As cleanup at the downtown Davenport building collapse continues, more costs and contracts are coming before the city council for approval.
Aldermen soon will vote on a not-to-exceed $500,000 in landfill fees to the Scott County Waste Commission.
More than 11,000 tons of debris from the now-demolished Davenport apartment building has gone or is headed to the Scott Area Landfill. In the past couple weeks, demolition company D.W. Zinser has transported piles of rubble in large, specially lined trucks to the landfill. All of the debris is treated as asbestos-contaminated, and is wetted, wrapped, and disposed of in a hole dug especially for the building material, waste commission officials said.
An investigative services agreement with Chicago-based SOCOTEC Engineering, Inc., for $150,000 also is before the council this cycle.
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City of Davenport officials said they used emergency procurement procedures to retain the company after the collapse. The first phase, which according to council documents is complete, was $55,000. Council is considering approval for ongoing services not-to-exceed $150,000 total to SOCOTEC.
City official says they’re hoping for report in ‘the coming month or so’ on cause of building collapse
The company is one of two the city hired to investigate the building collapse at 324 Main St., which left three men dead and dozens displaced.
The other company, White Birch Group, is run by Scott Nacheman, who led an investigation into a deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in 2011.
Mayor Mike Matson said during Wednesday’s meeting that officials in Miami-Dade County, who responded to the Surfside building collapse recommended Nacheman. Matson noted Nacheman’s lengthy resume responding to and investigating collapses as a forensic engineer.
Nacheman works closely with SOCOTEC engineering, City Attorney Tom Warner said.
“At first they were working on, basically, the forensic side of it,” Warner said. “What debris, what parts of that building need to be preserved in order to one, figure out what happened and two, perhaps there could be some charges down the line depending on various facts and circumstances, and that’s up to DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation).”
Warner said now, they’ve transitioned to trying to put together a report on the collapse’s cause.
“Hopefully, in the coming month or so, we’ll get a report back on the causes and origins of that partial collapse,” Warner said.
Previously, the city council approved a $3 million amendment to its city budget for unanticipated costs related to the collapse. That included $500,000 in public-safety related response and $2.5 million for general government.
The amendment included “any currently known costs associated with the response to the partial building collapse and is anticipated to build in enough flexibility for any additional costs that may be incurred before the end of the fiscal year (June 30),” Sarah Ott, Davenport chief strategy officer, wrote in an email June 21.
The council ratified a $1.2 million emergency contract with demolition company D.W. Zinser last week, which was a part of the $3 million budget amendment, city staff said.
Other contracts entered into as part of the emergency response at the time were not anticipated to exceed $100,000, Ott wrote in an email, but if contracts did exceed $100,000, they would come before council for ratification.
Alderman asks people who haven’t received aid to reach out
Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, Ward 3, encouraged anyone who knows of tenants of 324 Main St. who hadn’t received the city’s $6,000 in aid to reach out to the city’s Community and Economic Development Department.
In an effort to clear confusion at previous meetings, Meginnis emphasized there were no income restrictions on the city’s aid.
City officials encouraged tenants to email ced.info@davenportiowa.com or call the department.
Mayor announces public comment policy
Wednesday’s time for council member updates was tense.
Ald. Judith Lee, Ward 8, citing previous Quad-City Times reporting, criticized the city’s decision to no longer stream public comments, saying it “contributes to the appearance and possible reality of lack of transparency, accountability, and caring.”
Matson told audience members of a new policy during public comment portion of meetings, where if an individual began making a defamatory personal attack, he would make a motion to adjourn the meeting.
He said he and other council members are happy to take criticism, but not defamatory personal attacks, echoing comments from city staff who have said publishing those types of comments on its platforms could open it up to legal liability. He did not specify what previous comments were defamatory.
“Transparency is important to the city of Davenport, however, there is nothing transparent about personal attacks that are (defamatory) or comments in general that have … no basis in fact,” Matson said.
Previous lawsuits had been successful against the city because of meeting comments, Warner said in response to a question from 1st Ward Ald. Rick Dunn. Warner later said he was referring to a case in 2001 where a former alderman, George Nickolas, was sued by a local teen dance club because of anonymous allegations he repeated during a meeting and to local news stations that the club was engaging in lewd activity without verifying the information.
When it came time for public comment, which is typically the last item on the agenda, residents spoke. Some expressed frustration with the public comment policy, others asked how and whether the partial collapse could’ve been prevented. Several urged the city to be transparent with answers and show compassion for people who lost loved ones or were uprooted from their homes.
“We don’t mean this out of malice…we’re here because we care,” said LaCanna Dixon, a resident who has appeared at several Davenport meetings. “Many of us can still hear that fire alarm going off… My cousin died in that building.”
She appeared to reference an order given by the city in the months before the collapse that the building owner couldn’t use concrete masonry units on the outside wall because it didn’t follow design rules.
“The city was saying that whatever brick you’re trying to put up, it doesn’t fall into the code. What does the code matter? When there’s peoples’ lives in this building, what does the brick matter?” Dixon told council members, growing emotional. “You haven’t seen people with their heart broken. We’re worried about the city.”
A few came to the podium that were more critical of recent public commenters, asking them to get to know their alderman or otherwise be more active in city affairs outside of council meetings.
Matson a few times asked the audience to refrain from clapping or asked a speaker to refer to the whole council rather than an individual member or city staff.
But he did not move to cut the meeting short.
