This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2015 at 5:00 AM and is filed under City government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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City employees are 6,000 votes and CC doesn’t like to embarrass them by calling out their failures. Really, there are some very well managed departments. It’s the few that keep mucking things up, like Engineering, that need attention.
Yes, and don’t forget that the big managerial change in engineering happened in conjunction with the ballpark. Just one more hidden cost related to the ballpark.
This park remodeling project requires a California company?
If you want to talk about fiscal responsibility, let’s talk about the $7 million spent on the Airways egg-beaters. The artwork budget for that little art project was $7 million. The construction and installation was done by Jordan Foster. ECM International, the architects for the airport, also got a piece of the pie. What’s not clear is whether the Jordan Foster and ECM costs are part of the $7 million or if their fees make the total cost even higher.
Vicki Scurri, the Washington state artist who did the egg beaters, also got two other big contracts for all the overpass and freeway art on I-10 and Loop 375.
It’s interesting that we can afford millions of dollars of artwork on the freeways and hundreds of thousands of dollars of artwork on bus shelters, but we can’t repair the streets.
According to the Engineering Department, the palm trees in the plaza were given to the construction company in exchange for a deduction of $50,000 from their contract. The trees were valued at $5000 each. I would like to see that paper work on that. My supposition is that Engineering just gave them away to the contractor, then tried to back peddle by saying their contract would reflect the credit.
I agree with reality checker. I still do not understand why our streets continue to deteriorate while money is flowing down the drain on all these worthless “projects.”
elpasospeak 
City employees are 6,000 votes and CC doesn’t like to embarrass them by calling out their failures. Really, there are some very well managed departments. It’s the few that keep mucking things up, like Engineering, that need attention.
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Yes, and don’t forget that the big managerial change in engineering happened in conjunction with the ballpark. Just one more hidden cost related to the ballpark.
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This park remodeling project requires a California company?
If you want to talk about fiscal responsibility, let’s talk about the $7 million spent on the Airways egg-beaters. The artwork budget for that little art project was $7 million. The construction and installation was done by Jordan Foster. ECM International, the architects for the airport, also got a piece of the pie. What’s not clear is whether the Jordan Foster and ECM costs are part of the $7 million or if their fees make the total cost even higher.
Vicki Scurri, the Washington state artist who did the egg beaters, also got two other big contracts for all the overpass and freeway art on I-10 and Loop 375.
It’s interesting that we can afford millions of dollars of artwork on the freeways and hundreds of thousands of dollars of artwork on bus shelters, but we can’t repair the streets.
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…or spare $400K for toilets in San Jacinto, if it ever gets built.
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The rotating art on airway are not all spinning in the wind….
is there a warranty ?
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According to the Engineering Department, the palm trees in the plaza were given to the construction company in exchange for a deduction of $50,000 from their contract. The trees were valued at $5000 each. I would like to see that paper work on that. My supposition is that Engineering just gave them away to the contractor, then tried to back peddle by saying their contract would reflect the credit.
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Agreed!
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I agree with reality checker. I still do not understand why our streets continue to deteriorate while money is flowing down the drain on all these worthless “projects.”
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