Chicago Sun-Times
It doesn’t matter if the temporary hospital was needed or not. Let’s give the government the benefit of the doubt that they were actually worried the hospital system in Chicago would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Let’s say they actually needed this facility that was capable of housing 2,750 patients. Instead of choosing a contractor that would charge taxpayers $66 million they could have gone with a contractor that would have charged NOTHING. That’s right… NOTHING!
McPier solicited proposals from three giants in construction: Walsh, Pepper Construction and Power Construction Company. And it hired Walsh even though Power said it either would forgo any fees or donate them to pandemic relief because it didn’t want to profit from the pandemic. Walsh charged $65.9 million, including more than $5.1 million in fees, records show.
Chicago Sun-Times
You can’t make this stuff up. A city and state that are both broke, that shutdown the state’s economy, and where lawmakers and union members received a raise this year opted to throw away $66 million on a temporary hospital that held exactly 38 patients!