City manager: Majority of Quality of Life bond projects under budget

Trying to push back against a perception that several of the Quality of Life Bond projects and other big city construction projects are over budget, City Manager Tommy Gonzalez on Tuesday touted that the majority of the most recently completed city projects came in under budget.

Out of the 23 most recently completed projects, 20 came in at or under budget while three were over budget, said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez started something new when he was hired. He began updating council on projects as they were being built, and sometimes council or community members asked for changes which he said oftened delay a project.

“I think someone needs to say this and I think I’m the one who needs to say this. When you listen to the neighborhood and you listen to groups and you make adjustments to a plan, that’s going to cause a delay and so we did at Country Club. We gave them every single thing they asked for,” said Gonzalez.

The Country Club Road reconstruction and beautification project was months behind schedule, but was about $273,000 under budget, according to the city.

Other examples of big projects under budget include the digital wall downtown which was completed at $196,000 under the projected cost, and the Downtown pedestrian pathway, which city officials said came in at $335,000. Both of those projects were approved by voters. Another big example: a street resurfacing and drainage project on Carpenter Street in the Lower Valley that came in at $583,000 under budget.

The three items over budget are the Bookmobile purchase that was $39,740 more than the expected cost; some pedestrian crossings went over budget by $2,894; and the Northeast skate park, also a Quality of Life bond project, went over by $47,943.

City Rep. Carl Robinson said he attended every community meeting on the skate park in which the city presented the project as right on budget.

“How did this happen?” Robinson asked Gonzalez.

City engineering officials said the overages on the park were due mostly to additional trees, irrigation and a plaque — an answer that further baffled Robinson.

“Those things caused it to go over budget by that much?” he asked.

The projects mentioned above are completed projects. Projects that are still in progress are the San Jacinto Plaza renovation project, which has had costly change orders. The city insists its under budget so far and in the future. The West Side pool cost projections went from $8 million to $13 million.