9/22/2017 – 1STÂ POST: 1:30 pm, 1ST UPDATE: 2:29 PM, 2ND UPDATE:Â 3:01 PM, 3RD UPDATE 4:03 PM
I just did a quick read of the settlement, because I was a little surprised it was released this early. (FULL DOC: Events-Center-Settlement-Agreement).
My impressions by a NON-LAWYER, Speed Read of the document is;
- If the siding ever goes bad, we can never go back and sue any of these parties for the repair. The taxpayers of Sioux Falls will be fully responsible moving forward with the repair UNLESS it refers to the general warranties (of materials) that were set in place before the settlement.
- As I predicted last night, about half of the settlement (coming from Mortenson) is money coming from the constingency fund that Mortenson planned to keep for a bonus. There promised portion of the contingency fund was SHORTED to $514,996 and Mortenson had to pay a $160K settlement.
- MJ Dalsin was actually fined/agreed to settle more for a roofing issue than the siding. It had to do with a new membrane on the Convention Center and connecting the roof of the EC to the CC. In return of paying their settlement* of $125K, they received full payment on the work they did on the EC/CC and the Liens against them were dropped. *As I understand it, Dalsin’s insurer actually paid the settlement, not Dalsin.
- The rest of the settlement was paid for by architects and suppliers.
- McGrath (who IÂ think actually installed the panels) was at no fault. Mortenson assumed responsibility for their work.
As you can see from a quick look, the taxpayers were poorly represented on this. We really only got about $444K which doesn’t even come close to an amount to fix the siding if it were to leak and needed repaired. The ‘Good Folks’ of Sioux Falls were left in the dark on this settlement, because quite frankly, we got SCREWED!
I find it a little strange that a man who says he ‘Gets things Done’ and calls himself a leader has made NO statement about the settlement. That figures.
So what do the actual numbers look like? Besides the fact this seems to be about a roofing project/disagreement and NOT about botched siding, it seems we didn’t even get half of the million dollars.
IMETCO (siding OR roofing provider?) paid $40K
Dalsin (actually their insurer) paid $125
SCD (Sink Combs Dethlefs)/Koch Hazard paid $118,719
Mortenson paid $160,000 (not from contingency fund)
Total of $443,719
Mortenson did pay $160K from pocket but they were ALSO actually SHORTED on the contingency fund balance which was $1,071,277. Mortenson was shorted $556,281 of that fund to make up the $1 million dollar settlement balance and still received the remainder in that fund of $514,996 (That is if you do the math, because none of this is laid out in the settlement agreement).
As you can see, we never really got the entire $1 million, and the settlement wasn’t even about siding. And you wonder why they wanted to keep this secret?
This of course is still developing and I hope to give you a better idea over the weekend. **As a disclaimer, these are my educated guesses on the figures since many of the figures were left out on the remaining balance.