My take on the special City Commission meeting last night (2/28)....

You can see my account while I was at the meeting and then the video from the public comment portion of the meeting.  A couple interesting things happened during the meeting.  During public comment, Mike Spruce with Kimley Horn got up and volunteered some information in response to the Commission's preceding questions about the cost and timing (when the dollar amount was known) of the parking lot lights.  He said that it was never the intent of the group working on the specifications that the entire parking lot would be lit up.  The Commission let him go over his time, responded to his statements and asked additional questions.  This could and should have been done during staff's (Carr and Margoles) presentation.  Then Micheal Singer, himself, and Jason Bregman from this office got up and were afforded the same opportunity.  Apparently the two of them had been working over the past week examining the bids and Morganti's fees.  They were of the opinion that Morganti's fees were high and that some very important items that would add to the longevity and attractiveness of the final project had been value-engineered out.  There were also concerned about the small number, sometimes only two bidders, for an item like paving the parking areas - which amounted to around a $1.6 million item.   They even recommended that the City Commission not act last night, delay for at least 10 days to see if some reduction in the GMP could be found through alternate methods - and getting additional bidders in.  Margoles feared that the City could face legal challenges since the bids are now in the public realm and anyone could say they could do it for less money to get the job.  Hmmm.   Ultimately, the City Commission did not go along with the delay - fearing the wild card proposition that the County Commission could decide enough is enough and take back the $5 million.

Public Comment eventually resumed, but after a 10 minute recess the Mayor called so that people could "cool off."  This sprang from the following back-and-forth.  Maxwell got on the subject of leases and that Fox Sports Shop has dropped out from being a tenant.  When asked when she found out about this, she said maybe the day before.  Then Maxwell said that he found out at least a week ago - casting aspersions at staff for again being left out of the information stream, which had been a thread throughout the meeting anyway.  To that Margoles said, in a bit of a smart aleck tone, "Good for you."  You can over analyze this, but she had been on the defensive all through the meeting and staff basically was saying that this had been a long process, assumptions changed along the way, that mistakes might have been made, but that doesn't mean that the City should not go forward now and approved the GMP.  The consequences of not doing so would be dire.

Things that are clear for me.  Stanton did more than her fair share of withholding information, Morganti probably manipulated the timeline so that no other answer could be given other than going ahead at their established GMP and that the project - touted by McVoy as being an environmentally sensitive project done by a "forward thinking" city - was really not bid out in any way but a conventional way and therefore will fall short of the lofty environmental talk coming from the dais AND be more expensive than anticipated.

All in all a disappointing effort, but one that the city was backed into a corner, yet again, with little chance to do anything else but approve what was before them.  Can we ever end this syndrome?  Perhaps for our next 100 years?