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Commissioner lays out construction cost drivers at Leon Street annex and jail projects
Summary
A commissioner provided a line‑item breakdown of change orders, credits and items outside the GMP, saying the public impression of a $2 million overrun conflates GMP variances with the total project cost; the court approved a short‑term budget amendment to pay contractor bills.
A commissioner on the Coryell County Commissioners Court gave a detailed accounting of the Leon Street annex and jail expansion projects, explaining why public claims of a $2 million overrun do not match the ledgered project costs.
The commissioner (identified in the meeting as Jack) said the jail project’s guaranteed maximum price (GMP) and the total project cost are different. “The jail project, GMP was, $4,788,809.56,” he said when describing the figures, and he listed specific change orders and credits, including a $321,005.77 camera‑system change order and a $194,953.04 credit that reduced costs in the final split. He told the court that many costs often omitted from public summaries—land, architecture and engineering fees, testing, surveys, and furniture/fixtures—explain why budget figures were higher than the GMP.
The court discussed signature authority on change orders and whether some change orders should have been presented at public meetings; staff said many were processed through the construction manager at risk and that some significant change orders were brought to the court. After reviewing options to cover outstanding bills, the court approved Budget Amendment No. 6, transferring $200,000 from the grant support fund and $400,000 from the prisoner board fund to the capital improvement fund to pay contractors. The judge said the county has the funding but temporarily lacks the current budget capacity to expense those funds without the amendment.
Court members discussed lessons learned, including tighter upfront budgeting for total construction costs and possible use of external financial oversight on future large projects.
