Lower Air-Conditioning Estimate Offered

Project managers for the massive Los Angeles school bond repairs added a new wrinkle Thursday to the already convoluted bidding to air-condition hundreds of campuses, reporting that they can do the work for $50 million less than the initial district estimate of $200 million.

The new estimate undercuts the proposal made in May by a coalition of energy companies that said it could save $40 million.

Although not presented as a bid, the new estimate in effect makes the program manager and 10 project managers hired by the district to supervise the school bond repairs an eighth bidder for the air-conditioning work, which initially came under their contracts.

The contest for the air-conditioning work goes back to May when the Energy Alliance, a consortium including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the parent of The Gas Co. announced what it called a “fast-track” plan, separating air-conditioning from the rest of the repairs funded by the $2.4-billion Proposition BB bond approved by voters in April.

District officials called for competitive bidding, resulting in 11 new proposals. The seven firms still in the running are required to submit final bids by Oct. 22.

Despite the competing proposals, the district had its bond management team press ahead with designing and contracting the air-conditioning work, raising complaints that an eighth, “shadow” bidder was benefiting from holding the inside track.

The debate touched off a shouting match Wednesday when Steven Soboroff, chairman of the Proposition BB oversight committee, said the project manager team should be disqualified because it did not formally bid.

Committee member David Barulich of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. accused Soboroff of political grandstanding and said that the new proposals were not meant to save the district money, but to “make a buck.”

Speaking out for the first time Thursday, the 10 project managers appeared before the school board’s facilities committee to say they can do the job better by coordinating the air conditioning with other repairs and involving the local business community, as well as cutting costs.

Ed Cadena of Turner/CM, one of the project managers, said the jobs underway are costing from 20% to 30% less than the district budgeted in contracts written with the schools before the bond vote.