Sunday, August 7, 2011

Are they moving their lips?

My family has been in sales for two generations. My father, my father-in-law, my brother, my brother-in-law, my husband and I were all peddlers. So you can imagine our dinner conversations. We had a favorite joke. 

Q. How can you tell when a salesman is lying? 
A.When he is moving his lips. 

Not to say we lied, but that joke always made us laugh.
Fast forward to present day Mt. Lebanon. Our School Board has been peddling the high school renovation for several years. Some directors have been selling harder than others.  I have been following one of the more vocal sales people, I mean, directors on Center Court blog.  I came across this post from January 2010. Act 34 Resolution Passes

Last night, the Board approved the Act 34 resolution which provides the maximum budget for the renovation project.  This document provides the basis for the public to provide testimony at a public hearing on February 22.  It was approved 6 - 3 with Mr. Fraasch, Ms. Stipanovich and Mr. Ostergaard dissenting.  This was a significant vote, one of several we've already taken that include hiring a construction manager, architects, approving LEED certification commissioning, issuing the initial phase of financing and accepting recommendations brought forward by the Community Advisory Committee.Those of us who supported the resolution provided information and clarification on where we are in the process and how we got there.  Mr. Remely reminded us that there is significant opportunity to bring that $113MM down but by setting it, we assure the public it will not go up.  He offered detailed suggestions on ways we can reduce costs as we move forward with the project.  This includes creative purchasing, using a single prime contractor, energy efficiencies and other operational cost savings that he estimates could result in a $22MM reduction, equating to a 2.5 mill reduction to the project's impact.  Some of us committed last night to not spending those savings on additional work but passing them onto the taxpayers.

I could go on, because the post is rather long. Please read the post and decide if they are moving their lips.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They're not only moving their lips but figuratively screaming at the top of their lungs; however, few are listening, understanding they are being flim-flamed by the *blue suede shoe* gang and their hired enablers !

Bill Lewis