There was a brief uproar recently about the Raleigh City Council’s plan to hold their planning retreat at the coast and pay for hotel rooms and meals. Horrors!
This week The News & Observer reported that some Wake County towns are also planning rather expensive retreats.
Cary’s mayor, commissioners and town staff will meet for two days at the Hawthorne Inn and Conference Center in Winston-Salem. Cost? About $16,000 that includes $4,000 for a facilitator.
Both Morrisville and Holly Springs will spend about $4,000. The Morrisville retreat will be in Wilmington, and Holly Springs will head for Southern Pines.
Thought readers might want to know that the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners will continue its pinch-purse way – also known as sparing taxpayers’ money – when the commissioners, mayor, and town staff meet on Feb. 6 and 7, Thursday and Friday, in the new town-owned Renaissance Centre.
“We always stay close to home so there are no accommodation costs,” Town Manager Mark Williams said. “And we usually find a location where there is no rental cost. Food and the facilitator are the only costs and Steve [Strauss] is cheap in comparison to other professional facilitators.”
Not sure how Steve will feel about that characterization, but Finance Director Aileen Staples confirmed the town’s retreat costs. “For our retreat in February 2013 we paid Developmental Associates – Steve Strauss – $1,150 to facilitate. Generally, we spend between $250 – $400 for breakfast, lunch, drinks and snacks.” In 2013 and for several years earlier the town has used a conference room in Patterson Hall on the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary campus without charge.
Thursday morning will be devoted to orientation for new Commissioner Jim Thompson; the retreat will begin that afternoon and continue Friday as long as needed.
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New planning board member Steve DeRosa piqued our interest last week when he said he understood the town is in litigation with developers who have backed out of their obligations under a bond. The board was discussing whether a developer could/should post a bond to assure construction of a bridge to continue Marshall Farm Road into the proposed Regency at Heritage subdivision.
Well, that is not really the case, town attorney Eric Vernon wrote in an email this week. “There is no ongoing litigation related to unfulfilled developer obligations. Not sure what Mr. DeRosa was referring to although it’s possible he may have heard of ‘threatened’ litigation related to road construction obligations for Ligon Mill Road. The town is working with Orleans Homes to resolve that issue.”
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While we are talking litigation, here is the update Vernon supplied this week about the town versus its town hall contractor.
“The Town, Heaton, Hannover Insurance (Heaton’s performance bond company) and three of Heaton’s subcontractors participated in a court-ordered mediation on July 18, 2013; however, we did not reach a settlement of the dispute.
“The Town’s consultant, Stafford Consulting Engineers, recommended against allowing Heaton to perform the necessary repairs to the Town Hall building envelope, thus, the Town put the repair work out for public bid. Exterior Diagnostic Systems, the lowest responsible bidder for the repair work, started making repairs in mid-November under the supervision of Stafford Consulting Engineers.
“We expect to know more about the Town’s damages related to the building envelope in March 2014 when the repairs are scheduled to be completed.
“The Town and Heaton have exchanged written discovery requests regarding the claims and issues in the lawsuit, and we have agreed that the discovery responses will be due in early February. The trial is currently scheduled for October 27, 2014.”
The cost for the town hall was $16 million including land, personnel, construction, professional services and equipment. The target date for completion was December 2009, the town’s centennial year, but it was not completed until six months later.
