QuoteCourthouse costs to be scrutinized
Shorstein says many have asked for more on lengthy project
By Mary Kelli Palka, The Times-Union
A Duval County grand jury investigating possible Open Meeting violations and questionable city contracts has added a new avenue of inquiry to its agenda: a financial review of the new county courthouse.
The grand jury and State Attorney Harry Shorstein have received "numerous" requests from people wanting to know how much money has been spent on the courthouse project and what it paid for, Shorstein wrote in a letter to City Council Auditor Kirk Sherman.
The letter asked Sherman to provide that accounting.
City officials have said more than $60 million has been spent on the project, though the only construction has involved some site work and renovating the old federal courthouse and another downtown building that are expected to eventually house some courthouse functions. Some of that money has gone toward land acquisition.
Shorstein said Thursday he wanted a certified public accountant to perform the review because he felt it would be more accurate and easier to understand. He thought the council auditor was the appropriate person to do the job.
Shorstein emphasized that the letter to Sherman didn't indicate whether the grand jury is investigating the courthouse issue. He said the grand jury could release the report to the public or comment on its findings.
Sherman said he would provide the information.
"Obviously this is an open issue that we try to keep up with," Sherman said. "This works well for everybody."
Sherman said his office has been tracking the courthouse issue, and he'll work with the city's Public Works Department to gather updated details.
The request comes seven years after voters approved spending $190 million on a new courthouse complex as part of the Better Jacksonville Plan. It was supposed to be built in 2005.
The project cost estimates reached about $300 million, which prompted Mayor John Peyton to pull the plug on the initial plans in 2004.
Another attempt by a new design-build team, Auchter Perry-McCall, ended in early May after the city learned The Auchter Co. was having financial difficulties. The cost for the first phase, including a new criminal courthouse, was estimated at $256 million. But planned additions, including adding a civil courts building within a few years, were supposed to push the cost to about $390 million.
That doesn't include money already spent.
The city is negotiating with a new team, which includes Turner Construction Co. and KBJ Architects, to design and build the courthouse. The new team's early estimate was $280 million for a larger unified criminal and civil courthouse, with no need for immediate additions.
Times-Union writer Beth Kormanik contributed to this report.
mary.palka@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4104
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/101907/met_209783190.shtml
.... here we go again!
The sad thing is that this investigation will only delay the process even more.
has it really been 7 years? It will probably be another 7 years.. oh well, at least my grandchildrens children will get to enjoy the freed up space on the river.
As long as they continue business-as-usual policies things will never change. They waste more on a buddy-system groups of consultants and then pass off contracts that simply waste dollars at every turn. Yeah, how much was actually spent???? They're at what, half a billion in projected costs?
Why not just bring in trailers, house the homeless, and offset the labor cost by paying them a fair but reduced rate to build a simple by efficient building, without expensive marble floors and exotic wood trim, and those same people can also be building low cost housing where blighted areas are, and maybe then they can compete with the Mexicans who are stealing jobs from legal residents and sending a good amount of monies back to Mexico? I don't see why they can't do it for the original $200,000,000.00 figure (damn that's a lot of 0's)
Could you see it? On the job training for the under-educated and destitute, a contractor can get base level wages, or have a city run labor pool, that educates and houses and feeds people and trains them as they build a new courthouse, and when it's done there is a better trained workforce ready for employment that are stable and productive and no longer a drain on resources without reward. Do it in the spirit of the WPA that helped solve our problems following the Great Depression.
Kids can find homes, mothers and fathers jobs and a sense of pride and stability, and they can earn enough to spend and grow the economy.... There would be less unemployment and costs to social services, and healthy, happy citizens when they cut the ribbon!