Tuesday, the Dispatch reported that the Gilroy Unified School
District Board of Trustees approved $2.8 million in additional
costs for the new Christopher High School. This will bring the
total price of the project to $180 million, $35 million of which is
for the second phase.
Tuesday, the Dispatch reported that the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees approved $2.8 million in additional costs for the new Christopher High School. This will bring the total price of the project to $180 million, $35 million of which is for the second phase.
The $2.8 million was for two things: a $1.8 million design fee for the second phase, and another million for a change order to complete phase one. Let us examine these separately.
The $1 million change order was submitted by Gilbane Building Company, the general contractor that is building CHS. It will pay for revisions to phase one mandated by the City of Gilroy, the county, the water district, and PG&E, mostly reportedly having to do with trenching utility lines underground and various off-site improvements.
Part of the problem may be that the school district’s contract with Gilbane is on the basis of what is called “lease-leaseback,” one of the terms of which is that any additional requirements not written into the original contract will cause the so-called guaranteed maximum price to rise.
A bigger problem is that the change order that came before the trustees was so vague that they had no idea what the specific changes were that they were authorizing.
Perhaps I should explain that change orders are standard in industry, but they are extremely specific: “We need to change from these o-rings to those o-rings because the original o-rings will outgas at a temperature over 200 degrees C; the new o-rings will cost 50 cents more, so the entire machine will cost $6.50 more.” Regarding the change order before the school board, Trustee Mark Good said, “It’s a million dollars and there’s no explanation. I can’t support that.” To their credit, Mark Good, Denise Apuzzo, and Francisco Dominguez voted against the $1 million change order.
But the biggest problem is one that anyone, public or private, who has tried to build anything in the last 30 years in this state will recognize: it is that government agencies and public utilities (such as the city, the county, the water district and PG&E) will waltz in and impose additional requirements on construction projects. Think it through: if these requirements were code, the construction company would know about them in advance. Fees and permits: $10,000 here, $50,000 there, and soon we are talking about serious money.
The $1.8 million increase in design fee for phase two is equally troubling. Trustee Rhoda Bress was bothered by $5,000 allocated toward the design of a concession stand, and another unspecified chunk of cash toward design services for the high school theater.
Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios defended the theater, calling it a “full-fledged high school theater.” Francisco Dominguez expressed dismay at the “over elaborate” design of the school as a whole.
Considering that we already have scores of parents complaining that their child has to attend the old Gilroy High School instead of the new CHS, it seems unfair to the point of stupidity to be designing CHS to be ornate, ostentatious, gaudy, and “way, way over elaborate.” Designing in inequity is just asking for class envy and tension. To their credit, Rhoda Bress and Mark Good voted against the design fee.
The real underlying problem is that government bureaucrats making six-figure incomes think they should spend tax money lavishly and interfere mercilessly to justify their existence. The only cure is to vote for fiscal conservatives: not Democrats and not Republicans-In-Name-Only who promise everything and are willing to beggar our future to pay for it.
Speaking of government, has anyone noticed how the bigger the entity, the stupider and more expensive it gets? The city is more restrained than the county, the county is better than the state, the feds are the most foolish and profligate.
Our Congressman, Mike Honda, is sponsoring a bill, HR 416, to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This treaty will seriously undermine the rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children. Visit ParentalRights.org for more background information. Call Honda’s office, 408-558-8085, and politely ask him to withdraw his sponsorship.
