commentary

To those hapless and miserable souls who continue to suggest I havent told the truth, I say NAME ONCE. Provide your figures and a rationale behind them. Put up or shut up. Are you saying the bathrooms CANT be built for 140k? I have a written, detailed, line-by-line estimate by a guy with 25 years+ in construction that says otherwise. Are they saying we DIDNT pay 415k for the bathrooms? I have a FOI that indicates otherwise. Are they saying that the water, sewer, and electric hookups werent left out on the bathrooms? Are they saying the City didnt pay OUTRAGEOUS prices to have the sewer connected? the bathrooms elevated? If they have a question about ANY of those preposterously expensive projects I will be glad to help them straighten out their thinking with facts. What part of RIPOFF dont they understand? Dr. Mel P. Johnson

clarification

Let me clarify my last post. I DO believe these projects were completed at considerably less than was claimed, but the difference between what is actually cost and the amount claimed, DISAPPEARED, somehow. When we know that usual and customary costs for new construction in S Fla is $125 a square foot, and they admit to charging us at least $375 for the bathrooms and $600 a square foot for the CC, where did that extra money go? We KNOW it didnt cost that much to build it, so where did that money go? We are talking 280k on the bathrooms, over and above the actual costs of building it, and at least 300k on the CC enclosure. We could USE that money now. Perhaps they wouldnt have to raise our taxes and fees if that money had not disappeared. How do you spell R I P O F F ? Dr. Mel Johnson

construction costs outrageous

The contractors on the Citys construction projects are in the public domain. Gym told me himself in his office that the actual "hard construction costs" to enclose two walls at the CC (two walls were already there), was "Three hundred and change". That number turned out to be 315k+, to enclose TWO walls in a 520 square foot room. That turns out to be $600 a square foot. When I just shook my head in wonder and asked him how he could justify those expenses he just shook his head repeatedly and kept saying that I didnt understand. When I asked exactly what it was that I didnt understand he had NO ANSWER, just kept shaking his head and saying I didnt understand. Six hundred dollars per square fot is outrageous, and anybody with ANY construction experience knows that. At the usual and customary fees of $125 a square foot that enclosure shouldnt have cost more than $65,000. To pay 315k for that little enclosure was a ripoff of our tax dollars. Plain and simple. Dr. Mel P. Johnson