Jackson Free Press

City Council members want to know why the city waited so long to notice that developer Retro Metro wasn't providing computer and telephone wiring at the city's new Metrocenter Mall offices. The cost of a change order to make it happen now is $250,000, with developer Retro Metro finishing the work in the old Belk store. The project already exceeds $2.5 million.

Retro Metro LLC, a project of Watkins Partners, leased 60,000 square feet to the city. David Watkins is head of the development firm.

The $250,000 sticker shock surprised the council at a Jan. 23 briefing. A week later, during a special session Jan. 30 to approve the change order, not a single council member made a motion on the matter.

Ward 7 City Council Quentin told the Jackson Free Press this morning that he had expected at the special meeting to get a packet of information that included the contract, specifications and some indication of where things got confused.

"Who it was in IT who dropped the ball? Who had not done due diligence? Why was it so late?" Whitwell said. "None of that information was provided. On the flip side of this, being the business-minded councilman I am, I am frustrated. This is really making the city look bad."

Several city of Jackson offices in the Jackson Medical Mall have a February deadline to move--that's when the lease ends.

At the Jan. 23 work session, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. briefed the council about the coming change order and that the technical specifications weren't in the developer's plans.

"Neither one of us accounted on the cabling," the mayor said. "We were focused on space." He told the council that the $250,000 would come out of the city's tech fund.

"It won't impact the bottom line," the mayor said.

Instead of a change order, Whitwell wants to authorize the developer to complete the wiring and cabling and then allow the city to pay the expense over time. That would be better, he said, than coming up with a quarter of a million dollars immediately. Right now, Whitwell is not convinced the city and the developer have sorted out work details.

"There's still some confusion about who is dong it," he told the JFP. "The city should have known this a while ago."

The mayor will present his request to the council again. Chris Mims, the city's director of communications, said city staff members were gathering additional information for the council.

Previous Comments

ID

165977

Comment

Both parties to the contract overlooked the wiring issue? Wondering how it is that neither side did their 'due diligence' on the cost estimate prior to execution of the contract--and why the city's legal department didn't catch it during the review process since all contracts have to go through that dept. prior to submission to the Council and the Mayor's signature. Even if there was verbal agreement that tech wiring was to be paid for by the city it should have been stipulated, if for no other reason than it is a critical issue in any office move and one of the most expensive. The omission will prove expensive to rectify since the Council will most likely squabble about it for months, thus incurring further higher rent costs. The current landlord isn't likely to let the city continue at its present monthly lease amount since after the lease expires, the city will be 'depriving' the leasing company of use of space. Sigh. Lovely. My tax dollars at work....

Author

LHB6391

Date

2012-02-05T11:57:23-06:00