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The San Francisco city supervisor, Myrna Melgar, is seeking answers on the $1.7 million estimate for a public bathroom because it is "really outrageous."
Melgar instructed the Department of Public Works 60 days on Tuesday to explain that horrifying statistic and offer a thorough accounting of recent projects completed by its in-house architects and engineers versus those put out to bid to private firms.
According to the S.F. Chronicle, the Noe Valley bathroom's planning and designing was $445,000 and another $300,000 for the DPW architects and engineers, $40,000 for DPW to "verify existing conditions" of the site utilities, $30,000 for a consultant to estimate the project's costs, and $75,000 in reserve in case these costs increased even higher. All of which still doesn't include actually building anything.
The DPW spokesperson, Rachel Gordon, justified the department's team of architects and engineers, claiming that
"the city is lucky to have such top-notch professionals designing beautiful public projects."
Melgar rejects the $1.7 million Noe Valley toilet's financial breakdown since she wasn't consulted on it.
“Let’s have some transparency,” she said.“The taxpayers are losing our trust when stuff like this happens. We need to make sure they know that we can deliver things on time and at cost, and this system doesn’t.”