Don't you just love dealing with Bureaucrats!

[CM1995]

I have been dealing with a (name withheld) local government agency, the one that will probably be responsible for the largest municipal/county agency bankruptcy in US history, over the last few months trying to get them to accept a sewer lift station. The station is fully operational and the final inspection was completed in the field last August!:Banghead In addition there is a house already connected to the station with folks living in it. What really chaps my behind is they get, for FREE, $500K worth of infrastructure and 26 new clients and all they have to do is inspect (which we pay for seperately) and maintain the system. To boot the county gets increased property tax revenue from subdivided lots with houses on them. The valuation with 26 houses on 15 acres is a whole lot more than 15 acres of bare land.

They require as-builts of the pumpstation and all gravity and force main lines. All of these have passed inspection months ago. We have submitted the as-builts 5 times so far. The last submission, after the engineer corrected items such as the wrong font on a note, last week only to have them come back and say we have to have the mylars printed in ink instead of toner because the toner may fade over time. Never mind the fact they scan all documents to be held digitally!:bash Their reasoning was that if they had to go to court, the digital copy may not hold up as evidence. Nevermind the fact that they have been accepting mylars printed in toner for many, many years. This was the only thing they could deny the plans for.:cool2:bash:Banghead

I have submitted plans to these clowns only to have them sent back 2 weeks later to change a note or font in a note. Change what they want, send them back, 2 weeks later they have something else on the drawings to "correct". This is a pattern that happens every time. They will not give all the comments on the corrections they want at one time, it usually takes 2-3 submissions and several months to get a set of approved drawings.

Alright my rant is over, anyone else have any frustrating stories to share?

 

[Orchard Ex]

I take it that they don't have the cash to pay you so they are inventing ways to slow roll it? I hate to suggest it but as one of our county commissioners was recently quoted "Things happen faster around here when lawyers get involved..."

 

[EddieWalker]

I haven't been through that level BS, but recently had a new inspector change her mind every time she came out as to what she wanted. Fist time, she said what she wanted changed. No problem, it was done the next day. She came back a week later and said to change a few more things. No problem, it was done the next day. It took her a few more weeks to come back and again, she wanted more changes. Each of those changes were to things that she ignored or let go previously. Everything that she wanted changed, was changed to her specifications. So she would look around and find something new. It was all BS and it didn't change anything, it was just busy work that cost allot of money and delays. She finally passed the final inspection, but she made it out like she was doing us a favor.

Ranting is good. Thanks.

Eddie

 

[landrvrnut22]

I could go on for hours, but it is no wonder how we are able to build anything in this country with the red tape, flaming hoops, and tricks we have to do to get approval for anything. Not one of these bureaucracies will help you, and every single of one them change their minds depending on the hour, and person you talk to. Nevermind the fact that the person who really makes the decisions, is on vacation from now till infinity.

My bosses theory is keep asking till you get the person with the answer you want, then do it, and throw that person under the bus. It's not like they are going to fire that person anyhow.

You would not believe the things I have seen/heard from some of the building dept. On one job, we were doing the final walk around with the fire marshall. This was the last hour of a 18 month project. The fire marshall notices that the fire hydrants open the wrong direction. He wanted them to turn clockwise to open, instead of the normal anti-clockwise. I started laughing, almost rolling on the ground, but he was dead serious. Those hydrants had been in for almost 1 year, he looked at them, tested them, reviewed the plans, and only now did he notice this!?!?!

I just saw him recently on a different job, and gave him a hard time about it.

I'll stop there, but you get the idea.

 

[dayexco]

I have been dealing with a (name withheld) local government agency, the one that will probably be responsible for the largest municipal/county agency bankruptcy in US history, over the last few months trying to get them to accept a sewer lift station. The station is fully operational and the final inspection was completed in the field last August!:Banghead In addition there is a house already connected to the station with folks living in it. What really chaps my behind is they get, for FREE, $500K worth of infrastructure and 26 new clients and all they have to do is inspect (which we pay for seperately) and maintain the system. To boot the county gets increased property tax revenue from subdivided lots with houses on them. The valuation with 26 houses on 15 acres is a whole lot more than 15 acres of bare land.

They require as-builts of the pumpstation and all gravity and force main lines. All of these have passed inspection months ago. We have submitted the as-builts 5 times so far. The last submission, after the engineer corrected items such as the wrong font on a note, last week only to have them come back and say we have to have the mylars printed in ink instead of toner because the toner may fade over time. Never mind the fact they scan all documents to be held digitally!:bash Their reasoning was that if they had to go to court, the digital copy may not hold up as evidence. Nevermind the fact that they have been accepting mylars printed in toner for many, many years. This was the only thing they could deny the plans for.:cool2:bash:Banghead

I have submitted plans to these clowns only to have them sent back 2 weeks later to change a note or font in a note. Change what they want, send them back, 2 weeks later they have something else on the drawings to "correct". This is a pattern that happens every time. They will not give all the comments on the corrections they want at one time, it usually takes 2-3 submissions and several months to get a set of approved drawings.

Alright my rant is over, anyone else have any frustrating stories to share?

i don't understand......you entered into a contract w/ a govt. agency and not having your method of payment spelled out? you really need to drag your contract to the office where it was written. were your contract as you say, it should be a 10 minute ordeal. i'm kind of the opinion there are a few pieces missing from this puzzle

 

[CM1995]

I take it that they don't have the cash to pay you so they are inventing ways to slow roll it?

Well actually it is worse than me not getting paid by them. I did all the work and had to pay for all of it.

I am the developer for this piece of property (that is a whole 'nuther story) . So I or rather through a loan, paid for the pump station, etc to be installed. We did the clearing, grading,etc ourselves. I sold a few lots and one has a house with folks living in it.

i don't understand......you entered into a contract w/ a govt. agency and not having your method of payment spelled out? you really need to drag your contract to the office where it was written. were your contract as you say, it should be a 10 minute ordeal. i'm kind of the opinion there are a few pieces missing from this puzzle

I never said I had a standard contract.:cool2 My rant above was about what I am currently going through to get my as-builts approved. Here is more background on the situation -

I have an installation or developer agreement with the Environmental Services Department in which I put in all improvements at my cost to their specifications - no problem. The only method of payment spelled out in the installation agreement was that I paid for everything. Their inspector was there everyday during installation and air testing. All this was inspected and approved back in August. One house is completed with folks living there.

Right now I am paying the utilities and upkeep for the station until they accept it. The frustrating part is it has taken this long to get the as-builts approved by the Department. I have a $5K deposit paid to the Department they are holding until they approve my as-builts. As of yesterday, the final, final plans were submitted on ink printed mylars, 3 copies to the Department for approval and hopefull the release of my deposit. We shall see.

This may sound crazy but if you are not dealing with this particular County government you just can't understand the amount of BS they put you through. This is the same county gov't I have posted about before that has the $3B Super Sewer to no-where and will more than likely take the crown as the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.