Capizzi was claiming for a year that the demolition
and construction costs for the Lincoln School Building would be about $7.1
million and architectural fees about $400,000 (total $7.5 million). He actually told the architect that Lodi had $7.5 million to spend before the architect was even hired.
Capizzi showed 12 bids on last week’s resolution. Of the twelve, NINE bids were below his
estimate. The lowest bid was
$1,046,500 below Capizzi’s estimate (15% lower).
Trustee Mara was right to question the difference. How can you be that far off?
Marc Capizzi cannot be trusted. He pads his budgets. He inflates project costs. He is off by millions.
With all the architects in New Jersey that specialize
in school construction, Capizzi always goes to SSP. Capizzi always awards them a NO BID contract (never competitive). Capizzi doesn’t pay them for
the hours that they put in or the work that they do. He pays them a percentage of the total
project cost. In the case of Lincoln
School, he is paying them 5.9%.
Capizzi’s NO BID engineers and NO BID architects are
given an incentive to inflate project costs. They win when the contractor overspends. They signal for the contractor to overspend by handing them inflated estimates. The more expensive the
material, the more they get paid. The
more corrective measures, the more they get paid.
5.9% of $1,046,500 is $61,743.50. Marc Capizzi was fine overspending $1,046,500
on the project. He was fine overpaying $61,743.50 on architectural fees.
It’s not his
money. 100% is Lodi tax dollars.
Marc Capizzi is unfit to be in charge of our
$64,000,000 school budget. He is unfit
to oversee multi-million school projects that he never sought public approval.
