The Observation Deck

In the case of Lakewood Public Library, the owner (not the Construction Company) is responsible for paying the building/construction permit fees to the City of Lakewood for inspections.

The administration and board were greatly appreciative of the reduction in fees, made possible through the cooperation and consideration of the Mayor and Council.

Those dollars were assigned to other project costs associated with the quality of materials involved in the project. I would expect the Lakewood City Schools benefited in a similar way.

Actually, all mayoral candidates might legitimately make a claim to assisting the public library and public school project through consideration in the matter of these fees reductions.


Finally, I like to give credit where credit is due. I think it is important to recognize the increased level of complexity and performance pressure experienced by City Hall with all the construction going on in the City of Lakewood.

From my experience with the library project, I want to say that the cooperation, coordination and responsiveness from members of the Mayor’s team such as Ed Fitzgerald, Daniel Russell, Scott Gilman and others have been first rate. Not every public library project enjoys a climate of cooperation, coordination and responsiveness.

Sure, it’s the political season. And perhaps the ad, chart and stats don’t quite capture the quality dimension easily missed in the high stakes race to be Mayor. So I want to recognize the positive effects that the Mayor and Council, along with capable professionals doing the inspection and coordination work, have extended to make these important public building projects successful.

A woman from Cleveland last week marveled at the city of Lakewood's ability to build public schools and a public library. Her take, as a woman on the street was stated simply enough: "The politicians in Lakewood must be doing something right to get this done for the community."

I am sincerely grateful to everyone for their efforts and support. Credit is due; there is enough to go around.

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library

dl meckes wrote:

Stephen Eisel wrote:

dl meckes wrote:The permit fees are most likely paid by the construction company, but they are line items in the overall project cost.

So who is on first?

If I've got a project, I have to have a budget for that project. One of the line items for the project is going to be permit fees. It doesn't matter who pays for the permits (the contractors or me), permits must be purchased. If I fail to understand the cost of the permits, my budget is going to be a mess.

So when we had a big leak, we had to get a permit to fix the plumbing and the bathrooms and the walls that were going to be involved.

We got the permits and had to get an inspection prior to the work being done so we could show what work was going to be done. There were further inspections during the course of the project and a final inspection before all the walls were closed up.

If a permit cost a few hundred dollars, it didn't matter who paid. That money was going to come out of our pockets either way and it's a lot less expensive to get the permit up front, as is required by law, than to wait and gamble on what might happen.

Please read Ken's post

Kenneth Warren wrote: In the case of Lakewood Public Library, the owner (not the Construction Company) is responsible for paying the building/construction permit fees to the City of Lakewood for inspections.

So was there really a savings?

Stephen:

There is a saving on permit fees, for Lakewood Public Library, due to the reduction in the rates.

This savings on one expense line helped with the affordability of the total project budget.

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library

Kenneth Warren wrote:Stephen:

There is a saving on permit fees, for Lakewood Public Library, due to the reduction in the rates.

This savings on one expense line helped with the affordability of the total project budget.

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library

that made it clearer.. Thanks

I was thinking that the library was privately owned and at that the city was going to miss out some fee revenue duhhh on me "Lakewood Public Library" key words Lakewood Public

Stephen Eisel wrote: So was there really a savings?

$134,528 went back into the budget to be used in a different way.

dl meckes wrote:

Stephen Eisel wrote: So was there really a savings?

$134,528 went back into the budget to be used in a different way.

that is good news.... can I now get a tax break

Those dollars went right back into "bricks and mortar."

Think of it this way: the Library trustees function as the steward of our money. The Mayor, the Planning Department, the Building Department, City Council, and the trustees all worked together to enable "us" to build the best library possible. That library is our house. We own it. The best we can do is spend a lot of time there.

dl meckes wrote:Those dollars went right back into "bricks and mortar."

Think of it this way: the Library trustees function as the steward of our money. The Mayor, the Planning Department, the Building Department, City Council, and the trustees all worked together to enable "us" to build the best library possible. That library is our house. We own it. The best we can do is spend a lot of time there.

You mean read books It is a beautiful building!

I agree. I plan on spending quite a bit of time there tomorrow on my day off.

There has been a lot of private development in the past few years.

Walgreens
Sherwin Williams
Aldi
5/3 Bank
Rockport Medical (plus, I believe the Rockport project was expanded from the original version that Mayor Cain had)
The Cliffs
Rosewood (even Bill Call called this one a success)
The new Enterprise in the old Ursem building
plus a lot more, including some interesting stuff at the Lake Erie Screw Building

Given the tough regional economy, Lakewood has done quite well in development.

Stephen Eisel wrote:You mean read books It is a beautiful building!

The books are a different expenditure. We voted to raise our taxes for capital expenditures for the schools and the library. That's "bricks and mortar" only. And those are OUR beautiful buildings.

Lowered permit fees translate into incentives for building in Lakewood.

dl meckes wrote:

Stephen Eisel wrote:You mean read books It is a beautiful building!

The books are a different expenditure. We voted to raise our taxes for capital expenditures for the schools and the library. That's "bricks and mortar" only. And those are OUR beautiful buildings.

Lowered permit fees translate into incentives for building in Lakewood.

good move by the city...

I am not sure on this (I have never worked for a municipality) but collecting the full permit fees would have increased Lakewoods fee permit revenue for the year and probably have caused a greater tax liabilty on the revenue from the fees (wow, do cities have to pay taxes to the state and Fed on their "income") so by reducing the fee the city saved the tax payers money. I am just curious was the fee discounted? if so how does the city reconcile the discount?

I'm going to risk some arrows fired at me but I need some help in understanding this.

I understand that this is all a matter of which pocket is used to pay for things but it seems like the city subsidized the expansion to the tune of about 135K.

I'm sure I'm missing something so I'll explain where I am going and I'm hopeful that someone can point out where I'm screwing up.

1-The library is approved for a 12 million (or thereabouts) expansion.
2-Part of that project includes paying for all applicable fees and expenses.

***Mr. Warren, a question that I have that may clear this all up in my head is if the request for bids that went out included permit fees with the 135K included?

3-The city waiving the 135k allowed the library to spend an extra 135K that would have gone for permits.

4-The 135K would have gone to the general fund to be used elsewhere in the city.

Now that I seem to have confused myself even further, I'm going to compare this to a situation that is easier for me to understand and again, please point out what I'm missing.

1-Two division heads work for the same company.
2-One is in charge of the day to day running of the company. The other is in charge of expanding to a new location.
3-The overall budget for the company is 10 million for the year.
4-Each division head has their own budget.
5-The CEO calls the two together and tells the day-to-day head that 100K of their budget is needed to make the expansion nicer.
6-The CEO tells day-to-day that their budget will now cover the cost of paint for the whole company knowing that all the paint that is going to be used is going to be in the expansion. It is up to the day to day division head to figure out what won't be addressed since that division is now going to pay for the paint in the expansion.

The bottom line seems to be that 135K that could have been used for the general fund went to improving the expansion of the library.

Someone please help here, I'm sure I'm missing something.

Mr Galvin:

In answer to your question:

"***Mr. Warren, a question that I have that may clear this all up in my head is if the request for bids that went out included permit fees with the 135K included? "

Permit fees are not included in the contract bid. The percentage, paid by the owner, is based on the building construction cost.

Kenneth Warren
Director
Lakewood Public Library