With the $7 million, the total that Superintendent C. J. Huff's decision to accelerate construction over the spring and summer months of 2014 to get JHS open by the beginning of the school year now tops $10 million, without guarantee there are no more bills to come.
The bill, dated March 18, and addressed to Huff, Archie Smith of Universal Construction Company, the project manager, and architect Chad Greer of Corner, Greer and Associates, puts the blame for the extra costs squarely on the acceleration of the project.
In the bill, the P1 Group asks for $7,078,464, including $2,379,986 for "acceleration inefficiencies," $1,439,215 for "overtime inefficiencies," and $711,952 for "added supervision,"
The extra supervision was required when Universal, at Huff's request, gave the go-ahead to push the project to try to meet Huff's self-imposed deadline of having the school ready by opening day. P1 was forced to increase its staffing from 30 to 100, according to the bill.
"P1 was forced to work additional man hours due to the accelerated, disrupted, bi-furcated, out-of-sequence and delayed work method experienced throughout the project.
"In addition, P1 was not able to achieve its planned rate of efficiency due, in part, to the fact that when the work was accelerated and P1 was required to staff the project with up to 100 men working 8,200 man hours per week rather than the planned average crew size consisting of 30 men working 1,200 man hours per week and with a projected maximum crew size of 42 men working 1,680 man hours, the quality of the laborers diminished."
Interestingly enough, P1 notes in the letter accompanying its bill that it was not the low bidder for the project.
The $7 million is not covered by any of the $74 million in loans the district has taken since last August.
The documentation was included in a lawsuit filed by the school district today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The school district claims it does not owe P1 anything because "despite demand, P1 Group has failed to remedy its defective work and says that all of the costs claimed by P1 "were not included into an approved change order."
The two-count action claims breach of contract and asks for a declaratory judgment..
The district has hired the high-powered Polsinelli Law Firm of Kansas City to handle the lawsuit and is asking for a jury trial.
You've got to be kidding me. On top of the $3 million, we add this, plus the cost of their attorneys, plus who knows what else. All this so one little egomaniac could say "school will start on time" one more time. And it didn't.
ReplyDeleteMakes the mall look cheap in comparison, and he cheated the kids out of several days of school, not to mention the hourly staff he cut several day's pay.
CJ Huff just must go. There's just no excuse. Anne Sharp is an idiot if she gives him an 8 out of 10 rate. Kick them all out.
Did I read correctly that the district's defense is that the electrical people haven't fixed some problems? Does that mean my child is in a building every day with electrical issues? What next? Gas leaks? Weak structures? Freaking unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteHow many more of these bills are going to hit the district, and how does Huff intend to pay for those. Borrow more money? I don't think FEMA will pick up the tab for this level of stupidity and gross mismanagement. That'll go to the patrons of R8. Should have voted him out last year. Might have saved several million.
ReplyDeleteWell, now all you folks just needs to calm down a little. Dr. Huff just did tell us that there is plenty of money in them there bank accounts and other districts would like to be in our shoes. I shore do wish one would hurry up and swap us out finances then. I'm sure CJ will just dig deep in his pockets full of that there speaking money and everything will turn out just fine though. It ain't like the little feller would lie to us, right?
ReplyDeleteThere goes any shot of a raise for next year. jackass
ReplyDeleteThis makes my blood boil. Just think what they could've gotten for this. Algebra books would've been nice. Or history or science or English. We need them all. What has happened here is just ignorance. But hey, what does it matter since it was all...
ReplyDeleteFor our kids
Huff said that we couldn't afford to keep JHS and FTC students in the temporary buildings for another year. Can anyone find out how much money the district would have saved in construction costs if the board had decided follow the standard construction work schedule and open the building in July,2015? At least $7,000,000 right?
ReplyDeleteAll for the children.
ReplyDeleteExcept when it isn't.
GOOD, FAST, CHEAP.
Pick not more than two...
Hope Joplin got GOOD, but with Dear Lead at the helm and worried about FAST, maybe not.
You might as well pile millions of dollars in the school yard and give Huff a freaking match to burn it all with. That's all he's good for is burning up our money. And the school board just keeps on letting it happen. They must be making a pretty piece of change of their little cash cow Huffy boy, and Good is going to continue the habit. .
ReplyDeleteThere never is just one cockroach. Expect more to crawl out into the light of day.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, will the Globe:
ReplyDeletea. bury this story;
b. whitewash this story;
c. praise Huff for his getting the kids back to school???
Did P1 file the suit or the district?
ReplyDeleteThe district filed the lawsuit, which I believe I said in the post. In this case, it was the district filing the lawsuit before it had one filed against it. It is a sure bet there will be a countersuit.
ReplyDeleteWhere in your post did you say the disrict filed suit?
ReplyDeleteCan you read?
DeleteIt states in the 3rd paragraph from the end that the school district filed the law suit.
ReplyDeleteTo 4:34 and 5:03, you are both correct. When I responded at 9:41 (actually 11:41, this is two hours off) I did not look back to make absolutely sure that I had specified that the school district filed the lawsuit. That had been my intention and I thought that was what I had done. After the second message, I looked back, realized that I had not been clear at all about who filed the lawsuit and I made the change in the post.
ReplyDeleteDid Huff think this company was going to work overtime for free to help Huff meet his unrealistic goal of opening the school on time?
ReplyDeleteDid Huff think this company was going to work overtime for free to help Huff meet his unrealistic goal of opening the school on time?
ReplyDeleteProbably not at the time, but when money gets tight, stiffing your creditors is one thing a lot of people and institutions attempt. Sounds like they're trying to get out of paying anything, pleading insufficient quality for the work that was done, but not bad enough to expose the city's children to, and for the acceleration costs---I discussed this with my father and we don't think Joplin even has as many as 100 electricians, ignoring the fact that there's other work they need to do---claiming it wasn't properly authorized.
One wonder how long it'll be before vendors demand cash in advance from the school district; there is no way this will end well.
@ 6:32PM
ReplyDeleteI assume you're not referring to the contractor ("P1") as the "cockroach."
In any case, for sure there will be other subcontractors coming forward with their extra bills for the acceleration of C.J.'s monuments. It's highly unlikely the other subs performed their overtime work for the exercise and the "luv for C.J. Huff." In fact, hasn't the BOE already approved tens of thousand of dollars for acceleration costs. A hell of a lot a money can be spent without/slip by public awareness by the board's consent agenda procedure, meaning no discussion occurs on these agenda items.
Back regarding "P1," I can't imagine "P1" not getting at least a weekly approval signature out of the general contractor with their overtime hours itemized. Otherwise, they aren't very smart and might wind up learning a valuable lesson.
How do these things work? I know P1 put a bid in and won. So if they go over wouldn't that be their fault? Just confused on how this works?
ReplyDelete