It’s a good job if you can get it! Tonight the Finance Committee is planning to fork over more money to George Austin for the Judge Doyle Square debacle. After that, the Finance Committee will go into closed session to talk about the legal troubles. Just how much money has George Austin been paid throughout this, uh, journey of what feels like forever?
BACKGROUND
So, I blogged about this in September 2010 when it was still called the Public Market Square. At that time, my concern was that George Austin was getting a sole source contract – no one else was allowed to bid for it, he was just awarded the contract with no competition. For more on the huge increases in sole source contracting you can read my February 2018 blog about it. I also blogged about it again in June 2013.
In November 2013 I did an open records request to see how much George Austin had received and it was $120,470. At that point I sent an email to a few people asking this “Did you know that we have already spent $1,006,260 planning for Judge Doyle Square/Hotel for Convention Center/Redevelopment of the Municipal Building . . . $120,470 in consulting fees to George Austin of AVA Civic Enterprises (also doing planning for the Frautschi’s for the 100 block of State St.) because apparently no one on our city staff could coordinate such a project? Oddly enough, this is all I can find in Legistar and it seems like his contract ended in Oct 2011 and no rfp was ever issued. Yet he got paid $7,375 on 11/7/13 for a month’s worth of work. I can’t find anything in legistar to explain how this happened. What am I missing?”
At that point, David Ahrens emailed me back “While this is alot, there is more not listed- my guess is that it is easily over an additional $100K… Ask Bohrod why the recent contract with Tom Hazinski (HVS) for $58,000 isn’t included. Nor the contract for the “study” by Hunden Strategic Partners (2009)? The KJJW Study of the Municipal Bldg’s HVAC system and its structural problems? (I can’t make any sense at all of the spreadsheet)”
I did another open records request in September 2015 and I got this:
“Below are expenses that have occurred since November 15, 2013. This does not include costs reimbursed by the Federal TIGER Grant for the South Capitol Transit Oriented District (Kimley Horn consultant — $173,000).
Consulting Services
AVA Civic Enterprises (George Austin – project manager) — $102,000
North Star Research (Thomas Hazinski – hotel market analysis) — $24,500
Staff costs charged to the project in 2014 and 2015 total $23,961.
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Thanks.
Dave Schmiedicke”
HOW MUCH HAS GEORGE AUSTIN MADE IN THE LAST 8YEARS
To try to figure it out, I searched legistar for “George Austin”, “AVA Civic Enterprises” and “sole source” to find all the contracts. Plus I had to rely on my previous open records requests. This is all clear as mud to me. I should probably do another open records request. (Ok, I just did!) This is as near as I can figure:
– $120,470 Jan 2011-Nov 2013 (from open records requests)
– $102,000 (plus costs reimbursed by TIGER grant) Nov 2013 – Sept 2015 (from open records requests)
A resolution on 8/31/2016 says the following:
Beginning in 2011 through June 2016, $252,875, has been paid to AVA Civic Enterprises for project management services on this project. This resolution would authorize payment of up to $60,000 for project director services through the pre-construction phase of the Judge Doyle project.
So, starting with
– $252,875 from the 8/31/16 resolution plus
– $60,000 added in the resolution created 8/31/16
– $75,000 included in the 11/20/17 resolution
– $31,000 in the resolution finance is considering tonight
$418,875 is the total according to what I can find.
Oddly tho, the attachment for tonight’s agenda says this:
$96,250 – on March 22, 2019 this is the amount listed for the current contract
$31,500 – added at Finance Committee Tonight
The last resolution I could find only authorized $75,000. The only thing I can think of is that they exceed the $75,000 allowed in the last resolution and are using the new funds to justify paying the overages? Maybe?
So, the answer to the question? Your guess is as good as mine. I will try to dig out more info, but it looks like nearly half a million dollars. Let me just say that again for you, bottom line:
NEARLY HALF A MILLION DOLLARS
Let me know if you see something different. (Yeah, Andy Olsen, this one is for you! 🙂 )
WHAT HAVE WE PAID GEORGE AUSTIN NEARLY HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR?
Let’s review:
- George Austin never competed for a contract with anyone
- The contract has been renewed or added to for 8 years
- He’s been paid nearly half a million dollars as far as I can see in the public records
I have so many questions!
- What do we have to show for his work?
- Why are we still paying the guy?
- What are the actual numbers? (since nothing really adds up that the public can see.)
- Can’t staff handle this at this point?
Sometimes I understand why we need consultants, when the staff are overwhelmed. And it’s true, Natalie Erdman, the planning director is leaving in April, so that might complicate things. But at this point, do we really need a consultant? Or after 8 years are the staff well versed in this project and its time for the money train to end?
More importantly, what’s the long term plan here? At this rate, he’ll be up to 3/4 of a million dollars by the time this is over – for a 10 year project. For what public benefit? And will it have been worth it? Well, it was for George Austin. Nice work if you can get it.
