Charlie LeDuff of Fox 2 reports that the cost for the city to demolish a home in Detroit has jumped from about $10,000 during the Bing Administration to about $16,000 under Mayor Mike Duggan in the past two years, a 60 percent hike.
"Where's that considered a success except in government," LeDuff says.
The mayor's administration tells LeDuff that the big reason for the hike is that contractors are getting charged much more for the truckers to haul materials.
LeDuff reports that he looked at nearly 50 bids for demolitions and in 20 percent of the cases the company that the city found to be the best and cheapest didn't get the contract.
"Weird," he says.
LeDuff also voices skepticism that the city is demolishing as many homes as it says it is. The city told LeDuff during his report that the number is a little more than 6,300. John Roach, the mayor's spokesman, tells Deadline Detroit the number is actually more than 7,000 "knock downs." He says Bing did 5,700 over four years.
On the increased costs, Roach says in a text:
Work always was awarded to the lowest qualified bidder, based on cost, capacity and experience. We have a strict timeline to spend these federal funds or we risk losing them. We can't award to a low bidder who lacks capacity to do the work fast enough and could jeopardize our federal funds. Due to the Massive amount of demolition we are doing, we have to bring fill dirt and from farther away to meet the demand. That is a big part of what has added to the trucking costs.
