One of the “possible projects” contemplated by the passing of the North Miami General Obligation Bond is a brand spanking new City Hall for the Mayor and Council to call home.  At a “projected” cost of $29 million, what could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, plenty.

In 2005, the new City Hall in Newport Beach, California, was projected to cost $46 million.  By 2013, “the cost of the project tripled … to a final projected cost closer to $139 million today,” according to a March 25, 2013 article in The Orange County Register.  That’s not the worst of it.

After it was finally built in 2013, the Register also reported, “By the time the city pays for its dream home – and the cost of financing it over 30 years – the total bill to taxpayers will be at least $237 million, city finance documents show.”

Two years later in 2015, it was revealed that the new City Hall ended up costing taxpayers over $140 million.  In Newport Beach’s New City Hall: A boondoggle or a civic boon?, The Orange County Register reported:

Now, the project is under a magnifying glass.

In June, City Council members, most of whom campaigned against the spending on the Civic Center, voted to spend $100,000 on an independent audit. Some hope it will put to rest the biggest political issue in the city. Others say it might expose bad decisions and possibly bad acts.

In March, the city sent a letter to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office seeking a criminal investigation of former Assistant City Manager Steve Badum after an internal investigation found he may have failed to report dozens of meals and other perks given by contractors on the project. Badum has said he did nothing wrong.

By this time next year, leaders and others in one of Orange County’s wealthiest cities hope to know how every penny used on the Civic Center was spent.

“They’ve taken our money for the next 30 years so they could have a pretty City Hall,” said Bob McCaffrey, a staunch political activist who describes the City Hall as “Taj Mahal.”

“If you spend that kind of money I want to know where it went.”

In 2013, the city of Whitefish, Montana began construction of a new City Hall that was projected to cost $14.95 million.  On December 7, 2013, the Flathead Beacon reported, “Barely two months into construction of a new city hall and parking structure, Whitefish already faces cost overruns that could lead to cutbacks or increased budgeting for the project.  The latest cost estimates for the project are roughly $1 million over the approved budget of $14.95 million, according to a memo from city manager Chuck Stearns.”

Only five days later, the Flathead Beacon reported that the price tag increased again by another $700,000.  “City Manager Chuck Stearns informed the city council of an estimated $1.7 million shortfall due to unexpected costs and the fluid design process. A number of factors are leading to higher-than-expected costs, including increases for steel, concrete and labor, Stearns said.”

In 2014, the Eugene, Oregon city council approved construction of a new City Hall at a projected cost of $15 million.  By July of 2016, the estimate rose to $27.5 million, which was “close to double the project’s authorized budget two years ago,” according to Eugene’s local newspaper, The Register-Guard.  City officials were still figuring out a way to pay for their pet project they ambitiously proposed two years earlier.

City Commissioners in Rehoboth, Delaware envisioned a new City Hall in 2014 at a projected cost of $14 million, as reported by The News Journal-Delaware Online.  Three years later, the newspaper reported that while under construction, the project was “$2.68 million over budget due to a string of unexpected expenses that range from more extensive stormwater management to adding handrails that were inadvertently left out of the plans.”

Even smaller projects end up costing more than oringally projected.

In 2015 city council of Winnipeg in Manitoba County, Canada, merely wanted to renovate their City Hall at a cost of $4.1 million.  Due to cost overruns, the final price tag was $5.4 million, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Renovations to the City Hall in Panama City, Florida, which was estimated to be $4 million by former City Manager Jeff Brown, ended up costing $8,428,789, “more than double what taxpayers were told to expect,” according to the Panama City News Herald.

Although the Commission set this new figure as the “guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for construction,” the article reported that the “new figure for the renovation brings the total price of the project to an estimated $16,178,554.”  The News Herald also noted, “During the demolition phase, a number of problems were revealed with the building that drove up the price, according to a letter” from the project’s consultant.

Panama City Commissioners had wisely rejected spending $1 million for to build a Commission chambers addition “in favor of using for free the chambers at the County’s Government Center for their meetings,” as well as a new building estimated to cost $18 million to $22 million.

Even closer to home, Coral Spring’s new City Hall, originally estimated in 2013 at $22 million ($18 million for the building and $4 millon for the parking garage), is now going to cost taxpayers a total of $27 million.

In Coral Springs Talk’s recent article, Over Budget and Late: New City Hall is a White Elephant, Editor* Howard Melamed (*Correction:  Howard Melamed a contributing writer of CoralSpringsTalk.com, and also the Editor of coralsprings.com) wrote, “I also said that the increase in cost for this Taj Mahal white elephant will be a part of what we pay in taxes.  Our commissioners do play pocket pool with our tax money shifting it around to make it look like increases in the millage rate was for other purposes, but make no mistake: the reason for increase in taxes is to pay for this glorious structure towering the residential area around it looking nothing more than a white elephant.”

Melamed also claims the true cost of the Commissioners’ “Taj Mahal” is actually “$32 million for the city hall and $8 million for the garage,” or a new price of $40 million, nearly double the original estimate.

He also admonished Coral Springs voters with, “You elected these commissioners. Two of them ran on blocking this project. Three of them ran on that this building was the best thing for the city since Swiss cheese.  You have another chance this year to change the popularity contest of electing city commissioners to perhaps one that puts qualified people in charge.”

Ditto in North Miami, where city officials actually believe that they need their own “Taj Mahal.”

Even more hilarious, they want you to believe that the price tag for this unnecessary vanity project is only TWENTY NINE MILLION DOLLARS!

Judging by the handful of horror stories we recounted above, it’s not farfetched that North Miami’s new City Hall will end up costing taxpayers at least $50 million or more when all is said and done.  And that’s not even taking into account the cost of financing this amount over 30 years.

Just to give you an idea what this could cost taxpayers, we prepared a hypothetical Amortization Schedule, assuming a 30 year loan of $50 million at an interest rate of 5%, beginning May 1, 2018.  The monthly payment on such a loan would be $268,410.81, with the final payment due on May 1, 2048, at which time North Miami taxpayers would have paid a grand total of $48,627,892.85 in interest alone in addition to the original FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS of principal – approximately 97% of the original amount of the loan.

Using this formula, we estimate that the $120 million General Obligation Bond could cost taxpayers as much as TWO HUNDRED THIRTY SIX MILLION DOLLARS or more.

Just for shitz & giggles, we rearranged the letters of the words “GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND” and we came up with a curiously appropriate anagram: “OBTAIN REAL BOONDOGGLE”

North Miami city officials will say anything to get their hands on your money.

Don’t believe the lies!

They are desperate to sell you this boondoggle of a bond.

DON’T BUY IT!

VOTE NO ON MAY 1, 2018!

To be continued…

Stephanie