This one is about the Tarrant County College Trinity River campus and its cost overruns and backroom dealings. Change the names, though the game remains the same.
We can't wait to read all about it.
Officially known as the Trinity River East Campus, it cost taxpayers a staggering $1,476 per square foot to build — more than three times what experienced real estate executives say such a facility should have cost.
However, troubling questions remain about the hiring and performance of the members of that team. Some TCC critics — including some of the same citizen watchdogs who ferreted out problems with the downtown project in the past — are worried by what they see as more layers of expensive oversight being added without clear delineation of duties. One consultant, who has been paid more than $800,000, was hired without the college board signing off on his contract and despite the fact that his firm had been created only a month earlier with Tarrant County College District his only client.
Those ranged from disregard of historical preservation concerns to huge cost overruns, delays, lack of key permits, opposition from downtown leaders, and questions about the design of the northern section of the project that would have been built in part on the river levees.
In a March memo to Petty, Sewell concluded that the cost overruns and long delays were caused by a “culture of complacency … established years ago” coupled with an “attitude of just ‘rubber-stamping’ cost-related items.”
”The campus is very impressive,” Poulson said. “But I guess that’s easy to do when you have unlimited funds, no budget, and no one asking questions.”
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