ECCL Contract of the Day

Announcing a new feature of the Tattler: the ECCL Contract of the Day.  The Emery School District and the City of Emeryville is entering into many contracts with consultants and builders for the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life.  The money spent on these contracts is public and the public has a right to know.  Large contracts and small, the ECCL Contract of the Day will highlight what your money is being spent on.

Today's Featured Contract:

 $6.5 Million to Nexus Partners 

for design services

approved April 2012.

We'll start the new feature with a big one, the $6.5 million overall contract for the architects for the ECCL design process, Nexus Partners. Nexus Partners is an architectural/design team comprised of the firms MKThink, dsk, and Concordia. This contract includes 11% mark up for 'fixtures, furniture and equipment', meaning the architects will get money from the School District for every desk and chair and other equipment the District buys.

The early ECCL design phase was covered by an agreement made in January 2010 between the City, the former Redevelopment Agency, and the District called MOU #1. That agreement called for Nexus and other consultants to be paid $615,000 for architectural services for their work on the project during 2010 and 2011.

Under a subsequent contract, approved in April 2012 as part of MOU #2, Nexus will be paid $6,564,798. This 74-page document is notable for several reasons.  First, on pages 3-9 it contains the architects "Conceptual Opinion of Cost" of the ECCL construction as well as the furnishings, fixtures, and equipment ("FFE").  This figure comes to $58,325,000 and does not include many expected costs, and mostly estimates costs based on expected costs per square foot, but it nonetheless provides the most detailed budget for the ECCL construction yet provided.

Also of note is what the document does not include.  A detailed specification of what individuals will work on the design, at what rates, and for how many hours is not relied upon.  Instead, the $6,564,798 compensation is apparently based on an 11% rate of compensation based off of the "Conceptual Opinion of Cost" of the construction and FFE costs.

Under a percentage-based compensation structure, such as this, one might expect that the arrangement covers every conceivable aspect of the design work.  Not so.  As was the case with earlier agreements with Nexus, numerous change orders have already been approved for additional work outside the defined scope of work, partially summarized here:

Date Approved	Amount	Details
01/19/2010	$448,060	MOU #1 Architectural Services ($615,000 total*)
Sep. 2010	$103,850	Addendum 1
Jan. 2011	$111,376	Addendum 2 (partially replacing amounts in MOU #1)
May 2011	No additional charge	Addendum 3
Aug. 2011	$341,850	Addendum 4
01/09/2012	$174,585	Addendum 5
02/27/2012	$168,700	Addendum 6
04/16/2012	$6,564,798	Overall Design Contract
10/22/2012	$137,495	$48M feasibility study
02/13/2013	$168,650	Full Service Community Task Force
02/13/2013	$18,750	Space utilization update
05/22/2013	$479,151	11% fee for increased project scope
Partial sub-total	$8,717,265	(approximate)

Typical Chair
Cost to School District: $335
Nexus Partners take: $36.85

*Some of this amount from MOU #1 went to other consultants.

The amendment approved by the School District on May 22, 2013 is of particular interest.  Among a few other small changes, the project's scope was increased to have a construction, furnishings, fixtures, and equipment cost of $62,699,375, up from the prior $58,325,000.  So, Nexus sent an additional invoice for approximately 11% of the increase, adding $479,151 to their coffers.

This is a particularly lucrative way of doing business, particularly given that the compensation percentage is based off a total that includes the furnishings, fixtures, and equipment.  Just imagine, whenever our School District buys a chair, a desk, a table, or a bookcase, Nexus collects 11% of the cost of that item.  See page 70 of the overall design contract which explains, "FFE includes moveable furniture, fixtures or equipment that have no permanent connection to the structure of the building, landscape, or infrastructure."

That's what makes this contract, and its amendments, the Tattler's ECCL Contract of the Day!

Thanks to Brian Carver for providing research for the Contract of the Day

School District Peddles Overly Sunny Depictions of Community Center to Media

This is What a PR 'Puff' Piece Looks Like

In a recent article in a spin-off site of the popular on-line business magazine Fast Company called Co.EXIST, a seasoned reporter got buffaloed by the consultants designing the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) and reported a number of fawning but out-dated and inaccurate points about the ECCL design.  In the story entitled, "This Is What It Looks Like When a School Becomes A Community Hub" readers are gushingly told that the design will include "a 'faux creek,' space for gardens and bikes, solar panels, rooftop access, and a 24/7 public bikeway." Well, as it turns out, one out of five isn't bad.

Or maybe it is bad...

This is what it looks like when facts aren't checked.

Those paying closer attention to the ECCL project or engaged in what is known as "fact-checking" would know that the "faux creek" called for in our City's General Plan along the 53rd Street Greenway was just too darn expensive to include in the plans submitted to, and shot down by, the Planning Commission on July 25th.

At that Planning Commission meeting we were told that solar panels were under serious discussion, but still not a definite part of the ECCL plan.

Rooftop access is, so far as the Tattler knows, only planned in the 30-year distant "Phase 2" that most Emeryville residents will never live to see.

And that '24/7' public bikeway... well, from your lips to School District Architect Roy Miller's ears. Let's certainly hope so, but the District has been fighting tooth and nail to avoid building the bike/ped path called for in our General Plan for months now.

One also has to love the quotes provided by 'MKThunk', particularly the last praising the "programs" at the ECCL site, programs that have not yet been developed and that the public has asked the School District to prioritize over the mere buildings for some time now.

This is what it looks like when reporters
print what the government wants them to.

Plan to Bulldoze Elementary School Revealed

Pave Anna Yates & Put Up a Parking Lot

A Community Schools Task Force plan, discussed Monday night, to bulldoze Emeryville's Elementary School and replace it with a parking lot has been clandestinely revealed to the Tattler today.  The plan to bulldoze Anna Yates Elementary School is one of three options the Full Service Community Schools Task Force also known as the Six Site Task Force is considering.  Despite the Tattler and any other blogs and local electronic media remaining on a School District black list, with the Community Schools Task Force members under a gag order not to discuss what goes on at their meetings with the corrupting influence of the fourth estate, the Tattler has nonetheless obtained documents distributed at Monday night's task force meeting.  A person who wished to remain anonymous delivered the documents to the Tattler.

Below are the documents obtained from Monday's meeting:

• July 29, 2013 Task Force Agenda
• Meeting Minutes from June meeting
• Anna Yates Site Analyses

The third document listed above is of particular interest.  First, it differs from the document distributed in advance of the meeting as part of the packet. Key documents were omitted from that packet and only distributed at the meeting itself. What was in these last minute documents?  Most interesting are the pages describing three possible scenarios for future uses of the Anna Yates Elementary and the City Recreation Center sites. Scenario #3 is a real eye-catching design, as seen below:

Scenario #3 discussed at the Full Service Community Task Force Meeting on July 29, 2013.
Parking lots, shown in gray, cover current Recreation Center site and most of Anna Yates site.

That's right. In this proposal under discussion at Monday night's meeting is the idea of bulldozing the main Anna Yates building and the Rec Center, paving over them both, including the Anna Yates basketball courts and field, and replacing them with... wait for it... 166 parking spots.

What can you say? The School District and its well-paid consultants have no shortage of brilliant ideas. And to the consultant MKThink, it only cost $7,700 per meeting to generate fascinating recommendations such as these. The Tattler is told that $7700 paid for more than these option ideas at Monday's meeting, apparently pizza and beverages were also served.

Of course, if Task Force members weren't forbidden from talking to bloggers, then perhaps the Tattler could place this document in the fuller context in which it was discussed.  The Tattler might learn that this scenario was not seriously proposed, but merely put forth as one extreme from which members could work.  But with the gag order in effect, we'll never know.  The "guiding principles" of the Task Force don't seek to create an informed citizenry through honest and open dialogue.  Instead, it's barely-disclosed documents at semi-private meetings... that's the authentic community engagement the District's consultants say they provide.

With apologies to Joni Mitchell:

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

'Til it's gone

They paved Anna Yates

And put up a parking lot

School Board to Vote on 'Surplus' Facilities Including City Owned Property

Fate of Public Properties/Community Services to be Mostly Determined Behind Closed Doors

Another $170,000 For Consultants

The Emery School Board conducted an early morning meeting last week to determine the fate of "surplus" school properties and included City of Emeryville owned properties. The decision made at the meeting would forward payment of some $170,000 for consultants to coordinate plans for a "Six-Site Master Plan" that will be decided mostly behind closed doors the Tattler has learned.

The Master Plan will be formulated by a Task Force led by the consultants in series of meetings to be concluded in June 2013.  San Francisco based consulting firm MKThink, one of the two firms coordinating the Master Plan, announced public representatives in the Task Force will be permitted at less than half of the 22 meetings planned.

The Six-Site Task Force will be led by consultant John Flores, formerly Emeryville's City Manager and will determine the fate of:

1. Anna Yates Elementary School
2. Ralph Hawley Middle School
3. Emery Secondary School
4. The Recreation Center
5. The Senior Center 
6. The Child Development Center

The Recreation Center, the Senior Center and the Child Development Center are owned by the City of Emeryville.

The other consulting firm paid to coordinate the Master Plan, Berkeley based MIG will jointly control with MKThink, the non public meetings and will present to the School Board final determinative fate of all community services in Emeryville in June.  The actual community is not invited to the majority of the slated meetings.

The non-televised School Board Facilities Committee early morning weekday meeting last week constituted a legally required public '1st reading' of the proposed sweeping policy change enabling placement of the issue on the Consent Calender for the Board's normally scheduled Wednesday meeting.  The Consent Calender decree would constitute the legally required 2nd and final reading of the Six-Site Master Plan.   Consent Calender items are commonly grouped together and considered accepted by "consent", meaning there is no actual specific vote.