More taxpayer dollars to be wasted on consultants

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 8/15/08 @ 9:00 am - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics

Thursdays headline of the Journal Gazette made my blood pressure rise by 10 - 15 points.  “Space sharing back on table.”

Two years ago the City of Fort Wayne and Allen County were on the verge of combining and “co-locating” in a building to save costs. 

According to the JG article:

“The City scrapped plans to move offices to Renaissance Square in 2006 because renovations were $1,000,000 more than expected.  The cost estimates came from a $20,000 study from Design Collaborative.”

Also per the JG article:

The City and County have hired Design Collaborative in 2008 for $45,000 taxpayer dollars to study the costs for “rearranging numerous governmental departments.”

It seems every couple of years we hire a consulting firm to do this study.

How many times do we have to hire Consultants to perform the same study?

Mike Sylvester

Comments

9 Responses to “More taxpayer dollars to be wasted on consultants”

  1. Neil Kelty on August 15th, 2008 9:23 am

    Mike:

    Reminds me of this poster - http://www.filemanager.ca/Demotivators/Consulting.jpg

    I think it fits the bill quite well.

  2. Tom M. on August 15th, 2008 9:52 am

    How many City employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?
    ANSWER: Don’t know until we hire a Consultant to help us find out.

  3. Bob G. on August 15th, 2008 10:46 am

    Tom:
    And that consultant will PROBABLY want to form a TASK FORCE so he can see whether it’s viable to have a COMMITTEE look into it.

    Is there any way to GET OFF of this overly PC Merry-Go-Round? I’m not seeing any “brass ring” anywhere, & the price of the ride sucks.

    ;)

    B.G.

  4. John Glasper on August 15th, 2008 2:25 pm

    Bob G.:
    Don’t forget about the CIRCLE JERK. It’s involved somewhere in the process.

  5. Scott Freeh on August 15th, 2008 7:41 pm

    The commissioners have hired a consultant to study the same space that county council has now hired another consultant to study. How do they get by with such silliness? What happens when their consultants come up with different ideas? A third consultant to break the tie?

  6. Fred Rost on August 17th, 2008 1:11 pm

    The City and County are an apparent ATM for Design Collaborative, how many times are we going to pay them for the same study.

    How is Design Collaborative constantly selected for these plum jobs? Is it a competitive bid or what?

  7. dan jehl on August 17th, 2008 4:31 pm

    The episodic consultant “merry-go-round” needs brakes or restraint.

    How about a city and county policy that for every $75,000 of consultant contracts for episodic reasons (not the normal public works or annual set term ones) that one FTE position be eliminated at the same time?

    That would show fiscal restraint, and may be the brakes needed.

  8. John Colgate on August 18th, 2008 8:50 am

    Let’s see… Someone bought a building in New Haven that was to small? Then one that cost to much to renovate. Then sold one for 1/3 of what they paid? Maybe a couple of more deals for Design Collaborative and they can get it right!

    “That would show fiscal restraint, and may be the brakes needed.”

    Change “brakes” to BRAINS and you’re getting close!

    Design Collaborative has sucessfully designed a great Sugar Daddy.

  9. Gary Snyder on August 19th, 2008 8:27 am

    Huntington County just spent $35,000 on a consultant to determine if Huntington needs to implement a 1% LOIT. To no one’s surprise, the consultant indicated Huntington needed to raise income taxes by the 1%, providing political cover to the the county council, or so they think!

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