Butch Hansen, the budget analyst for the Pensacola City Council, yesterday sent an email to his bosses that pointed out his concerns and questions regarding the $9.6-million Bayview Community Center and Boathouse.
His key points were:
- The construction and total costs of the project have increased significantly since first approved 16 months ago.(58%)
- No alternative proposals that are within the approved budget have been presented.
- The current construction cost of $445/sq. ft. appear very high when compared to conservative estimates 8 months ago. ($335/sq. ft.)
- Construction costs may continue to increase.
- There are opportunity costs involved with moving all unassigned funding for park and athletic facility improvements for the next ten years to this project.
- The reduction in contingency costs to 3% may lead to additional budget requests later.
Butch Hansen said he will continue “to seek information on past similar construction projects, budget expenditures, and current construction costs to answer some of the ‘pending questions.'”  Read Bayview Park Community Resource Center Project.
Apparently City Administrator Eric Olson did not involve Hansen in any of the bid analysis, blindsiding the analyst just as he did the council.
At Agenda Review on Monday, CFO Dick Barker didn’t express any concerns about the latest $1.9-million increase in the project’s budget. He didn’t suggest any alternatives to save construction costs.
Even though the budget increases would use nearly all of the LOST IV all of the General Athletic Facilities Improvements ($900,000 of the $970,000 budget ) and the General Park Improvements ($365,000 of the $425,000 budget), Barker told the council, “This will not effect anything that we have planned to do.”
The CFO had no problem using 90 percent of the allocation intended to cover general ballpark and park improvements over the next 11 years on on project. This is the first year of the LOST Series IV funding so Mayor Hayward will leave only 10 percent of these allocations for his successor.