That was the response of more than one expert I talked to in the last week about the costs of obtaining our Certificate of Need and subsequent work. That's even after some of the complicating issues. Of the $600,000 that we have paid Duane Morris, approximately $400,000 was related to our Certificate of Need, alterations to the same, and then followup work on our final cost report and compliance.
So what's the going rate for doing this work from people who actually do this work? How about $25,000-$50,000. That's right. And some of these experts actually work for, can you believe it, a FLAT fee. For example, DeKalb County, a county which we are looking to as a model for our own, paid about $30,000 to their consultant for their Certificate of Need 9 years ago.
As one person put it to me, it appears that we paid for the education of Duane Morris. This becomes painfully obvious when you consider that they weren't even aware of the impact of the new rules on our project.
I have no idea why we have this firm representing us. And after hiring them, I have no idea why we kept them after their deficiencies became painfully obvious. Earlier this week I gave Julia Rietz a letter asking her for examples of other work that Duane Morris has done along the lines of what we were asking them to do. I also asked for some names of the State's Attorneys who so highly recommended their services. I'll let you know if and when she responds. The audio below is Ms. Rietz with another empassioned attorney defense.







In the surreal world of Champaign County government, a new sign is going up at the nursing home. Three bricklayers have worked on it for the first three days of the week, and more work needs to be done yet. So the nursing home, which is bleeding hundreds of thousands a year, and which is getting bailed out by the general corp fund for a million a year, gets a nice new sign. 
