Staying clean: WPB Mayor showers in luxury
Tags: Catasfumo Construction, City Hall, Dan Catalfumo, florida, kimberly mitchell, Lois Frankel, West Palm Beach
| Wednesday 15 April 2009 7:54 am
It’s a nice amenity, but you’ll have to get elected mayor of West Palm Beach to have access to it.
Hidden behind a door in Mayor Lois Frankel’s office in the brand spanking new domed city hall is a private bathroom that includes a marble shower.
Lois Frankel's first steps at the new city hall.
Marble, as in most Palm Beach mansions.
In the middle of a recession.
Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer!
“In the big scheme of things, it was probably a minuscule cost,” says Herhoner, who doesn’t know how much the shower set the city back. As a matter of fact, she said she doesn’t even know if it’s really marble. “I didn’t ask for it. The designer did. I don’t even know if I’ll ever use the shower. But this building was constructed to last 100 years and it’s not been built for me. It’s been built for mayors after me.
“At least, the faucets in there don’t shut off automatically like in the rest of the building.”
The mayor’s office declined to allow a photographer in the bathroom Monday and Tuesday, saying it’d be “a few days” before it would grant access.
The $154 million-construction of our very own Taj Mahal, I mean, city hall, set to be inaugurated with a full slate of public events Thursday, has been the subject of criticism over the past years.
And the loudest usually came from Frankel arch-nemesis on the City Commission, Kim Mitchell. Mitchell, who argued that a project of this magnitude should have been put to a referendum, didn’t miss the opportunity to sound off about the shower.
“I hope she’ll open it for the homeless,” Mitchell said. “There are a lot of people in this town who don’t have marble showers. I’ll have to check, but I’m pretty sure that this is not what Washington meant by ‘stimulus package.’ ”
When asked how much the mayor’s bathroom cost, her spokesman requested “a few days.” Apparently, the bills the city is receiving from builder Dan Catalfumo doesn’t include “small details.”
But Catalfumo told me it wasn’t much.
“These days, marble has become as cheap as porcelain tile,” Catalfumo said. “It cost maybe $400 for the marble. I promise you the city didn’t break the bank for this.”
And, a mayor works long hours, says Frankel. Why not freshen up at the office?
“In many occasions, a mayor has to work around the clock,” Frankel said.
Said Mitchell via cellphone: “I’m at the checkout line at Winn Dixie, and I’m surrounded by hard working folks. Most of them don’t have marble showers.”
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I am shocked, shocked I tell ya! She always talks about how money could be better spent on the poor. How money could be spent on low income housing, but when it comes to her it is a different story.
But in all honesty this is the smallest of her actions.
Do you really think she put a shower in the plan when it was being built? Who designed the building? That is the person who decided there should be a shower in the mayors office. Or group of people that decided this. Like she said it was not built just for her. It will be the next mayors shower too. Just something else for people to gossip about.
PbP, a shower has nothing to do with honesty. You are an idiot for even thinking that. Most executive offices have this, as the Mayor , like most execs, has a pretty difficult schedule for evnts that the Mayor is supposed to attend after hours to represent the city. Let’s see, if she did not have a shower with or with out marble, how much would it cost the city in fuel and vehicle expenses if the mayor had to drive home and back everytime she needed to prepare for an event?? I can tell you that it would be way more than what the shower cost to put in. Try some logic next time you want to make a comment. You look and sound like an emotional idiot who cannot help but making off the cuff coments with no sound reasoning to back it up.
Raising petty issues like this is a waste of everyone’s time. Let’s focus on resolving the important issues and not irrelevant ones. Maybe Kimberly Mitchell would have liked us to have a referendum as to what type of shower should have been installed.
Thank you Don for going straight for the childish name calling. The city hall should not have been built, it was a waste of taxpayer money. The point is if Lois cares sooooo sooo much for the poor the money should have been put into low income housing, not into making sure she was comfortable.
i’M WONDERING: since they also built the workout room / gym — that Ultima Gym across the street complained is taking business away from them over—didn’t they build some kind of showers into the workout room —and why can’t Frankel use them instead of having a damn marble shower built in her private bathroom in her office ????
WoW! Who does she think she IS ??? Talk about ARROGANCE and fiscal irresponsibility and government CORRUPTION!
Looks like the FEDS need to begin a complete investigation into the building of this CITY HALL and FRANKEL’S “connections” & fiscal misuse of the City’s Funds and taxpayer theft, and also all the corruption and misappropriations and shady practices behind DAN CATALFUMO, who has previously been under several investigations for beating up several of his former girlfriends!!! Some “Role Model”, eh, for the City to use as their Contractor???
How can such a mediocre city like West Palm Beach get in sooooo much trouble over & over & over involving greed and corruption and idiot politicians taking advantage of their ELECTED POSITIONS ????
Aren’t there showers elsewhere in City Hall? I can agree she probably is in a position where having access to one is smart, but to have it private and made of marble is a bit excessive.
That whole building was excessive though.
Did ya’ll fail to read the part where she didn’t know she was getting a shower til she walked in the office and saw it. The developer and designer spent tax payer money cause they are as broke as you are and $20.00 here and there helps them as well as our economy. Buying marble in a market where marble doesn’t really have any market at the moment help OUR ECONOMY. The spending our city partook in helped more then it hurt. Stop reading into corruption over marble and realize how much money was put back into the economy and taken out of state hands.
The shower is small compared to the whole building. How did an original $54 million project become an over $160 million project? That LARGE sucking sound is the City Hall/Library on the City’s budget. It could have been on the original City Hall site leaving the D&D block on the tax rolls. Good luck on how to pay for it! Good luck on keeping Mayor Frankel from still stinking politically….even after a nice shower.
Jose,
You must be bored to have to write about something so unbelievably insignificant.
IMHO, the building looks great. I’m not a fan of the mayor, but I do know the PM for Catalfumo and that guy put his heart and soul into this project because he is proud that he grew up here. I also know that he did everything in his power to watch the costs on the job. One marble shower? Wow. Kim Mitchell needs to shut up - she lost - MOVE ON!
UNBELEIVEABLE, TALK ABOUT ADDING INSULT TO INJURY!
WAY TO KEEP IT REAL, AS USUAL, COMM. MITCHELL!
THERE’S NO WAY TO EXPLAIN THIS DECEDANCE AWAY TO MAKE IT RIGHT.
The bigger question is how did a $50 million project turn into a $150 million project and while a new City Hall and a new Library might have been a good idea the scale and poshness of these new buildings is out of wack since it was paid for with public funds.
Cummon, Marble $400 ceramic tile $325 and a building for a generation. I love Kimberly, but I think this is a bit much over nothing. As much as we spent on the construction, I am glad we didn’t end up with a drive thru warehouse. The truth is that this $400 will have a far greater per dollar “elastic” effect on stimulating the economy than 99% of those wasteful appropriations out of Washington D.C.
Jealous? Run for mayor.
Just the thought of her in a shower is enough to make anyone throw up.
Also interesting choice of contractor,I remember hearing some extremely unsavory news stories about that person…?
This lady is the micro manager from Hell. Of course she knew it was there.
Politicians spending OPM and The Supreme Court decided the process she used to build it was illegal.
She should go to jail maybe?
I heard that she has even banned City Employees from bringing bottled water into the building.
To cut down on plastic? No. People can bring plastic containers but must fill them from the city water supply.
This is a micromanager who very probably DEMANDED a marble shower in her Palace of Corruption?
Between City Hall & the Gaudy Courthouse for the well-heeled attorney’s & judges … you’re looking at $300 million, which could have been 4,000 affordable homes (at a cost of $75,000 each) for hard working Palm Beach County residents. Now you go figure who they put first in these hard times??? Sorry blue collar workers & single mom’s … better luck next century.
out of curiosity. where would you put these homes? since we have how many homes in foreclosure… since we have so much space to continue building in palm beach county…
there is no point in building houses. there are to many houses and not enough jobs. the city hall construction project provided hundreds if not thousands of jobs and it didnt mean wasting resources like we would if we built MORE houses. it meant giving our county something to call our center which should be beautiful since all the mayors meetings and everyone who is going to look at our county will have to enter that building. I SAY GOOD JOB MAYOR FRANKEL!
The transparency and timing of this is article amazing.
Two weeks ago the PBP Sunday edition was gushing up the project, but you just could not keep your distain for the Mayor under wraps. With careful calculation you waited until the day before the grand opening to publish your drivel.
Hiding a bathroom behind a door? WOW! What a novel idea…
Palm Beach County got this far with a perfectly adequate City Hall.
Its apparantly sitting there boarded up a rotting now.
The genius who Bull Rammed this illegal process into the City Mahal of Corruption was going to use the old City Hall in some kind of Deal with WCI…well guess what……..before the Marble Bathroom was finished…WCI apparently went under….so now we have a Palace of Corruption and an Empty former CITY HALL of Corruption with a water view.
Someone hit it right on the head…who sits in judgment in those 2 side by side marble palaces while we have bad water and homeless people and collapsing sinkhole roads everywhere?
Here is a hint…what was FrankelSteen’s prior profession……..
The smarty-pants are screwing us and thinking we will just take it forever and a day.
They may get surprised one day.
My hats off to Commissioner Mitchell for making such a profound statement. Cheers!!!You really hit the nail on the head in saying “The Mayor’s action epitomizes governmental irresponsibility at it’s best. You can believe it to be a fact that even though she says its for Mayors that would come after her, she met it for herself FIRST!! She even has the nerve to always choose to get confrontational when (taxpayers)try to correct her or speak against her views, ask the people who attended the last community court meeting on 21st and Tamarind Avenue, or Ms. Carolyn and her citizens movement group that had to go before the Federal Courts to be heard. It appears to be her way or the highway. Thats GREAT LEADERSHIP Skills Being Displayed. MY,my, my what a JOKE!!!!
compliments TO J OSE FOR WRITING THIS STORY THAT needed TO BE AIRED!
THOSE ON HERE “APPLAUDING” FRANKERSTEIN’S CORRUPTION AND GREED AND TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THE citizens THAT PAY HER DAMN PAYCHECK ARE TYPICAL “CRONIES” AND PROBABLY PARTNERS WITH FRANKELSTEIN IN HER CORRUPTION!
Commissioner Mitchell seems to be the ONLY “elected official” NOT looking out for themself and in on the rampant corruption anf GRAFT embedded in the WPB City Commission.
The awarding of that construction contract to a “developer” who has been arrested and charged MULTIPLE TIMES for beating up women, is totally reprehensible and needs a federal investigation.
And the “MONKEY” claiming that Catal-furball’s PM “had his heart” in this project “just because he loves WPB” —is a complete moron to think we might believe THAT BS—he gets a very nice PAYCHECK every Friday from Dan Catal-furball: THAT’s why he did this Project!!!!
WAKE UP CITIZENS OF WEST PALM BEACH ANF GET RID OF THESE CORRUPT AND GREEDY “POLITICIANS” WHO ARE ONLY LOOKING OUT FOR THEIR WALLETS AND THEIR “BUDDIES” BANK ACCOUNTS …………OPEN YOUR EYES: MARY MCCARTHY WASN’T IN THIS AL ALONE!!!!!!!!!!
I GUESS YOU ALL LIKE GETTING IT IN THE REAR END WITH NO VASELINE, EH …??????
The Mayor knew she was getting a shower - it was talked about during the design stages when employees were being interviewed by Song & Associates to identify the needs that needed to be satisfied in the projects design. Whether or not she knew it was marble is another question. Yes, long hours are put in, and yes, other execs have them as well (including our own Chief of Police). The larger question is about fiscal responsibility. $400 here, a few hundred there… in the end this is what added up to the $156 million dollar price tag. It’s not about having a referendum for every issue, it’s about fiscal accountability and trimming back on expenses - even miniscule ones that quickly add up. Granted, marble will definitely last, but many buildings are conceptualized to “last forever” and clearly, as we have with the example of our old library and old city hall, the needs of the people and staff quickly outgrow the capacity of the building.
WHAT A JOKE! SHE is a JOKE, Liar, and Corrupt!
WOW!GOOD TO SEE ALL THE STIR THIS IS CAUSING.IN THE END IT WON’T MAKE A DIFFERNCE SHE’LL BE THE NEXT ONE IN FEDERAL COURT.
how long will you people pay for a few elected officials, well placed lawyers, and corrupting businessmen, i was the later, but even i eventually said the place was the sodom and ghommorah of the us, its sad because the weather, and the golf, and the beach have a value in the winter,
what are you going to do for work, what are you going to do for money, and take a look at how much of your work gets sucked up by the city,
I smell something very fishy in that downtown there…..Someone better wake up & spell Corruption…To The Max….. how do you work with these people everyday & their Dirt not rub off onto you…. Who let the Fox in the Hen House……
I say Palm Beach County Tea Party …. & throw them all back in the drink The BASS……acoronym…. You Named it… they all must go!!!! We all must VOTE!!!!!!
Frankel is all washed up, She will be the next to be arrested, I have personnely seen her in private meetings at the old omni hotel. She is like F lee Baley hiding with his old girlfriends. As far as Dan nothing but a hopeless druggy Coke head.
i hope it has an enema attachment.
Maybe Dan and Lois will go to jail together. This County and City are hopelessly corrupt in their political leadership and run by ego maniac morons.
I mean look at Dan…THUG…Fool from head to toe they say.
Look at Lois…well…only if you have to…..what a troll..
And they both act worse. They are worse. Crooks.
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Geez, Are we EVER going to stop complaining about this new beautiful City Center. It’s here, it’s completed, it was needed. The old stinky, leaky library will give way to a beautiful new waterfront. The city should be able so sell the site of the old City Hall for a pretty penny. So please, let the dead dog lie!
How cool to be a first time vistior to West Palm Beac, and walk along the water front; up Clematis St; over to City Place to your room next to the Convention Center…….Oops, there is no hotel there. Now that’s a real crime!
The real crime is that Frankelsteen was able to use her lawyer skills (great skills huh?) for evil puprose in circumventing the citizens’ right to due process in approving the financing and construction of the City Hall of Corruption and hand an insanely bloated contract (started at about 50 million and ended at about $185 million?) …for what….I mean ESPERANTE , the tallest class A office tower in WPB just sold for something like $75 million and it had millions of dollars of income with it.
The Supreme Court agreed it was built illegally I think…so what does Frankellsten do? Pays off the Citizen’s Lawyers for like $300K more of citizen money and of course our own lawyers immmediately throw the people and the “cause of justice” under the bus…sure lois…we don’t care if you build that thing….even if the Supreme Court says no….just make sure you pay off all the lawyers on both sides first…and we all are hunky - dory with shafting the public.
Why is Catafumoo getting these plum, fat contracts?
I think Cataf…just put in the new docks……ever notice how many people are on them…or how many yachts are tied up?
No one is on these docks….enjoying the AMAZING new waterfront…..
And these people do not care…..its a bunch of educated hoodlums and hoodlum lawyers and hoodlum consultants and contractors that are just giving it to the decent people here.
We need to organize.
All of this is just my opinion…probably won’t count for anything with anyone in decision making position in this county.
The whole project was ridiculous to begin with. It was rammed through the Mayor by skipping over the checks and balances and bypassing the customary approval procedure. Some of you are right; It’s not just about the shower. This issue is yet another example of the fraud, waste and abuse that is inherent in the city’s administration. Oh, and Mr. Catalfumo, if you’re only charging $400 for a bathroom of marble, please post the point of contact for your company for new projects…I’ve got work that needs to be done, too!
You really can’t make a decision if you don’t know what it cost. Frankel is a typical Democrat, ” I didn’t select it the designer did.” So, how much was it?
I will agree on one thing, if you need a shower for the mayor (has this always been standard procedure for the mayor’s office?) then you should build it to last. Any bets on whether this shower will be there in 25 years?
Just think about where the money is going when you have to pay your “ticket” for not quite making it through a yellow light to a private company and the City of WPB. All in the name of public safety?
Remodeling the old City Hall would have been much more cost effective in addition to providing many jobs. But since Catalfumo is in Frankelstein’s back pocket managing to obtain ALL of the city’s construction contracts, building a new City Hall with that ridiculously pretentious marble shower (and marble easily stains) was of course what Frankelstein made sure to happen. I do not believe that the wonderful Catalfumo does remodels so new construction it was. Just hink of how many other contractors could have bid on the job if it were a remodel. For that matter how is it that Catalfumo does consistently get all of the City’s work? What was the bidding and selection process for all of these jobs including this one? Why have no other contractors ever built anything for the City? I wonder how much of a kickback on these contracts with Catalfumo is sitting in a bank account in the Caymen Islands? A very public and full accounting of the bidding and selection process for every single job performed by Catalfumo for the City should be done.
Clearly the big question here is….
Why is Kimberly Mitchell shopping at Winn-Dixie??
Personally I think she should have a jacuzzi tub in that bathroom…then she could really relax between her public appearances, and maybe Miss Kim could snuggle up in there with her, if it’s big enough for the two of them.
[...] bill for the mayor’s luxury shower at the new West Palm Beach City Hall is in, and it’s as stiff as the marble among which she may [...]
Finance that 13k over 20-30 years and you will get the real cost of that stupid shower the next Mayor will not even use. Did I say the next mayor? 100k shower.
Next time elect a man….we don’t have to shower for weeks!
I’m a Republican, but I am going to post again. Give Lois a break. Maybe if we had waited another 5 years we could have built the 3 buildings at and extra $100 million. She won’t be using the showers all that long, and if she was it is ok with me. Do you think this type of “building” should be built isolating one particular room to downgrade its quality. You could have tiled the room and saved maybe $1700. Do you think the White House doesn’t have marble bathrooms for the “elected” servant. Plus that elected servant gets a lot of “fringe benefits” at tax payers expense. I’d say this bathroom is proportionate to that for a mayor.
Steve Cannell
This is ridiculous, 13000 dollars that could of been spent around the city streets. What an Idiotic Mayor.
Best Zithromax Price
You might be having a sign of allergic reaction to the drug.
You are a disgrace as Mayor of this County and should resign Immeidiately.There is nothing but corruption in this County and I hope the FEDS come in and CRUSH YOU.