This morning, the Lake County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the design of the MOST EXPENSIVE option for a new Emergency Operations AND Communications Center Building near the County Court building. Commissioners Jennifer Hill, Linda Stewart & Welton Cadwell offered hardly any justification for their decisions or discussion, and voted against Jimmy Conner to select the MOST EXPENSIVE option offered by the architect who prepared estimates.
Board Chairman Welton Cadwell even chided Commissioner Jimmy Conner for "pontificating" when Conner was trying to discuss the merits of different options.
Until today, the public and media were told that the cost would be around $4-million for a basic EOC (Emergency Operations Center) building with most of it being paid with Federal grant funds.
But, the architect came back to the Board today with harder estimates and a range of options. The basic EOC was now around $6-million, which meant over $2.5 million not covered by Federal grant funds would have to be paid from local taxpayer funds. And, the original expanded version to include space for the Sheriff and EMS dispatch operations was estimated to cost $6-million, but now it is over $11-million.
And the Board chose the most expensive project, even after several members of the public, including myself, and members active in the local North Lake Tea Party spoke out against the costly project that we believe is not justified.
For instance, excess space is planned for possible consolidation of police dispatchers into the Sheriff dispatch group, but no signed agreements exist to justify that statement.
Most of the arguments were emotional and not based on fact. Or, staff cited problems with the existing site INSIDE the County Admin building having leaks. But rather than spend funds to FIX THE LEAKS, the issue was used to support only building a new building.
Staff provided recommended sources for the non-Federal funding, and most will come from FUTURE sales tax revenues from the next two years. So, it was kind of like taking future revenue and not saving it for possible further downturns.
Board member Elaine Renick was not present, and even if she had voted against the project, it still would have passed 3-2.
You can read the supporting documents HERE ( click on the links for tabs 5 & 6 on the agenda). And you should also be able to find the archived video of the meeting there by tomorrow.
My Comments:
- This is a boondoggle where staff and possibly contractor lobbyists, etc. "educated" the three wayward commissioners on reasons to spend the $11-million.
- The agenda and the Board Chair did not provide for public input on the approval items, but did allow it after being asked.
- No corporation I ever worked in would have approved such a project. There wasn't any hard evidence to define the need for more space (staff has been reduced for the last two years), and the Federal grant money was used as an excuse to push the project through. Basically, the staff and three Commissioners ignored all the counterpoints offered by the public and this blog in prior articles.
- The County apparently doesn't have a professional capital planning process. If they did, the EOC building would be on a list and the funding sources would have been allocated to priority projects like the School District does. Instead, the pattern is that a staff director comes up with a "need" for space, pushes it through and Commissioners are lobbied and then there is a scramble to take funds from future budgets to pay for it. If you want an example how government does not work the same as business, this is a clear example.
- One possible solution is that when the two new Commissioners are installed in November (Sean Parks & Leslie Campione), they might work with Jimmy and kill the project or reduce it. However, since contractors contributed to their campaign funds, I have no idea what they will do.
- One sure lesson learned here is that if voters want a "change" in how elected officials spend tax funds, they need to vote out Welton Cadwell in 2012 and replace outgoing Jennifer Hill (who has announced she is not running for re-election) in 2012 with someone who is a true fiscal conservative.
Recommendation:
If you disagree with spending $11-million on the EOC center, let these Commissioners know how you feel about their vote: Jennifer Hill, Welton Cadwell and Linda Stewart (who is a lame duck - she lost her re-election bid to Leslie Campione, and some say she is seeking revenge on voters & taxpayers by approving this building. Watch the video and you will see the lack of any understandable or fact justified reasons she voted for it!). You can find their contact information HERE.
Vance Jochim
