A week after Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration came before Cleveland City Council asking for more money for the city’s lakefront master plan designs, the body agreed to nearly double the budget — but many members of council were not happy.
Field Operations LLC, the architecture firm the city selected to design Downtown Cleveland’s waterfront plan, already surpassed the half-million budget by $260,000, finance director Ahmed Abonamah told members of council last week. Much of that additional work went into designing a "structurally sound" and visually appealing land bridge to connect Downtown to Lake Erie, he said.
Some members drilled into the administration about the oversight, saying not only did it undermine council's legislative authority but potentially set a bad precedent for future contractors who may under-budget a project and then bill the city over the agreed-upon amount.
"I think it's important that you acknowledge the fact that this should not have been done this way," said Ward 8 Councilmember Mike Polensek during a committee meeting Monday. "The glue that holds us together at this table is transparency and being upfront and honest."
Abonamah told members that if a contractor goes over budget, they risk nonpayment on the overage.
But after delaying action for a week, council ultimately approved an additional $400,000 toward the plans.
"Two things can be true at the same time," said Ward 3 Councilmember Kerry McCormack. "I think everything that's been said at this table is very valid, and at the same time, we also need to ensure that we have public spaces for our residents and community members to enjoy our waterfront. Continuing this work is how we're going to do that."
Director of City Planning Joyce Pan Huang admitted it was "not the best practice" and said the city has not and would not spend "a cent over" the originally budgeted amount without council approval.
"Not attempting to minimize the situation, but also, think that there is a good faith explanation for how we ended up here," Abonamah said. "We know that we can't end up here again. And we'll make sure that on our end, we're certainly monitoring, invoices and contract costs more closely and acting proactively to, seek legislative authority to amend the contract or add more money to the contract as we need."
Preliminary plans include lake and riverfront access, multimodal transit options, residential and retail development and more than 20 acres of recreational green space.
Much of the original waterfront plans centered around the Cleveland Brown's Stadium. Recently, news broke that the Browns owners purchased 176 acres near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Brook Park, sparking speculation that the team could relocate there.
That plan is expected to be funded by the recently-approved Shore-to-Core-to-Shore tax increment financing district, which the city expects to generate between $3.5 billion to $7.5 billion in new revenue over the next 42 years.
