A major Herald Watchdog Report today said: Nine years past a deadline, the county must decide whether to scrap an overhaul and spend $345 million on new Metrorail cars.Larry Lebowitz reported:
“...after nine years of backroom discussion and, some say, deception, the agency will ask commissioners Tuesday to scrap the rehab and buy new cars. Doing so means throwing away $9 million in consulting fees and staff time that went into trying to hire a company to strip and rebuild the cars. But county leaders say the rehab is now so late and so costly that it's wiser to spend $345.4 million on a new fleet.”
The Transit Feds enforcing maintenance issued a “Watch Letter” in 2001. If the county had acted in 2003 it would have cost us $188 million instead of the estimate today of $345 million.
The county commission will be reviewing this today. Ron Book is the lobbyist for the “rehab” the cars idea which is almost as expensive. Expect him to have a temper tantrum as dollars meant for his pocket dissolves before his eyes. I just turned on the Commission Meeting to see if Ron Book was pleading for his client and Souto is talking, which means no sensible dialogue for at least 10 or 15 minutes. Here is the kicker:
Even though the need for the overdue rail-car work was well known in the county manager's office in 2001 with the "Watch Letter", it wasn't included in the list of projects sold to voters in 2002, Then, after we voted they stuck the project in the package voted on by the CITT in 2003!
"Some critics call using new money for overdue maintenance a bait-and-switch” says the Herald. Lebowitz reported:
Given the tortured history of the rehab contract and the rising anger of voters who supported the sales tax in 2002, Commissioner Carlos Gimenez doesn't know how he'll vote Tuesday:
"Do I want to vote for this? No way. Was this a bait-and-switch with the voters, taking new money and using it to fix old? Absolutely. But what happens if we vote no? Does Metrorail deteriorate and we have to shut it down. What are the consequences of that?''
I turn to the Mayor and Manager Burgess and say this really stinks. Yes, I know that these problems started before both of you were heading the County but it should have been addressed earlier and letting it fester further has ruined our chances for Federal Transportation matching funds for transit expansion. I think Burgess is so far over his head he just can’t fix anything right anymore. He doesn’t have enough fingers to stick in the holes in the dyke. While I am at it: WHERE IS THE FINAL AUDIT OF WACKENHUT?
Oh, God, Souto is talking about Cuba. Gotta go.
14 comments:
Your BOONDOGGLE index is getting pretty big. Maybe you should have a subhead:
Boondoggle County
Boondoggle City
etc.
It is 11:45. They are discussing this issue now at the County.
As convenient as Metrorail is to get downtown, I don't care if it is totally eliminated. The cars are used mostly by the homeless that spend all day sleeping with their feet on the chairs. When a nice and clean person sits, dirt and even chewing gum stick to their butt. Despite signs to the contrary, everybody eats and drinks, listen to loud music and act as if they were in their living rooms. The seats reserved for "elderly and handicapped" are usually occupied by teenagers that won't surrender them to a handicapped or elderly rider.
Until there is real enforcement in the trains, spending more money to make them look presentable will be another waste of taxpayers' monies.
Lets be clear, the County Administration is recommending that the County purchase the new fleet. For those that are focused on the Commission as the root of all evil, you must begin to realize that the County Administration, including the visionless County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, and the incompetent County Manager George Burgess (who has no position in the new strong mayor form of government, and is still being paid 500K a year for his incompetence, how nice). It is time for a wholesale change. We have about 2-3 Commissioners that are worth keeping. Gimenez jumps to the top of that list. Besides that, the rest should go. Marco Rubio may not be the answer, but, he may be a much better option than what we have now.
To the last anon: You obviously have a bone to pick...which Commissioner do you work for? Always griping about Burgess and how he has no position in the new form of Government. If you look at the amended charter, you will see that the county manager position is covered under Article IV. Roger is this you???
As far as Rubio is concerned, last year proved he's lost his clout and political capital, and he is not trustworthy...He created a false sense of hope proposing the elimination of property taxes...He cut many a deal to help Bense and himself at the expense of others. His own south florida delegation can't stand him and will actively campaign against him. Braman, Souto, and especially Rivera are pushing him to run cause they have no one else to suck up to.
RUBIO? RUBIO? ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR MINDS???
Genius and last ANON, I agree with both of you 100%.
Are you kidding me, Art IV reads like a listing for a Chief of Staff position, not for a Manager. The Mayor is supposed to run the day to day operations, and the Manager is there to assist him in his duties, not maintain those duties. Really, are you on the 29th Floor or something?? Always defending the administration?
The Manager has no real power anymore, and if you deny that, you just don't understand the law, and that is fine... In practice, the Manager still has power, but, that is only because the current Mayor is so week. Legally, he is the Mayor's assistant...
As for Rubio, I didn't say he was the best.. I for one have a few better options, but, if he is the only won that will challenge Alvarez, I haven't seen anything that would tell me that we would be any worse. To the contrary. I think Marco would actually get things done, starting with firing Burgess.
I am not Roger by the way.
To clarify, I do not work for government in any capacity.
RUBIO? DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT ON THIS BLOG.
Genius:
Isn't the point of a blog like this a free exchange of ideas? Again, Marco is not the best, but, he is the best of those who have indicated an interest in running. I can think of better, but, in a race between bad and worse, I will chose bad every day of the week and twice on Tuesday!
The name Philip Levine keeps getting whispered
RUBIO!! ACK!!! I CAN'T EVEN FATHOM IT. IF HE WERE MAYOR, I COULDN'T WRITE THIS BLOG...I WOULD HAVE TO MOVE TO STUART.
Rubio is great, he would move the UDB that is for sure, he would try to cut our property taxes in Miami-Dade so that the government would be run by volunteer "night watchmen," he would work on pressuring the public school system to shut down. Rubio as a staunch conservative knows that the way to grow an economy is to cut taxes and public services so that we could compete with places like Old Miss and Mexico on cost.
STOP USING THAT NAME EVEN IN JEST...he gives me the Heebee-jeebees
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