Fort Lauderdale airport's rental car garage has $1.7 million re...

[Joe Sixpack]

Lets all point fingers till the problem goes away.

[Mike Clayton]

That is some fine management on display buy the County and the Airport folks. The County really needs to get out of meddling with the Airport and Seaport, they are a disaster.

These people cannot do anything right. Built a baggage handling facility without a roof in South Florida? Flooding issues? Have any of the consultants ever been to Florida? The county relies on outside contractors and consultants way too much. Either use the folks you have in house or go total for the consultants the half measure stuff is a mess and leads to cost overruns and messed up buildings.

[ScoreKeeper]

Spillis Candela, Cummings/Centex Rooney, Singer? It all sounds like the same players that have caused many problems for another taxpayer run operation...the school board. I recall that Singer designed a bunch of schools based on prototype designs that contributed to the mold and mildew problems in the schools. I also know that Spillis designed the South Broward High School building without a required fire wall. Dr. Till said that it was a simple business decision to accept the half million dollars from Spillis, but did not amount to any liability on the part of Spillis.

Then there is Centex Rooney that has raided the county coffers for many years. I think that James Tucker used to be their leader. He now rubber stamps estimates for the county to make certain the contractors and consultants get "paid" while two other firms spawned off Centex to capture a market share of the county's money.

Moss and Balfour Beatty have come to town with their big hands out. Why? Because the private market money has dried up again. While they are leaving behind one mess at the airport, with the county attorney's assurance;) that the $1.7 million fix will do, the same groups are bellying up to the school board oat bucket to do some damage while money is still available.

Growth in the county has halted and money is tight but there is always room for the friend of a friend's lobbyist to cover overhead and ill-gotten gains. The school board attorney probably agrees;) that the $1.7 million would be a reasonable settlement, as long as it keeps any involved firm from accepting accountability for their errors. Face it folks, we are the ones that pay for the errors of the politico's posse. We are the one's who will eventually pay to fix the rent-a-car complex after this ageement fails to fix the problem.

I hear the inside stories of these county commissioners every day and it is not at all what they are telling you. The school board sings a very similar tune. Keep the money flowing and nobody will have to face the music. After all, our publicly funded attorney's who are supposed to advise and oversee these issues are all rubber stamping things just like the pocketed cost estimators.

Think about it...it is "your" money.

Love, the ScoreKeeper

[county worker]

we county workers have seen this before. Its broke, put a used band-aid on it for now and in five years when the condition is worse and it costs ten times more to fix correctly the nine will because they will no one will remember this little tale. If someone looked at work paid for after the main jail, pom.jail, gov center, main Lib., Sheriffs HQ, courthouse, etc. you would really get sick.

[Wise Guy]

Yet another example of waste and incompetance at the airport. This time for a couple million.

Just try getting into that garage to park if you're flying Southwest. There is no direct entrance and you need to go through another garage and doub;e back. Maybe thay should redesign that mess while ther'ye blowing a bunch of money fixing other stupid design flaws.

[Fred]

Lobbyists are the starting point, same people, same problems, result my tax dollars wasted. Remember at election time. VOTE them out.

[THE BLAME GAME]

Three (3) words will sum it up. Lack of maintenance. If a building is built and the plans approved by our engineers. The building still needs to be maintained. Even the parts that you do not see. The hidden area of a building not just the areas that you can see. Who should foot the bill for this blunder? Not us but the builders and the maintenance department. AND by the way. To all Mothers out there “HAPPY MOTHERS DAY”

[dumb]

Our most important economic piece isn't maintained. What a joke. Vegas just opned a car rental center which is GREAT. I haven't been to this one yet..but why don't they have inspectors? How completly stupid. The person that is in charge of the maintance should be fired.

[Dick Johnson]

This is your government in action...lets see a show of hand - who voted these people into office?

[A1ACharles is All Knowing]

These are not stupid decisions, but job security for all those involved.

Baby still gets a new pair of shoes years after he should be a size 5.

[Liberal Left is lost]

What a waist.

[OPP]

Fred wrote:

Lobbyists are the starting point, same people, same problems, result my tax dollars wasted. Remember at election time. VOTE them out.

I agree with voting them out, yet the people keep those clowns in; but the monies spent at all commerical service airports DO NOT come out of your ad valorem taxes. Monies come from the FAA and passengers who use the airport, not your property or ad valorem taxes.

And the Board of County Clowns lost a good director due to egos and then it all went to hell when they promoted the acting director who was NOT qualified for the job, for which the Board eventually and finally ate crow on and got rid of him. Hopefully they now have a GOOD director in place to clean up what the inept Board with the inept previous airport director left behind. And the rental care facility is one of those projects. AND YES, they knew the parcel would flooded from diverted water run off elsewhere and very early on during construction.

[Godfrey]

Who are the tools that designed and approved the jarring and mismatched blue panel exterior of this eyesore building?

[Tim in Wilton Manors]

Now we know why the Park & Save fees were raised 50%...from $6 to $9/day

These airport folks are nothing but crooks....

[noone]

thats alot of money

[fgf]

MIA's problems spreading north, haha.

[Not to worry]

It's just a measly $1.7M .. simply just tack another fee onto the rental car price to recover the cost. Say, a Facility Restoration Fee ... and let the customers pay for it. And make sure to put a little into the fee for Broward county too. Then, after the $1.7M is recovered, convientely forget to drop the fee. After all, its just the tourists and business customers who will pay it.

I've seen these facilities built at other airports, and about dropped my jaw when I returned the car and saw the "fees" were more than the car rental. There was a "Facility Recovery Fee" (which was assesed to pay for the cost of building the center), a "Transportation Fee" ($6.00 each way to pay for the shuttle bus), a "Concession Fee" (for the priviledge of having the rental car companies provide a product to the travelers), and several others.

My thought was "You know, I didn't ask for this big fancy center to be built, so why the hell am I being charged for it.". Well, the answer is simple, if people are going to come to Broward, the county needs to make some money off them.

What happened to "cost of doing business" and being responsible for your screw-ups. No anymore, just pass it on to the consumers.

I read in the article where the Rental Car companies are bearing most of the cost for repairs. Why? Because they can pass the cost onto customers easy.

Finally, I liked this part: "We are committed to serving the best interests of Broward County, the tenants of the rental car facility and all the users of this award-winning facility," Spillis Candela spokesman Paul Genarro said.

You can see who comes first, and its not the customers.

Welcome to Broward county!

[tommy koop]

if slow growth means, a halt to highrise mania,
and a reprieve in the destruction of historic
locations, a decline in waste, not to mention a slower track to an inevitable implosion due to runaway greed and incompetence, then let the lean times begin.

[Just Sayin]

$1.7 million is cheap for the responsible parties to agree to. They are going to be free of any responsibility for the billions in repairs over the coming years, but who really even responds to a one year warranty, muchless a 20 year warranty. We eat dung again.