Today is the scheduled grand opening for the new multi-million dollar LVMPD headquarters. (fox 5 story) Hopefully they will announce the grand opening for the newly completed “Eldora Substation” also, probably in late 2012, or early 2013.
I’m a little confused. Employees of LVMPD are being told not to call it the “headquarters” and the buildings were not built to “headquarters” specifications. So is the media calling it “headquarters” or did the Public Information Office release the info as such? We were told it’s the “Administration” building.
How about the “Money Pit”?
Metro will be paying 300 percent of what they were paying before in rent for the other buildings they used to rent.
After the building was completed, administrators added to the cost by incorporating improvements which should’ve been included in the building process. Not included are the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, needed to bring the buildings up to the 21st century.
Several offices received different color paint, after the initial color, due to the occupants personal tastes (whatever happened to the LVMPD standard of “You’re lucky to have a job”?) at taxpayer’s cost. Other improvements were installed after the completion, again adding to the cost instead of implementing them in the building process. Brand new furniture and appliances for each floor and offices (nothing was wrong with the other furniture they were using, most of which was thrown away or bundled up for auction at an additional cost burden including; hiring additional manpower to move the furniture, load it, drive it to storage, wrap it and store it. It would’ve saved money just by throwing it away! Donating? Guess it wasn’t considered.) Other bureaus suffered due to the money needed for the accoutrements for the new building. The Horse Patrol bureau office lost its air conditioner in July only to be told they had no money to fix it, only to find out that tens of thousands were being spent at the same time to purchase appliances for the unoccupied admin building.
Maintenance wasn’t considered when the building was planned. No freight elevators. Minimal access to roof for service technicians with equipment. High maintenance flooring.
But yet, they claim the lighting is planned around the employee’s schedules and will be cost effective.
I guess they forgot the costs involved when the schedules change. Service requests to change the light schedules, technicians needed to service the equipment, etc.
Rumors of civilian employees getting “bonuses” (brand new personal vehicles). New equipment that is being thrown out to conceal the fact they were ordered erroneously. The sheriff wanting to form an “Elite” squad of officers responsible for the new building’s security, complete with “dress uniforms” and specialized training, but yet, the new $7,000,000+ Southwest Substation at 8445 Eldora sits unoccupied (and with a complete display of local graffiti art on the back fenced in walls) and will continue to, because there are not enough officers and civilians on the department to man the brand new substation. Because it will be vacant for some time, a monitored alarm system will be added, at extra cost, to maintain interior integrity. Rumor is that forced transfers will be implemented (I can hardly wait to see the morale at that substation), leaving other stations at skeleton crew status. So again, we pay rent on a building we aren’t using. Yup. We now have a jail AND a substation that isn’t being used and the taxpayers are footing the bill. Oh, and no new academies, civilian or police, are scheduled for the next year. Retirements are at a record pace. Officers are spending hundreds of thousands of their own dollars to purchase time to retire early. The common phrase upon seeing another officer is “I can’t wait to leave this place”.
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