This lack of adequate planning and transparent financial commitments for funding projects, as well as questionable construction contracts, is endemic in the City of Evanston too. It's not unusual to have change orders and increased costs in projects; however, Evanston's large projects often have cost increases of thousands, if not millio…
This lack of adequate planning and transparent financial commitments for funding projects, as well as questionable construction contracts, is endemic in the City of Evanston too. It's not unusual to have change orders and increased costs in projects; however, Evanston's large projects often have cost increases of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in change orders. The taxpayers are left with the financial burden, which can amount to millions of dollars per project each year.This needs to stop.
The most recent example of this was committing Evanston taxpayers to a 15-year lease for millions of dollars a year to move operations from 2100 Ridge, our current Civic Center, to 909 Davis, a privately owned building. We should not have moved out of the current Civic Center until we, as a community, had open and transparent discussions and reached a consensus on where we want the Civic Center to be. No one moves out of their house if they are weighing options of renovating or selling until the decision is made, but the City of Evanston did just that.
Then there's the Robert Crown project, which started with taxpayers bonding $10,000,000 when the project had a $30,000,000 price tag. By the time the project and borrowing were done, taxpayers increased the debt limit significanlty to fund the project. Many cities have most of the movney in the bank before embarking on a project of this magnitude, or have referendum but we are "home rule " and the City of Evanston Council had no obligation to hold a referendum for the $53,000,000 project. . Council Member Fleming was the one who voiced concern of this decision. "Though not in attendance, Fleming released a statement about the bond issues and debt limit, which was read at the meeting. She said she had "many concerns" over the request for $50 million in bonds to fund the Robert Crown project"
Bottom line, residents we need to ask more questions and demand clear answers. With elections coming up, we need elected officials who are willing to ask the tough questions and encourage, not discourage, residents, boards and commission from seeking answers.
I'm about to publish a story on the 909 Davis thing. The way they configured the build-out is of very dubious legality. I sometimes wonder why we even bother having elections when most of the elected officials just let staff do whatever they want anyway, rules be damned.
This story here is a prime example - CFO says "Yeah we took 20 bids for this work and I narrowed it all down to 1. Definitely nothing to see here." and the finance committee is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sounds good
909 Davis story is going to go out later in the week, if I publish today nobody will read it :)
Thank you, so many people are totally unaware of the impact of that decision and the faulty process which leaves taxpayers carrying the financial burden.
This lack of adequate planning and transparent financial commitments for funding projects, as well as questionable construction contracts, is endemic in the City of Evanston too. It's not unusual to have change orders and increased costs in projects; however, Evanston's large projects often have cost increases of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in change orders. The taxpayers are left with the financial burden, which can amount to millions of dollars per project each year.This needs to stop.
The most recent example of this was committing Evanston taxpayers to a 15-year lease for millions of dollars a year to move operations from 2100 Ridge, our current Civic Center, to 909 Davis, a privately owned building. We should not have moved out of the current Civic Center until we, as a community, had open and transparent discussions and reached a consensus on where we want the Civic Center to be. No one moves out of their house if they are weighing options of renovating or selling until the decision is made, but the City of Evanston did just that.
Then there's the Robert Crown project, which started with taxpayers bonding $10,000,000 when the project had a $30,000,000 price tag. By the time the project and borrowing were done, taxpayers increased the debt limit significanlty to fund the project. Many cities have most of the movney in the bank before embarking on a project of this magnitude, or have referendum but we are "home rule " and the City of Evanston Council had no obligation to hold a referendum for the $53,000,000 project. . Council Member Fleming was the one who voiced concern of this decision. "Though not in attendance, Fleming released a statement about the bond issues and debt limit, which was read at the meeting. She said she had "many concerns" over the request for $50 million in bonds to fund the Robert Crown project"
Bottom line, residents we need to ask more questions and demand clear answers. With elections coming up, we need elected officials who are willing to ask the tough questions and encourage, not discourage, residents, boards and commission from seeking answers.
I'm about to publish a story on the 909 Davis thing. The way they configured the build-out is of very dubious legality. I sometimes wonder why we even bother having elections when most of the elected officials just let staff do whatever they want anyway, rules be damned.
This story here is a prime example - CFO says "Yeah we took 20 bids for this work and I narrowed it all down to 1. Definitely nothing to see here." and the finance committee is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sounds good
909 Davis story is going to go out later in the week, if I publish today nobody will read it :)
Thank you, so many people are totally unaware of the impact of that decision and the faulty process which leaves taxpayers carrying the financial burden.
You forgot to include “our fountain”. Where oh where is our fountain?
Currently draining into the soil below the plaza