What recession ?
To the editor:
It appears we are still spending money like drunken sailors in Cape Coral or at least spending like there is no tomorrow. At the last council meeting there was one item on the agenda that stood out like a sore thumb.
We heard a discussion item for a $2.8 million dollar solid panel privacy fence. I was under the impression that the administration was given orders by council to cut spending to the bare bone. If that is the case I have to wonder why this item was brought up at the last meeting. We have heard many times that it is council’s responsibility because they voted for something. Does the administration have any responsibility when they bring something like this to the council for a vote? I even heard that the public works department lobbied the council to vote for the fence. Thank God the council had enough sense to put up enough resistance to get it taken off the table, which was due to Councilman Grill’s tenacity.
Wasn’t the city manager given instructions not to spend any money unless it was absolutely necessary? Does this sound like something that is absolutely necessary? And to show how ridiculous this incident is, the fence is being contracted with MWH using the manager at risk methodology. You know, the most expensive way to construct something.
The purpose of manager at risk is to pass the risk on to the contractor when we build something complicated, difficult or something that the staff doesn’t have the expertise to oversee. This job certainly isn’t complicated or difficult. Does this mean the city staff doesn’t have the expertise to oversee the building of a privacy fence?
So much for the high salaries we’re paying our engineering and maintenance departments. It’s my understanding that we were going to pay $240 per linear foot. One of my friends in construction told me that the cost of that wall should have been no more than $120 per linear foot maximum when construction is booming. He said, in this market you could probably get it done for around $80 per linear foot. $240 is triple that price. Oh well, I guess it makes city employees’ jobs easy.
Can you imagine George Bush announcing that he was going to build a privacy wall around the White House that would only cost a mere $2.8 million. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would have a field day with this. There would no doubt be a lynch mob heading down Pennsylvania Ave., with rope in hand around 15 minutes after the announcement was made. But this is Cape Coral, and we have lots of money to spend. We don’t worry about hard economic times nor do we have a clue as to what should be done in a recession. What the heck, all we have to do is raise taxes so we can keep spending,
John Sullivan
Cape Coral Minutemen