DeSantis Redecorates as City Debt Grows

Senior Planner Tom DeSantis wants new carpets and he is going to get them.... You’ll pay for them...

City Planner, Tom DeSantis, the man who gave us the train station, the Underground Railroad Interpretive Center, countless studies and conflicting plans of the Jayne Park renovation, is redecorating his city hall office.

On the council agenda for tonight (Oct. 14) is item #2 that will see Mr. Tom’s offices get new rugs and drapes to the tune of $6,175.

The cost of the rugs and drapes is being covered not by the general fund and not by casino cash. It is being paid with “casino cash interest.”

Just when you thought you heard every type of expenditure in the Dyster administration, the mayor comes up with one more way of surprising us.

“Casino cash interest.”

In the face of a $9 million city deficit, the Dyster administration is going to update DeSantis’ working quarters: $4,950 for rugs, $1,225 for window blinds.

The supporting information from the mayor reads, “…deteriorated conditions of the window blinds and carpeting in the Planning Department office necessitate the replacement of both.”

The irony doesn’t escape the Reporter.

The man who is chiefly responsible for most of the major, misguided, and always costly city projects is – in the midst of budgetary calamity – refreshing the digs of his city hall lair.

Several years ago DeSantis dropped more than $35,000 into a home kitchen renovation. He failed to get building permits for the work, was exposed in the Reporter, and consequently had to make good on the permit fees.

We’re not sure why Tom skirted the building permit laws but at least he was spending his own money on everything including the kitchen sink.

This time his rugs and drapes are on the taxpayer.

The agenda item doesn’t say what color the new rugs and drapes are, but there is one puzzling aspect: the high cost of carpet for the small amount of offices being carpeted.

According to www.carpetsupersite.com, and other sites, the average cost of carpet, including pad and installation, is from $12 to $15 per square yard.

DeSantis' suite of offices is about 50 square yards.

With $4,950 for his carpets, taxpayers are paying $100 per square yard, or about eight times the cost of average, decent carpeting.

Somebody is either making a huge killing on this carpeting or DeSantis is going to get the quality of carpet people put in million-dollar homes.

At the incredible cost of $100 per square yard, Senior Planner Tom DeSantis’ new carpets may be the costliest in the city... But hey, the best, deserves the best.....