Columbia: 'I'll see you in court'

Columbia officials have rejected settlement offers from Stevens and Wilkinson and Turner Construction over the 2004 convention center hotel project.

If you don’t remember, at one time the city considered building a public hotel across from the convention center. They eventually decided not to and went with a private developer, which prompted a flood of lawsuits.

You can read the Stevens and Wilkinson rejection here.

You can read the Turner Construction rejection here.

If you don’t want to read those, I will summarize:

The city says Stevens and Wilkinson is demanding Columbia taxpayers pay for nearly $1.6 million of work it cannot document. Stevens and Wilkinson, of course, disputes that.

The city says Turner Construction is demanding Columbia taxpayers pay for $525,000 of expenses, including $2,500 tickets to a dinner for the urban league and “tens of thousands of dollars of regular payroll expenses.” Turner Construction says it originally asked taxpayers to cover those, but has since removed them from their settlement offer.

Looks like this case is going to trial.