Jim McDade, president of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, said it took less than a year for the Home Depot to be repaired and back in business. Meanwhile, Dallas Fire-Rescue’s Station 41 may not be finished until late 2023.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” McDade said.
The long wait for the rebuild, and fixes on other stations, were two reasons McDade and the association cited in a press release last week explaining why they supported firing City Manager T.C. Broadnax
Many people were saying that last week — the Dallas Builders Association, Mayor Eric Johnson and a handful of City Council members to name a few. There was a lot of drama surrounding it all, but early this week Broadnax and Johnson appeared to bury the hatchet.
“A little over a week ago, I said that it was time for a change at the top of our city government,” Johnson said in a June 21 press release. “I still believe we need change. But after some serious and frank discussions with our city manager, I believe he is ready to make the necessary changes to address issues that are critically important to our residents.”
Broadnax said in the press release that his work on some issues has not been “up to my own standards.”
“I know my team and I can be better. I understand that I am fully accountable to my 15 bosses,” Broadnax said in the press release. “So today, I want to say to the mayor, to the members of the City Council, and to all the residents of this dynamic city: I accept the challenge.”
McDade says he stands by the letter they put out about Broadnax, but he's now hopeful that the city manager will up his game on issues like the city's decommissioned fire stations.
“That’s the point of performance reviews and job reviews,” McDade said. “The city manager knows he’s under the radar now, so it’s time to really start performing in these areas that he and the city haven’t been performing well in.”
Either way, Fire Station 41 will be delayed even longer. The local construction company Post L Group was given the contract for the rebuild in November 2021. They met with city staff Thursday to discuss how increases in construction costs and changes to the original build plan made the project more expensive, something the contractor says they brought up multiple times before. They asked for more money because of it, but the city said no.
“Unfortunately, the city cannot meet the request, and in response the contractor has decided not to proceed with the construction of the project as originally awarded,” city staff said in a memo last week.“The effect that it has is it increases the response time in that area." – Jim McDade, Dallas Fire Fighters Association
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Fire Station 41 is one of three that are out of commission.
A storm in June 2019 significantly damaged Fire Station 19. It was demolished the following year and construction on its replacement just began. The city found structural issues with the foundation at Fire Station 30 in December 2020. It’s been closed ever since, but McDade said it’s about to open back up.
“The effect that it has is it increases the response time in that area,” he said.“It does create a gap in that area. ... I think the frustrating part is that we’re looking at almost three years that [Fire Station 41] got knocked down.
"Construction still hasn’t even begun."
In that time, the cost of nearly everything, including building materials, has increased. “Now, it’s going to cost the taxpayer more money due to all the processes in the city that are so slow,” McDade said.
The City Council voted at its meeting Wednesday to rescind the contract and look for someone else to build the station, essentially bringing the project back to square one. City Council member Cara Mendelsohn was frustrated about the timeline of the project and the additional delay.
“So, is there any point in this process, and I guess I’m really directing this to you city manager, that you think we were not being as efficient as we should’ve been or as timely as we should’ve been, or is this the best that we can expect?” Mendelsohn asked. She was one of the City Council members saying last week that Dallas needed a new city manager.
Broadnax said, “I would not blame this on efficient and/or inefficient. I would have to refer to the bond office on the process of navigating with the contractor and the issues that may have arisen from the pandemic and all things associated.”
Adriana Castaneda, the director of the office of bond and construction management, took questions about the contract at the City Council meeting. “Because of COVID we did go through some concerns, some issues with the consultant and with the contracting because they had staff that got sick and they couldn’t respond immediately,” Castaneda explained. “Can we do better? Definitely.”
She said that’s the intent of the new timeline. Mendelsohn asked if Castaneda thought the timeline was possible. She said yes. Castaneda also said they should have been able to meet the original timeline but “there were a lot of deficiencies.”
Gay Donnell Willis is the City Council member for the part of town where Fire Station 41 sat before the tornado. At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, she said residents have been concerned about not having the fire station, but she’s excited that a temporary station less than a block away is opening soon. “No one is more disappointed than me because I’ve got lots of concerned people,” Willis said. “However, I’m supporting this because I want to get this moving as fast as we can.”
Jeffery Postell, owner and CEO of Post L Group, told the Observer his company was the second-ranked bidder for the project. The city couldn’t agree in negotiations for the first bidder, so it went with Postell’s company. But, Postell said, it took nine months to get the permits.
Since the pandemic, Dallas has had trouble processing building permits in a timely manner, one of the reasons people were calling for the city manager to be replaced.“We took the job to the starting line but we didn’t get to start the race.” – Jeffery Postell, Post L Group
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Postell said he contacted the city in February in writing asking when the permit would be finished. He also said there were price escalations they needed to talk about. “We got no response,” Postell said. “We sent another notice a month later. Again, no response regarding our escalation.” The city kept saying the permits would be ready soon, but they weren't until late April.
Postell said the company’s contractors couldn’t hold their prices any longer and they started escalating by the week.
Postell grew up in Dallas. He says his family, as far back as his grandparents, has a history of working with the city. “I think ultimately, we didn’t do anything to lose this contract,” Postell said.
The city is not all to blame though, he added. He said his company should have accounted for price escalations in their contract but didn’t. “I feel like the city took advantage of that,” he said.
Postell said he’s open to bidding on the project again because his company knows so much about it and already sank money into it. “We did all the heavy lifting,” Postell added. “We took the job to the starting line but we didn’t get to start the race.”
He said his company has spent six figures on the job already. “Losing this contract hurt us,” Postell said. “We’re not a huge company. We built 2022 around this project. Having it not be our anchor contract this year, it hurt our company.”
Postell added: “This fire station will cost more than the escalation we were asking for. The city will spend more not going with us.”
Asked if the process has made him hesitant to work for the city, Postell said: “We are selecting our clients based on risk factor. … We want to work for the city of Dallas, but we also have to be smart about who we want to work for.”
