When the Board of Education meets Tuesday night, it is scheduled to approve payment of a $91,595.67 bill from Polsinelli, PC, the Kansas City law firm that his handling the P1 lawsuit, which involves both a lawsuit against the Lenexa, Kansas firm that did the electrical contracting work for Joplin High School, and the countersuit from the company.
The latest bill increases the amount paid to Polsinelli to at least $1,070,723.07, including $582,587.74 in the last four months alone.
While sources have indicated that a settlement may be in the offing, the amount taxpayers are paying continues to grow.
Of course, it could be worse, if P1 wins the lawsuit. The company claims it is owed more than $6 million for costs incurred due to Huff's push to get the high school opened on time in August 2014.
Huff, who "retired" in 2015, is still being paid his superintendent's salary through the end of December and received a $50,000 payment for "consulting," which is strictly to cover his help in preparing for the lawsuit he caused in the first place.
5 comments:
If Huff's boyish, gross incompetence leads to taxpayers being on the hook for another $7 million dollars in expenses, we should bring a suit against him, Little Landis, Annie and the gang that failed the taxpayers with gross negligence. If nothing else, perhaps we could have a protest at the school with pitchfork and lanterns to show our disgust. I pity the organization, if Huff is able to find one, that hires this charlatan assuming he didn't cripple our school system with debt.
You called it right on this fool, Randy. I notice in today's Glob, that they are finally reporting on Dankelson's campaign contributors. As usual they are a day late, and a dollar short as you had beat them by well over a week. Good job!
Yes, because legitimate news sources have to actually check sources and check facts. They can't just print any gossip that comes along as Turner does. There is always the possibility of litigation. Whereas turner and his editorial pieces aren't considered legitimate news sources.
S, what if Joplin WINS the lawsuit? What then? He comes out looking pretty good and I am sure the legal expenses would be awarded to the victor, at least partially.
Add that payment to the expenses not covered by FEMA thanks to the CJ clowns, and it's hard to imagine how the district will stay afloat. Unbelievable mess.
Don't be foolish. The electrical contractor has time sheets showing every hour of overtime. They have the authorization from the district for the overtime. If there is a settlement it is not in favor of R8. This is a train wreck that should have been avoided but that would mean good stewardship was present. Sad.
S, what if Joplin WINS the lawsuit? What then? He comes out looking pretty good and I am sure the legal expenses would be awarded to the victor, at least partially.
Expanding on 7:11 PM's points, one of the things that's likely to kill the District's case is that after P1 supposedly did all this shoddy work that the District refused to pay them for, it continued to employ P1. That's not something you do if the District's claims were actually true.
Although we have to hope P1 indeed has "the authorization from the district for the overtime." and formal change orders and the like. For that's the only basis I can see for the District winning, that only verbal communications that Huff and Johnson are now denying were behind some of the things that forced P1 to run up the bill so high. Rush work is always expensive, as P1 has explained. Or perhaps that's a basis, that the District wasn't sufficiently notified how much extra it would cost to try to get the high school open by Huff's arbitrary deadline.
One also wonders how good a Superintendent we can recruit with two possible if not likely high 7 figure outlays coming due or not being covered, plus almost certainly other hidden or papered over shortfalls. If just one of those happens, after the usual suspects poisoned the well for further tax increases, and with Huff's other messes only partly cleaned up, only an idiot or someone who enjoys challenges will sign on to fix them. And he might overestimate his ability to fix things....
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