City Hall awaiting finishing touches

Lolita Harper

The unsightly chain-linked fence blocking the entrance and the raw

steel beams that adorn City Hall provide a constant -- and painful --

reminder of a botched project, in which those hired to retrofit the

city’s headquarters simply walked off, leaving an unfinished job.

While the visual focus is on the exterior of the building, inside

City Hall, council members have been putting pressure on city staff

to fix the mess and make sure nothing similar ever happens again.

Bill Morris, the city’s director of public services, met with the

bonding company that guaranteed the completion of the project Monday

to work out details required to get a crew out there to finish the

project. Morris said he hopes to have a resolution in the next week

or so.

“We’ve been working on it; there is just a lot of area to cover,”

Morris said, adding that he knows the City Council and the public are

anxious to see the project completed. “It just takes a little time to

sort everything out.”

City officials said workers from the Anderson White contracting

company simply didn’t show up for work July 1 and have been ducking

any contact with the city since. Morris said the city has tried

unsuccessfully to reach representatives from the Alhambra-based

company.

Anderson White officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The project, which was already a year behind schedule at the time

of the walk-off, is about 90% complete, Morris said, only lacking in

cosmetic aspects, such as the painting and the patching of holes.

The City Council awarded a $2.8-million contract to Anderson White

in November 2000 for the seismic retrofitting of City Hall and an

additional off-site building. Construction began in January 2001 and

was scheduled to be complete in August 2001. Anderson White had

constant problems performing the work on time and meeting its own

schedules, Morris said.

Council members have been adamant about finishing the project.

Allusions to the retrofitting fiasco were prevalent during seemingly

routine items of City Council business. At last week’s meeting, an

agreement with KFM Engineering for the design of the pavement

reconstruction on 19th Street and Placentia Avenue resulted in a

peppering of questions from Mayor Linda Dixon about the city’s

contracting policies.

Dixon asked if the engineering company had worked with the city

before, if the project was completely on time and if Costa Mesa

officials had properly researched the company’s reputation.

Her concern, she said, was whether Morris and his staff were

actively checking references before awarding city contracts. She

wanted to know if staffers had called other cities to see what type

of work KFM Engineering did for them and whether the company

completed each stage of the process in a timely matter.

“I am upset about the retrofitting and I want to make sure it

doesn’t happen again,” Dixon said.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan was also adamant about when she wanted

the work on City Hall complete: “Now,” she said during the council

meeting.

The building has been in disrepair long enough, Cowan said, and it

is time for city officials to take very aggressive steps to get the

rest of the work finished.

“It has got to be completed,” Cowan said at the Sept. 16 City

Council meeting. “If we are waiting around for some bonding company,

we need to go ahead and do it ourselves.”

Morris said working with the bonding company is really the best

and cheapest course for the city to take. If the city were to

side-step the bonding company and contract the work themselves, they

would have to go through the lengthy bidding process and further

delay the work, he said.

“It is really most expedient for them to come in and do the work

as it was originally bid,” Morris said.

Delays in getting a work crew on site all revolve around money

issues on both sides, Morris said. The bonding company and the city

are trying to save as much money as possible. Attorneys on both sides

are involved and there are detailed issues regarding what work is

left to complete, what work will have to be redone and what the

company will get paid of the remaining contract that had yet to be

paid to Anderson White.

“We want to get everything sorted out so that it gets done and

done correctly so that everybody knows the costs going into it,”

Morris said.

Morris expects another three months of actual work until City Hall

is complete. If everything goes well, the building will be better

than new by the new year, he said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at [email protected].