It only took 3 years and a Supreme Court decision and now the city has decided to release (some) of the Events Center building documentation. (click on Item 4A, and you will see the PDF DOCS on the lower right hand side of your screen).
The obvious reason we WANT to see the siding report is that it may or may not tell us if we will need to do maintenance to the siding in the near future. Attorney invoices from 3 years ago don’t help much. Just saying.
UPDATE: I had a chance to review most of the documents. Besides the fact we spent thousands of dollars on outside legal counsel, there was something that stuck out, over and over. That in a moment.
I will say this first, while I can be uber-critical and cynical of local government, there is a part of me that understands that public officials (either elected or appointed) don’t always make the right decision. Most of the time that is for two reasons; 1) They didn’t get the proper information or did not seek it out before making the decision OR 2) it has to do with their political philosophies. While those two are not totally inexcusable, they are within reason. Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, we all tell a lie from time to time, but we try to LEARN from our missteps.
But what stuck out on the siding settlement and the attached documents is that in the dozens of pages of memos and letters between all parties involved (contractors, city employees, architects, manufacturers, legal teams, etc.) they all had a repetitive theme in their correspondence; APPLYING THIS SIDING IS NOT A RECOMMENDED OR GOOD IDEA. But for some reason at the end of the day, they did it anyway.
Why? Well that seems to be the Million dollar question. Like I said, most mistakes by public officials are excusable, but it is baffling to me with all the warnings that anyone would approve this siding job. Somebody was following orders, and someone was giving them. Can anyone say “Code Red”.