So the article below is an example of what can happen when you listen to old council meetings while working and then get up in the middle of the night and write an article. Turns out the scope of the project is more than what I wrote in the article below. It will take further evaluation of the costs involved to make an accurate evaluation:Here is a link with the scope of the project including the traffic portion which starts on page 32:
Note besides the two mast arm intersection projects it includes replacing 173 of the traffic light heads. I am looking for the estimate in costs but have not seen that break out yet.
In order to properly compare the original budgeted amount to the current amount the costs of the other items that were not in the original budget need to be subtracted from the $995,856. Then add in the extra fees. My apologies for the sloppiness.
This was the how the article looked before I started to check what I thought I heard.
It is election day and although I was up until after midnight keeping my commitment to Marylin to finish home projects before going full dedication to improving political decisions, I woke up at 4am wishing I had taken the time to create fliers to hand out at the polls today.
If I had, the side dedicated to Huber Heights would highlight the way council wastes money and conclude by asking if you are ready yet to go to a strong mayor form of government and elect me as the first strong mayor.
The spreadsheet you see as one of the photo attachments contains a breakdown that includes the new traffic lights; one at Old Troy Pike and Chambersburg, and the other one at Old Troy Pike and Fishburg. Those two projects are the Traffic Control Systems listed as a cost of $995,856. This is $497,928 apiece.
The original budget for the Old Troy Pike and Chambersburg conversion was $300,000. Even at this price, it should not have been done because the city has many different project that that should have come first. What is worse is the $300,000 was the original budget for the entire project. The $497,928 is the starting price for acquiring the materials. Then they add in 11% for Project Engineering, another 7.5% for Project Management, another 5.2% for Project Performance Risk and after totaling all that start to add in additional fees for Overhead and Profit. So instead of a total budget of $300,000 apiece council plans on spending $726,805 to change the wires holding up the traffic lights to poles.
You can listen to council members congratulate themselves on how thrifty they are by listening to Agenda Item E of the Oct 5th work session. http://huberheightsoh.new.swagit.com/videos/86799#1808163
One of the reasons I was elected the first time was because the city made financial decisions where they correctly told us they could build an aquatic center for $6 million and then spent $10 million dollars after dropping some of the features. We had four years of projects, like the new fire station, coming in on budget and on time. Now we are back to the old ways.
When you are ready for better financial decisions let me know. I will do the lions work of re-writing the City Charter enabling us to go to a Strong Mayor form of government. But I need help proof reading and second and third eyes to make sure the Charter is impartial, transparent and efficient. I will also be looking to make sure there are enough people willing to circulate petitions to get it on the ballot once it is ready to be implemented.
Let me know when you are ready. Remember, when we do projects for twice as much as they should cost, we get half as many benefits.
Edited
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