Frustrations are mounting regarding the delayed opening of Culver City Fire Station No. 3.
At the latest gathering of the Culver City City Council, someone finally paid the price — literally.
The council voted 5-0 on Monday, March 1 to terminate its contract with FEI Enterprises, a move that also authorized city staff to release a portion of the project retention funds to begin paying off various parties who took part in the construction.
At the root of the decision to part ways with FEI Enterprises was the company’s inability to meet a series of agreed upon completion deadlines for the project. Originally slated for a completion date of July 16, 2008, the new station was first delayed by setbacks caused by inclement weather, and later by the murder of project manager Paul Bilodeau in January 2009.
However, once FEI Enterprises went back to work the delays continued, as it missed a May 2009 deadline and subsequent target dates. Finally, in November 2009, the city informed FEI Enterprises it had until Dec. 11 of last year to finish the project, and the cost of all unfinished work would be deducted from its final payment. FEI Enterprises did not meet that deadline.
The city’s calculation of how the finances subsequently shook out ultimately left FEI Enterprises owing the city more than $62,000. The company declined to sign what’s known as a “deductive change order” to that effect, thus leading to the council’s action and what will surely be a drawn-out legal process.
However, the decision to terminate the contract allows for sub-contractors who worked on the project to begin getting paid for their work, and also allows the city to send out for bid the work that remains to be done on the station.
“We got as far as we could get with this contractor,” said Charles D. Herbertson, the city’s public works director.
“Now we can enter into individual contracts with sub-contractors to complete all the odds and ends that need to be done to complete the project.”
Herbertson is hopeful the city will be able to go back before the council at its March 22 meeting and gain approval for those contracts, targeting a new date of early June for having the station — located at 6030 Bristol Parkway in Fox Hills — ready for action.
“We want to finish these last few steps of the journey, get this thing opened up and get the fire department over there,” Herbertson said. “It’s always frustrating when you get almost to the end and can’t close the deal. But that’s how this one unfortunately worked out.”
The lingering question — in addition to how the finances with FEI Enterprises will eventually shake out — is whether the city needs to look at making alterations to its bid acceptance procedures in the wake of not only this project but others that, as Herbertson admitted, have resulted in an unimpressive “batting average.”
“I think we need to look at the way we award contracts,” said Councilman Scott Malsin during the body’s brief discussion on the matter. “Awarding contracts to the low bidder has frequently resulted in problems down the road.
“I think we ought to explore it. This is something that comes up, and I think we can do better.”
Herbertson agreed the requirements for accepting a bid may need to become a little more stringent. However, in the case of FEI Enterprises, he believes city staff performed appropriately, labeling this project a simple case of a company failing to deliver as promised.
“We did check the company out before we hired them for the project,” Herbertson said. “We did go and check them out and saw the quality of the work they had performed. …
“The level of problems, we certainly didn’t anticipate it to be … we didn’t anticipate it would take this long and we’d have this many issues.”
In other news:
• The council voted 5-0 to adopt a resolution authorizing the destruction of certain records retained by the Culver City Police Department. The vote was actually conducted in two parts when Councilman Gary Silbiger requested a separate vote on specific items. That vote was 4-1 in favor of the resolution.
• The council voted 4-0 to adopt a resolution establishing storefront encroachment permit standards and procedures for use of portions of the public rights-of-way. Councilman Micheal “Mehaul” O’Leary abstained from the vote, citing a conflict of interest due to his operation of a storefront business within the city.
• City Manager Mark Scott expressed his support for having the city take a look at legal options regarding red-light camera fines, and whether it would be possible to operate the system without having to pay hefty fees to the state and Los Angeles County.
