Small Stuff Adds Up
The Fullerton City Council agenda for tomorrow’s meeting is pretty light. Except for a budget discussion everything is “Consent Calendar.” One of those items caught my attention. Item #10 is an emergency, non-bid request to work on some drainage channel wedged between the Uptown Apartments on Yorba Linda and the 57 CalTRANS right-of-way.
Staff is claiming the project (whose scope isn’t described, other than “a damaged wall”) is necessary due to “recent rain events,” always a useful pretext for doing stuff. The channel isn’t one of those big ones with perpendicular walls, but from a satellite view it looks like a simple concrete “V” ditch that enters and exits a concrete drain structure.
It must look something like this, right? A concrete “V” in cross section with woven wire mesh or thin rebar. Has a part of the been washed out or undermined? Who knows? We just know there’s some sort of damage, and I’d bet the “recent rain events” are an excuse for a long-developing issue.
Here’s a google earth view of a portion of the the existing “V” ditch that is either buried or washed out.
This is the funny part. The City Engineer has estimated a construction cost of $105,000, but with an overhead of almost 20%. That’s ridiculous. At $100 an hour for staff time we’d be looking at 200 manhours, or one person working on nothing else for five weeks. The design is negligible since you can just sketch a plan and pull a cross section and specs out of the Green Book or other standard sources, like I did, above. Administration? Processing? You’ve got to be kidding. And then there’s the amount budgeted for “contingencies.” $75,000, or 75% of the construction amount. So they really don’t know what the scope is and are expecting surprises.
If I were on the City Council I would be asking staff about these figures. They don’t make sense, at least not on the surface. Something is going on.
When the 57 freeway was built this drainage flow was created by a giant berm, but I have to wonder how and why the City created a drainage right-of-way on what appears to be the CalTRANS right-of-way, or on private land since the property looks like a jagged remnant of the State’s freeway land acquisitions.
Someone might also reasonably inquire into how come this thing is an emergency at all. That seems awfully strange. The rainy season is virtually over and the amounts of water collected here seem pretty insignificant.
But back to the finances. The problem with all municipal public works budgets are the amount used to cover staff expenses and overhead, and this, normally around 10% or more, is already padded. If you think about it, money from infrastructure funds are being used and abused to support to bureaucracy instead of pouring concrete.
The amounts in this instance are small, but they are indicative of an ongoing philosophy of abusing Capital Improvement budgets. Some might argue that unused funds will simply be returned to the fund from which they came. Could be. But how would anybody know?
You can bet all the capital projects are heavily featherbedded.
Producing a boiler place contract, a site plan and a section. A couple site visits for inspections, A couple payment requests. Maybe 3 days, all told.
This is tucked away. I think the only access is through the apartment complex. Maybe that’s where they’re expecting issues.
Nobody will ask any questions because what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Remember all the facts the City Council ignored about the Trail to Nowhere, such as Phase I and Phase 2 aren’t connected.
Exactly. Don’t ask don’t tell. The unofficial Fullerton city motto.
Why is the city even involved in this as it is in the CalTrans right of way. There for it should their responsibility.
I thought about that.
The drainage is adjacent to the ROW, or in it; and it was created when the freeway berm was built. I don’t know why the City took this over but it must have been almost 60 years ago.
I want to know why this is an emergency. I smell a political decision. By whom? The otiose Sheena Charles?
Cities abuse the Consent Calendar to skirt accountability and avoid public discussion. They have weaponized the CC and use it regularly against the public they allegedly serve.
True. Happens all the time.
Two council members in a neighboring city wanted to kick a volunteer they didn’t like it off a committee she had been appointed to. They hid it in the Consent Calendar to try and sneak it in without public discussion. A resident informed the person impacted to ask for the item to be pulled for discussion, which she did. The scheming and dishonest council members who attempted the chicanery were publicly embarrassed and faced immediate backlash. Power corrupts.
My bet is has something to do with all the homeless that are living down there.
What do you think gets more use?
That area, or the Trail To Nowhere?
Not even close.
At the north end of the draw there is (or was when the satellite image were made) a HUGE trash dump. I think you may have hit on something.
It is an unhoused nature center.
For the temporarily unaddressed.
Yes, lots of homeless live around there. And near the overpass on the Craig Park side.
I can’t believe Fred didn’t pull this
I can. He’s too lazy to learn what’s really going on. More interested in the seating arrangement and fundraising.
Is that a joke? Why would he do that?
There is NO way this is an emergency.
Something is going on to hide information from the public. Declaring an emergency to dodge a bid must be some kind of crime. A public bid would entail a defined scope of work, not some vague “a damaged wall after the recent rains” dodge.
Jozef Maldonado asked for this Item to be pulled for discussion. But none of the councilmembers did so.