Sue Weber and the courthouse flood

Erie County Controller and gadfly Sue Weber has commented on my earlier post pertaining to the malfunctioning water filter at the Erie County Courthouse which so far has cost an estimated $600,000 in repairs, although some estimates rise to $1 million or more.Her comments are shown below, with her consent:

On April 29, Weber commented:

Good blog. I have been keeping my eye on this. In fact, I called Kevin Flowers a few days ago with the new total of damages, which I am keeping my eye on, and then he wrote the article. I have inspected the filter in question, called the manufacturer, etc. I was my dad's tomboy and love fixing things. Anything mechanical or construction related is interesting. You will recall after the original article came out I commented that this fiasco was going to cost the County hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then in the media, the Divecchio Administration basically said I did not know what I was talking about, blah blah blah. THERE IS A CAUSE TO THIS and the taxpayers shouldn't just take it lying down. We have the huge deductible and now the loss has gone beyond the limits of our CCAP insurance coverage. Our future premiums will go up because of this claim.

If this were your home or mine, we'd be climbing all over the individual who installed this unit and/or the manufacturer. THE UNIT WAS BRAND NEW AND WAS JUST INSTALLED. I think you should come to the courthouse and I will show you the unit, explaining how it works. You will then find it bizarre that they "can't find the cause" of this disastrous flood.

Sue Weber, County Controller-451-6367

A couple days later, Weber added:

Erie County is in the insurance pool with the County Commissioners Assn. of PA. It gives the County better rates. As I understand it that limit is $500,000 and then Luigi Pasquale says another carrier's coverage begins. I need to discuss this with him further but I would guess that is similar to stop loss insurance for health care. Hope you can pay a visit so I can show you this device. Incidentally, they did not need this filter. It was put in for the fifth floor grand renovation. The rest of us just drink the unfiltered stuff and it's fine. I have a copy of one of the change orders for the fifth floor renovation. It's $76,000 for solid cherry paneling. Just for fun, I measured the baseboard in Mark D's office and have a stick sitting on my desk with that measurement of his wonderful cherry molding.

The amount of new furniture coming into the courthouse daily as they keep moving offices around is astounding. The total value of all the furniture in my office is probably less than $1,000. I bought my small conference table myself. Our desk chairs are so old it's hilarious. Our carpet is a zillion years old and is ripped and beyond cleaning. We are there to do a job, not look chic.

I could write a book on why the County is broke.

Sue