Marinwood CSD 5/11/2021 Marinwood CSD approves MOST EXPENSIVE MAINTENANCE SHED in Marin County history!

This is a long meeting on 5/11/2021 but demonstrates how the Marinwood CSD is wasting millions of dollars on the Marinwood Maintenance Shed and the future financial health of our district.  Citizens concerns were never addressed and the board ignored all practical problems with parking, loading materials and sensitive habitat. . Instead they hired a former CSD Board member as architect behind a closed door.  It is an egregious abuse of power and community trust. Numerous ethics and possibly political corruption laws were violated.    The original project was estimated to cost $100k utilizing standard designs commonly found in virtually every other park in Marin County.  The Marinwood CSD gave the architect a blank check to pursue his creative vision.  New board members were intimidated in approving the project by claims of "looming cost increases"  and never addressing practical alternatives.  Several former Marinwood CSD board members and their friends in the community will directly profit from THE MOST EXPENSIVE CAPITAL PROJECT in the last twenty years.  Our local democracy is virtually non existent.  Citizens must demand accountability and if laws were broken, those responsible should be held accountable.  

The history of this project and the board meetings are on fully documented on videotape.  Remember, what just happened the next time when the board seeks a new tax or bond for "budget shortfalls".

Secret Architect hired in Feb 2018 for $12,000 all inclusive price.

  Marinwood CSD general manager Eric Dreikosen reports hiring an architect for $12,000 for all inclusive price for a maintenance shed proposal but fails to reveal that it is former Marinwood CSD director, Bill Hansell .  Dreikosen was hired by the CSD board that included Bill Hansell in 2015 .  The total budget cost of the project has not been revealed and the architects fees have exceeded the $12,000 before reaching site plan approval stage. Another architect with decades of experience with public works projects, bid $13,800 for the ENTIRE PROJECT including site plan review (fixed price $2800), construction oversight and architects fee of 8% based on $100,000 construction cost.  He lost the bid. The CSD  has attacked critics as spreading "misinformation" yet hides its plans and budgets.  You be the judge how well they handle the public's business.  This clip is from the February 13, 2018 Marinwood CSD board meeting.

"Public Outreach?" asks Planner. Jeff Naylor shuts down discussion in 2018.

 

At the Jan 27, 2020 Marin Planning Commission meeting, commissioner asks about the public outreach. Jeff Naylor's famous response in September 2018 to a petition of 200 residents tells the real story of "public outreach" Still there has been no meeting. The project budget is secret and the architect, a former CSD politician has estimated billing 500% of the initial estimates BEFORE the plan has been approved. Hansell Design has a highly unusual "unlimited billing" fee arrangement with NO PERFORMANCE provisions. While CSD Director, Bill Hansell hired current manager Eric Dreikosen at double his previous compensation despite NO EXPERIENCE in managing a CSD. This is small town corruption on display enabled by the entire CSD board.

The Multimillion Dollar Shed is Missing Area for Loading/Unloading Landscaping Materials and Vehicle Movement.

 

The proposed Marinwood Maintenance Compound won't have a grassy area in front.

This area must be used for loading/unloading of landscape materials.

The Marinwood CSD maintenance crew generates big piles of landscaping debris and trash each week. They store this in the large open area next to the horse shoe pits in Marinwood Park to allow the convenient loading/dumping of material.  

Large piles of landscaping waste and trash is stored in the open at the Maintenance shed

A bucket loading operation requires much space as you can see in this video.   Generally, the dump trailer is loaded from the side into the center of the trailer. The operator must do this to balance the load for safety.  This means the bucket loader requires a large area for scooping material and turning.

The truck and trailer must be parked perpendicular to the bucket loader.  

 

In the site plan of the proposed Maintenance Facility below, you can see that the only area where this operation can take place is IN FRONT of the Maintenance Facility.  The architect has drawn a walking path in this area to deceive the planning department.  There is NO ROOM inside the walled maintenance compound to perform a mechanized loading operation.

Our Ford F250 is 22 feet long.and the dump trailer is approximately 20 feet long including tongue.

This means that 42 feet of space will be required for the truck/trailer and an additional 40' to 60' feet to the side will be required for the bucket loader and material. This will occupy all the area between the maintenance building and Miller Creek.

Proposed Maintenance Facility with old facility overlay in brown

This drawing shows the footprint of the proposed Maintenance Bldg and the old building footprint in brown. The brown box on the left is the area the architect calls open storage. In fact the entire area from the current building to the horse shoe pit is used for landscaping debris, parking and tool storage.  Clearly there is no area suitable for loading and unloading material within the proposed Maintenance Building above. The architect shows this area as green space and a walking path but it will not happen. It will be used for parking and storage of debris and landscaping materials. The is no alternative.

What happened to the access road that the architect showed in previous drawings?  It has disappeared.  This is highly deceptive.  The architect must show where essential activities will take place on the building site. Safety vehicles and pedestrians must pass through this area.

The drawings do not show the true impact to the stream conservation area and Marinwood Park.

The proposed Marinwood CSD Maintenance Facility is simply too big and inefficient,  harms the environment and occupies land that should be used for recreational purposes as intended.

The Multi Million Dollar Maintenance Shed won't allow our Vehicles to Turn Around

 

The Marinwood Drive Through Maintenance facility is a bust

The Marinwood "Drive Through" Maintenance Facility now before the Marin County Planning board is completely unworkable for the maintenance department and our service vehicles.  The video below shows why. Our maintenance department has a 2018 Ford F250 truck that is 22 feet long and a 16' dump trailer. Just like the truck in the short video, our F250 needs 51.9 feet to turn around .   

This means that our truck will be on the edge of Miller Creek stream bank every time it needs to turn around, rain or shine. More likely it will drive to the meadow to turn around and destroy this lovely area too.

In 2007, a catastrophic flood destroyed the stream bank below the current maintenance facility to prevent it from being lost.  If you look at the eastern edge of the maintenance shed, you will see the edge of the stream bank.

While the proposed maintenance facility is further away from the current garage area, it is still far too close to the stream bank where flooding occurs.  It is COMPLETELY within the restricted area under the 2007 Stream Conservation Ordinance.

This would be bad news for the CSD but fortunately,  Irv Schwartz, noted Marin Civil Engineer and former CSD Director came up with the best solution in 2017 called "Option 3".  It is a conventional maintenance facility design that is long and narrow and is situated next to the fence line.  It is the same size as the McInnis Park facility or about ONE THIRD the size and cost of the proposed Marinwood Park facility.

Option #3 is the "environmentally preferred" option for our next maintenance facility.

Tell the Marinwood CSD/ Marin County to stop wasting money on a maintenance compound that will destroy our park.  Design a new facility based on Option Three. 

Marinwood CSD Meeting 5/11/2021

Should Marinwood CSD save MILLIONS OF DOLLARS with a GREEN CERTIFIED Maintenance Facility?

 

 

Marinwood CSD Fire Commission 5/4/2021 (audio only first half)

Marinwood Parks and Rec Commission Meeting 4/17/2021

Marinwood Maintenance Shed Bidder involved in Major Bribery Scandal

 A quick investigation of the construction bidders for the Marinwood Maintenance Shed found that Azul Construction was involved in a major bribery scandal in the City of San Francisco.  The U.S. Attorney charged its chief executive with bribery and faces up to 10 years in prison.

See the story HERE

Marinwood CSD Million Dollar Maintenance Shed-Bid Opening 4/27/2021

Here is the video of the bid opening. It is 7 minutes long and inaudible in parts. Five bids were received in excess of $1 million plus.  This does not include considerable preparation work, engineering or landscaping and Bill Hansell's fees.  

The initial committee found that a serviceable structure could be built for around $100k using similar designs as found in Marin County parks.  When Bill Hansell got involved the costs skyrocketed due to customized architectural components normally found in Class A Office Parks and custom homes.   This is all for three guys in our landscaping department that work outside for most of the day.  Clearly this is a vanity project which will waste MILLIONS of our tax dollars. 

I must point out that the building does not even pass the basic "usability" standard for our landscaping team.  Vehicles are not able to easily load materials, store landscaping waste or even turn around without great difficulty.  The usability HAS NEVER BEEN TESTED by the CSD staff or CSD Board.  It doesn't require much effort.  Just stake out the building on the lot and try to maneuver our equipment.  It is very obvious that  this project is not only a massive waste of land and resources,  it will not even work as a landscaping garage facility.

We can do better.   An immediate solution would be to fence in the existing temporary facility and bring in a prefab office.  We will literally save millions.

1. Murray Building, Inc., Santa Rosa: $1,059,000
2. M3 Integrated Solutions, Inc., Santa Rosa: $1,072,000
3. CF Contracting, Inc., San Francisco: $1,169,425
4. CWS Construction Group, Inc., Novato: $1,287,000
5. Azul Works, Inc., San Francisco: $1,297,000    see article about corruption allegations HERE

Last Minute Legal Notice for Contractor Proposals for Marinwood Maintenance Shed.

 NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS INVITING SEALED PROPOSALS OF BIDS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Marinwood Community Services District will accept sealed bids for its Park Maintenance Facility project at 775 Miller Creek Road, San Rafael, CA 94903 by or before 2:00PM, Tuesday, 04/27/2021. Any proposals received after this time will not be opened and will be returned. Timely received proposals will be collected by District staff at 2:00 PM and will be opened and read thereafter via Zoom webcast. The Scope of Work is described as follows: Furnishing all required labor, materials, transportation, equipment, incidentals, and services for construction of a new Park Maintenance Facility consisting of a 1,200sf enclosed workshop, break room (not incl cabinetry and sink re: Add Alt 02 below), restroom, and storage closet contiguous with a 1,300sf covered (unconditioned) storage area. In addition, there are three (3) Additive Alternate (Add Alt) Bid Items, as follows: Add Alt 01: East & West Courtyards totaling 1,960sf, including fencing on concrete stem walls, rolling gates, and compacted gravel surfaces. Add Alt 02: Break Room cabinetry with sink Add Alt 03: Vertical Shade and Security Fins at openings above wall on column line 03 between lines A.2 and C.2 to be detailed in a separate Addendum Work shall be done in accordance with official plans and specifications available for printing by online order at Contractor's expense from NorthBay Reprographics, 4314 Redwood Highway, Suite 200, San Rafael, CA 94903, https://northbayrepro.com , Tel: 415-491-1112, Email: prints@northbayrepro.com . Electronic copies of all documents, including the complete Bid Packet, are available for download from the Marinwood CSD's website at: https://www.marinwood.org/contracts-rfp Partial sets of Bid Documents are not available from the Owner or Architect. Contractors shall perform a mandatory site visit at the Contractor's convenience and submit the Verification of Site Visit form included in the Bid Packet with their bid. Site Visit form must be signed off by the District Manager or Project Architect. Award of contract, if awarded, will be to the responsible bidder with the lowest responsive bid whose proposal complies with prescribed requirements, and will be within sixty (60) days after receipt of proposals. The Marinwood Community Services District reserves the right to reject any or all bids and the right to waive any irregularities. The provisions of Public Contract Code 22300, regarding substitution of securities for monies withheld to ensure performance shall apply to this contract. All Bidders shall be licensed under the provisions of Chapter 9, Division 3, of the Business and Professions Code of the State of California to do the type of work contemplated in the project and shall be skilled and regularly engaged in the general class or type of work called for under the Contract Pursuant to Labor Code Section 1771.1 and subject to exceptions set forth by that section, no contractor or subcontractor may be listed on a bid proposal unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5, and no bid shall be accepted nor contract or subcontract be entered into without proof of the contractor's or subcontractor's current registration to perform public work pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5. Any work performed on the project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations. Contractor is required to submit all certified payroll records directly to the Department of Industrial Relations in electronic format. Any bidder or contractor not properly licensed with the State of California shall be subject to all legal penalties imposed by law, including, but not limited to, any appropriate disciplinary action by the Contractors' State License Board. Failure of the bidder to obtain proper and adequate licensing for an award of the contract shall constitute a failure to execute the contract and shall result in the forfeiture of the security of the bidder. Bids are required for the entire work described herein. This contract is subject to state contract nondiscrimination and compliance requirements pursuant to Government Code, Section 12990. The successful bidder shall furnish a payment bond and a performance bond. Pursuant to Section 1773 of the Labor Code, the general prevailing wage rates for Marin County where the work is to be done have been determined by the Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations. These wages are set forth in the General Prevailing Wage Rates for this project, available at the Department of Public Works, and are also available at the State of California Division of Labor Statistics and research web site at www.dir.ca.gov/dlsr/pwd/northern.html April 15, 2021