Do Taxpayers Owe HansellDesign $42,000 for his drawing?

Do Taxpayers Owe HansellDesign $42,000 for a drawing?

Hansell Design was hired secretly by Eric Dreikosen, Marinwood CSD manager on February 14, 2018 after the board approved the "mystery architect" at the February 13, 2018 Marinwood CSD meeting.  Bill Hansell, former CSD Director HIRED Eric Dreikosen in 2016 as the Marinwood CSD Manager despite lacking any government agency or accounting experience.  

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Here is a clip from the February 13 2018 meeting where Mr Dreikosen presents his choice of architect at an estimated cost of $12,000.  Notice his lack of details about the identity of the architect, how he was chosen and the total amount to be paid by the CSD.

Here is how Eric Dreikosen responded to a question from the public regarding his representation of the architects costs at the February 13, 2018 Marinwood CSD meeting:   

"It appears that comments made at a board meeting regarding architect costs are being taken out of context and are not representative of what was stated. 

It was not stated that the architect cost estimate for the entire project was $12,000.  What was stated is that for projects such as the maintenance facility, soft costs are approximated at an additional 20% of construction costs typically.  Of that 20%, architect services typically account for 60% of the 20%.  Based on that formula, I used an example of if construction costs are $100,000, soft costs would be an additional $20,000 with architect fees accounting for $12,000 of the $20,000.  $100,000 is the same construction cost figure provided and used by the other architect who submitted a proposal."

Does that sound like an accurate description of the February 2018 Marinwood CSD meeting to you?

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Immediately after receiving the commission,  Hansell Design billed $11,931.73  by May 2018.  This is $6,000 per month. As of November 2018, we can expect that we owe Hansell Design another $30,000 but we cannot be certain. Since then the board has refused to acknowledge the growing cost of HansellDesign who has worked an additional five months without submitting bills or even timesheets.

HansellDesign is billing at $125/hour plus expenses.  Surely his costs have grown substantially and still the project is in the "drawing phase"  Those of us who are paying close attention are appalled at the lack of rigor, misstatements and questionable bookkeeping.

It is corrupt business practice and collusion.  Multiple government contracting laws are being broken and it could rise to a felony criminal investigation.    Government employees are not allowed to hide costs from the citizens nor can they collude privately with individuals.

As much as it pains me to say so, the project should be halted immediately until a full investigation can happen.

We need a new maintenance facility.  A one similar to size and scale of McInnis Park (1200 sf) will be more than adequate and cause minimal disturbance to Marinwood Park.  It is time to stop wasting money on a White Elephant project that will destroy a large area of our park that is to be used for recreation and nature preservation.

Sign the Petition HERE