No. 4, a seemingly benign plan to bracket the salary for the newly created office of Chief Financial Officer at between $149,550 and $182,541.
Updating the Skaters Waltz
The floor of planning sessions for putting up a seemingly simple Skateboard Park has been littered with messiness, delays and assorted problems from the beginning.
Most recently, city staffers suffered from a dearth of bidders to build the darned thing. Only 2 companies responded, 1 from Upland, 1 from Riverside.
Both bids came in too high by a bunch, the City Council and staffers agreed.
Staffers asked for a do-over.
Winning Affirmation
They wanted to sit down a second time with both companies to see if they could convince them to modify their proposals.
Their strategy worked.
California SkateParks of Upland came in about 15 percent lower, at $539,000, down $108,000 from its original bid, $643,000.
Proportionately, 4-Con Engineering of Riverside only dropped about half as much, coming in at $549,000 instead of $598,000.
Wrapping It Up?
In fact, Parks and Recreation Director Bill LaPointe said this morning that the Upland building company asked for a second meeting last week, which may have clinched its winning bid.
Of California SkateParks, Mr. LaPointe said, warmly: They seemed to have sharpened their pencils a lot. They came up with value-engineering ideas.
City Council approval figures to be unanimous.
Technical Matter?
Regarding the second item on the Council agenda, designating Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Councilman Steve Rose probably will cause a ripple.
He plans to raise a protest vote against it.
Not the concept but the form, he said.
As an aggressive opponent of perceived excessive government involvement and needless batches of hollowed-out proclamations, Mr. Rose will enter a technical objection.
One Hand to the Other?
Since Mayor Gary Silbigers support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month plus one special day during the month was solicited by a governmental body previously known as the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, this constitutes one government agency merely honoring another, in Mr. Roses opinion.
A Raise for Everybody?
Finally, regarding the proposed salary schedule for the first Chief Financial Officer, Councilwoman Carol Gross is skeptical of the higher-than-anticipated plan because she fears a fiscal backfire.
By that, she means that when the CFOs salary comes in perilously close to that of City Manager Jerry Fulwood, the CFOs boss, all nearby salaries, including Mr. Fulwoods, will have to be jacked higher.
This important detail, Ms. Gross said, was not included in the staff report for tonight. It should have been. I would like to know why it wasnt.
