mountainstar principals were not being totally forthcoming and that decisions were being driven by private interests, not the public good.
As your post makes clear, they more we learn about the true costs as opposed to the original spin, the more we are left to draw our own conclusions, right or wrong. Experience suggests, however, you can usually find the answer if you “follow the money” which in this case is a lot to follow. And its flowing in a lot of directions.
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Does anyone remember the last ball park? Why not use it first if the real reason for a ball park is to improve the lives of EP? Remember the bonds sold for it? Remember the over runs in cost to build it? Remember they forgot to build a roof for shade and had to go back to the people of EP and get more money for a triple bra tarp, a tarp that was shredded by the wind and had to get more money to repair it..
You know fool you once shame on you fool you twice, thrice shame on El Paso!
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Don’t forget about the new chiller and the new roof with a ten year guarantee installed on the City Hall , costing over 1.5 million dollars last year which will implode into dust. Sure is easy to spend other people’s money. Nothing like planning. Who is going to take leave and manage the stadium construction? The man who recommended the new roof and the Chiller. We deserve divine intervention.
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