Back in late 2006, the City Council was told that the Police Department could move into rented space at the Dicon FiberOptics building for $2.9 million and that the move could start in January and be complete by April of 2007.

Now the price has doubled to $6 million, and the move date is projected as mid-August, 2007, with all facilities not completed until October 2007.

The City’s consultant in charge of the project blames the cost escalation and delay on the following:

·         The original project was that the temporary location would be needed only three years. (This recollection is not accurate. In December of 2006, staff represented that the temporary relocation would be 5-8 years. See  New Hall of Justice on the Ropes Due to Fund Shortage, November 22, 2006, and City Council Launches Civic Center Project on a Wing and a Prayer, December 23, 2006). Now, it is projected for at least seven. Therefore, the police need more bells and whistles to remain functional, and that costs more.

·         The leased space is not large enough and has to be augmented with 7,200 square feet of portable buildings and a permanent sally port.

·         The city attorney blocked a plan to sole source the construction and required that it be competitively bid, adding an estimated $700,000 cost. (Nobody could figure this one out).

The City is paying Dicon $1.85 per square foot for the space, which is top dollar in today’s economy, but getting no contribution from Dicon for the cost of tenant improvements. This might have been reasonable for a three-year tenancy, but now Dicon is making out like a bandit, and the taxpayers are being taken to the cleaners.

If there is any good news, the consultant tells us that $1 million of the cost, largely  modular holding cells, can be dismantled and moved to a new Hall of Justice whenever it gets built.

At this time, there seems to be no real alternative. It is, however, discouraging to see the questionable quality of advice yet another consultant guiding the City’s Civic Center Project, which is in turn directed by the Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency, both clearly over their heads. These guys missed their cost estimate by 100%, and we are still depending on them. Late last year, the City Council based decisions involving over $100 million on information that turned out to be substantially erroneous.