They’re about to do it again.
Item 4.1 on the consent agenda (that’s the one where there is no discussion) of the city council meeting to be held Tuesday, June 16, 2015 is listed as:
There is backup material and it tells us a lot, including:
“The contractor installed the electrical service equipment above ground. This change order will allow for electrical equipment and feeders to be placed below ground.”
Huh?
We should assume that someone at the city was watching as the power equipment was suspended in the air. Now that the work is done we will pay to have the new stuff ripped out and put underground. Were the plans vague? Has the city decided that they now have extra money and they want to upgrade the plaza? Could it be that this change order is a way to funnel more money to the contractor?
More conflict
The backup material indicates that 17 days will be added to the term of the contract. They don’t say whether those are calendar days or are work days or maybe biblical days.
Unfortunately the contractor’s proposal to the city says: “This work will add approximately five weeks to the overall timeframe of the project”. We don’t know if that means 35 calendar days or 25 work days, to say nothing about how we can quantify approximately.
The contractor’s proposal was for $123 thousand. The city’s project manager crossed that amount out and wrote $110 thousand and initialed the change.
The five week extension was not changed. Curious, isn’t it.
See for yourself:
The backup material shows this as change order number 6. One through five must have been doozies.
I guess it would just be to much for us to expect that the city would be precise.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
But when it is done, ALL of El Paso will flock to see the wonder that is the new and improved San Jacinto Plaza. Much like all of El Paso now flocks to gaze at the technical the wonder of the Digital Wall. So much so, that perhaps 1% of the entire population has actually experience it’s pixelated awesomeness. Stop complaining citizen, people with bigger brains know what is best for you.
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How the hell could you get this far past the original completion date of a project of this nature, and suddenly make a decision to put the electrical underground, instead of above ground?! Sounds like piss poor planning all around, but what can we expect? Council don’t care, ’cause council operates under the mistake belief that we, the taxpayers, have deep pockets, and we’ll never turn off the spigot that pours our tax dollars down their black holes.
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I’m shocked, shocked to find that mismanagement is going on here!
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Delivering projects on time and on budget must not be part of their grand strategic plan. I wonder what the current cost is for the Plaza, including all the change orders and costs they have hidden. They should install a big electronic sign at the job site showing the number of minutes, hours, days and years the project is taking along with the increasing cost.
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This off subject. . . but does concern me that we are now being charge double for the County Hospital.
Since there is a Federal Mandate that everyone is health insurance covered. . . seems to me that we should not have to pay taxes each year for health care for others while we are having to pay a tax/fee (IRS Collected) now to do so.
I dont know how to explain this. . . .
So, if there is a National Health Care system, why would we have to pay AGAIN a tax/ a fee/ for the County Hospital indigent care?
Seems like we are now paying twice for the same thing.
This shows up on my city-county tax bill as
County Hospital.
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Don’t forget that despite best efforts, there are still going to be some people who lack health insurance. We are still a long, long way from a “National Healthcare System,” and we’ll never get there as long as Big Pharma, together with the hospital industry, maintain their stranglehold on prices.
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Niland was a no-show for this week’s city council meeting when the newest increase in the $4.9 million San Jacinto Plaza reconstruction budget was discussed and approved. That’s about as spineless and cowardly as it gets. The project is in the Queen of Bluster’s district, she pushed IDIQ for the job, and she originally made a big deal about how she was going to be on top of that project from start to finish. Then she doesn’t show for this week’s meeting. SHE SHOULD BE RECALLED.
City management had previously approved more than $300,000 in work orders in increments that allowed them to be done without city council approval. The city’s mid-year report also said the project is going to cost $6 million, which means that we can expect more change orders and overruns.
IDIQ is still on the job and city management and city council just keep on throwing money at this project, which tells me that most of the responsibility for the problems probably lies at city hall. If so, someone or several people should be hung in San Jacinto Plaza. They could sell tickets to help cover the cost of the project. I would settle for a few heads rolling.
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