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If you watch the SF City Council Informational meeting from last Tuesday (FF: 31:00) City Attorney, David Fiddle-Faddle admits to councilor Jamison that the city doesn’t have to ‘legally’ follow the pricetag.
Greg, “What kind of legal commitment does the city have to stay within that $115 Million Dollar pricetag (sic)?”
David, “We don’t have one, the election was simply an ADVISORY election to try to stay within that dollar amount. By state law, since it was an advisory election, the city has no legal obligation to stay within that dollar amount (sic).”
Of course, Entenman and Cotter defend the election and reassure Greg that they will stay within that price limit. Diamond Jim goes on to say that he is pretty sure Greg will let them know if it goes over that amount.
This is very important to watch. The city has already spent CIP money for water and utility hookup to the EC. They are also using CIP and State money to improve the roads in the area. They have also switched sewer and water upgrades over to enterprise funds instead of the CIP. The mayor and his administration have carefully been moving around money through the use of small, time graduated, resolutions. You also have to take into account, additional parking, or a parking ramp will have to be built at the EC site in the near future.
I am glad Jamison asked the question, and now we have the city attorney on record.
Even Zamby forgot to be surprised
I’m a bit confused on why this is surprising to anyone. We all know the estimated costs of a project don’t relate to the final bill (whether it comes in over budget or below). We also know the vote that was held did not lock anyone into a rigid cost.
All the city attorney is doing is explaining the law… he isn’t creating nor attempting to skirt it. If anyone is to blame here, it is the council for not fully understanding the potential costs of the project to be (for those who didn’t already understand) and the voters for being ignorant as to what the final bill would be.
For those of us paying attention we have said all along there is no way the Events Center would be built for $115M. You can expect at least a 5% cost overrun… and I personally would not be shocked if it was closer to 15 – 20%.
Just another reason for the extra ballot measures on the 2014 vote. As more voters see the con jobs done on them for the special interests, we will have more changes in City Government.
This is going to be ever more interesting.
“We also know the vote that was held did not lock anyone into a rigid cost.”
I know, I blogged about it before the election, and warned people of cost overruns and the city’s horrible track record (EX: Pavilion, Convention Center, Phillips to the Falls, River Greenway and now a potential INDOOR pool). The city has historically had enormous cost overruns. This is why I speculate Huether is moving money around in the CIP to hide the ACTUAL cost of the EC. It really is a shell game be played right before our eyes.
I wonder how much the new parking ramp is going to cost that will have to be built there some day soon?
Winston, I attended the 2009 EC Task Force meetings for 13 months.
I would have to check back in my notes, but if I recall correctly, the estimated cost of a parking ramp at that time was 23 million dollars.
No less than $9 million for a parking ramp with 500 spots. This was one good avenue of a DT EC. Parking ramps are already in place or were being planned to be in place that would have been paid for by other companies and would still make $$ during the day. Now we will have an expensive parking ramp that was not built into the $115 million (no shocker there) and it will be empty for the most part during the day.
Obviously – I was always for a DT location and I truly want an EC, but in the end I voted no because of costs such as these that people allowed themselves to have the mentality of “we’ll figure out how to pay for that later,” or just refused to educate themselves in general. You reap what you sow.
115 + 23 ? Am I following the math correctly? Here’s an other question…. “In the history of the U.S., has a parking ramp ever been named after someone or some corporation?”…. Maybe its time.
Well, since I’m not a resident of the city, I guess I won’t be paying most of the taxes for this. Anyone who voted for this EC at this price and believed the cost estimates to be true also believes in the tooth fairy and St. Nick. But the powers in SF wanted it, spun it, and got it. And the gullible voters bought it and now have to pay for it. Sorry if I’m not sorry for them.
However, if the mayor and his cronies are attempting to move money around to make this pig look better, maybe a reporter should dig into it. Shouldn’t be that hard to do in SF.
The parking ramp is only the beginning. How about the 23 million we spending to make Russell Avenue the gateway to the EC? Would never have neede that upgrade per EC, but now???? Even now, making Russell five lanes versus four makes no sense. We give event goers five lanes to gridlock at the single lane I29 entrance ramps??? Her is a post I made here last October concerning Lincoln Nebs EC. Think about it.
Pinnacle is due for completion one year from now, so they are about a year ahead of us…all things considered. But, a full TWO years ago this is what they told the public it would cost.
ARENA CAPACITY ~16,500
ARENA SIZE ~450,000 sq ft
TOTAL PROJECT COST (EST) $339,749,343
Arena $180,797,782
Roadways $28,910,857
Utilities $5,236,704
Env. Remediation $7,504,500
Prep/Stormwater Mitigation $10,827,792
Railroads $49,325,000
Amtrak $1,705,500
Parking Facilities $35,792,765
Lincoln admitted they needed to upgrade streets to the tune of 28 million to handle traffic. They admitted they needed to upgrade parking to the tune of over 35 million. AND they admitted a class act EC would cost over $11,000 per seat. Unlike here, where the good mayor told us we could get a classy EC for $8300 a seat. That has since risen to $9583 a seat when the price tag rose from $100 mil to $115 mil. Still….a Yugo class facility.
$115,000,000.00 is the tip of the iceberg.
Kinda like a $500 credit limit CC, that has $199 of ‘service fee’ charges on it when you get it in the mail.
In retail they call it “Bait and Switch” and sometimes the FTC comes a calling, but when politicians do it who can we call other than ourselves and Blogs like this one.
No shit. Huh?
The city is exempt from lawsuits via city ordinance & Writ of Certiorari. Huether has all the power. The council votes but he can overrule them. By definition it’s a dictatorship. Huether knew the EC would cost 330 mil. We citizens are stuck with it. Councilors faulted when they allowed bond money flowed straight to the noncompetitive bid contractor. Everything is fishy and probably illegal. You & I bought this fake Rolex from a credit card crook. At least we’re not the wall street investors who thought they were buying a safe municipal bond offering. They can’t sue for recovery.
So since Jonathan Ellis at the AL says they do in fact do investigative reporting – we will see a piece on the real costs of the EC and how the community was hoodwinked into believing MMM?
He doesn’t realize how arogant and foolish he looks writing that column. It was a cry baby piece all the way. Call a Whahhhhhhbulance.
Poly: “How about the 23 million we spending to make Russell Avenue the gateway to the EC?”
I may be mistaken, but I believe that project has been on the radar for at least five years and was in motion even before the Events Center vote was held.
It has a lot to do with being the main connector on the North side of town which leads people to Minnesota Ave (and the airport). Of course access to the Arena and Convention Center plays a role just as access to Kiwanis and West avenues do, and obviously the EC will benefit – but it isn’t fair to claim it is tied to the EC alone because unless the city planners have access to plutonium, a 1984 Delorean, and a flux capacitor I don’t think they had any idea the EC would be there when they were drafting the plans for Russell Street improvements.
I may be mistaken, but I believe that project has been on the radar for at least five years and was in motion even before the Events Center vote was held….
….it isn’t fair to claim it is tied to the EC alone…
I’ve been reading city budgets for at least five years. This project may have been on the drawing boards but $ amounts were ever relayed to future budget outlays. The first time I ever heard this street improvement in any conversation was when the good mayor said we needed to improve the looks of the drive from I29 to the EC. What other street improvements come at a cost of over $10,000,000.00 per mile.
Poly is right, this has been in the works for awhile, BUT the dollar figures have not been.