Trying Time for New Courthouse : County, Builder Battle Over Unfinished Van Nuys Project

At its unveiling in mid-October, it was hailed as one of the finest court buildings in the nation, a gleaming glass-and-granite edifice to justice that would thrust the San Fernando Valley into the forefront of courthouse design.

But the new $52-million Van Nuys Municipal Courthouse may become the subject of litigation unless a multimillion-dollar dispute between the contractor and Los Angeles County officials is resolved.

Originally, plans had called for Municipal Court personnel to move into the plush, 11-story, 23-court building, which has its own helipad, 10th-floor balcony and state-of-the-art security system, in August.

But 4 months later, the new building is still occupied by construction workers. The Municipal Court staff continues to use cramped, makeshift quarters in bungalows and trailers and on a floor of the Van Nuys Superior Court building next door.

Locked in Negotiations

County officials and Sylmar-based Tutor-Saliba Corp., the contractor, are locked in negotiations over claims that each side is responsible for the delays and owes the other millions of dollars.

The county on Dec. 1 assessed Tutor-Saliba with late penalties of $3 million for failing to have the building ready by Aug. 15, the completion date specified in the contract.

The penalties will continue to mount at the rate of $28,000 for each day beyond the completion date, said Thomas V. Schriber, the county’s chief manager on the courthouse project. The total by the end of December was $3.8 million, county officials said.

Such penalties are standard in construction projects and were spelled out in the 1985 contract between the county and Tutor-Saliba, the low bidder for the project, Schriber said.

The penalties represent the cost to the county of not being able to occupy the building, he said. For instance, the county must keep inspectors and project managers at the site, lease space elsewhere and pay other costs because the new building is not yet open, Schriber said.

Charges Contested

Tutor-Saliba is contesting the extra charges and accuses the county of causing the delays. Tutor-Saliba has filed a claim seeking $1.7 million from the county for costs that the company says it has incurred because of the delays.

“On numerous occasions over the past 8 months, this office has advised your firm . . . of our serious concern over your firm’s lack of progress on completing this project,” Schriber wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Tutor-Saliba.

Schriber’s letter said work was not complete on courthouse communications and elevator systems, nor on mechanical, fire, safety and electrical systems.

It cited the need to replace damaged glass windows, carpets and doors that were not inspected for fire safety.

“To our view, the contractor is not performing as well as we would like,” said Jim Abbott, senior deputy director of the county Facilities Management Department. “It’s fair to say the quality of the work is fine; it’s just that it’s taking longer to get the work done than we feel it should have.

“Once the courthouse dedication was held,” Abbott said, Tutor-Saliba “lost their concentration on the job.”

President Blames County

Ronald N. Tutor, Tutor-Saliba’s president, scoffed at the charges and accused the county of “trying to cover up their own inadequacies” by blaming the contractor for delays.

“That’s a bunch of nonsense. The job is being finished up in spite of the county, not because of it,” Tutor said. “The county couldn’t build a building on time if it tried.

“They know they don’t have a prayer in hell of collecting any part” of the penalty fees, he added.

Tutor said the project has taken longer than scheduled because the county has repeatedly changed specifications, a charge that Abbott denies. Tutor claims that the company is entitled to more time to complete the project without late penalties because the county has required so many changes.

The delays are inconveniencing Municipal Court personnel in Van Nuys, said Aviva K. Bobb, the court’s presiding judge.

“We are very concerned by the 6-month delay in occupying the building. We are anxious to move in as soon as possible,” Bobb said. “The major hardship has been that the court is spread all over the block. . . . It causes a lot of delays, inefficiencies.”

The county has also had to delay plans to renovate the Superior Court building and to open Juvenile Courts in bungalows now occupied by Municipal courtrooms.

The latest tentative plans call for the county to occupy the courthouse in mid-January and open it to the public in mid-February, said Peggy Shuttleworth, Valley division chief of the Los Angeles Municipal Court.

The building still has to pass inspection by county employees and state fire marshals, Abbott said. It has failed several preliminary fire inspections in part because doors were not properly fitted and certified as fire-resistant, he said.

The county is trying to resolve the problems through negotiations with the company’s top management, Abbott said. If negotiations break down, a lawsuit is one of several options that would be considered, he said.

If Tutor-Saliba fails to finish the job, Schriber said, the county would suspend the firm’s contract and have the work done elsewhere.

The building was formally dedicated Oct. 14 at a ceremony attended by more than 500 people, including county and court officials, politicians and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas.

Graffiti-Resistant Interior

The new courthouse features a graffiti-resistant interior; electronic message boards, similar to those used at ballparks, to provide information on court services, and a specially designed, high-security courtroom featuring a bulletproof glass shield to separate spectators from trial participants. The court’s advanced security system features metal detectors, baggage X-ray machines and closed-circuit cameras in public hallways and high-volume courtrooms as well as custody areas.

The courthouse was funded by the sale of public bonds and by the Robbins Construction Fund, which adds a penalty assessment to traffic and parking tickets, said Jerry Orland, head of the project management division of the Facilities Management Department.

It is not the first time that Tutor-Saliba has been accused of foot-dragging on a county courthouse project. The contractor is building a $19-million Los Angeles Municipal Courthouse in Cerritos, which is 6 months behind schedule and has engendered similar charges and countercharges, Orland said.

“We’re in the same boat there,” Orland said.

Tutor-Saliba is one of the largest general contractors in California, ranking 70th nationwide in 1987 with $305.3 million in contract awards, according to Engineering News-Record, a trade publication.

Tutor-Saliba was awarded an $18.3-million contract by the state Department of Transportation to widen a 2-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway from Valley Circle Boulevard to White Oak Avenue.

Built Airport Terminal

The company built the $125-million Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport and is doing $124 million worth of work on the Metro Rail subway project in Los Angeles.

Many of the items cited in the county’s Dec. 1 letter have since been fixed, but some problems remain, officials said.

On a recent tour of the courthouse, county inspectors pointed out such defects as seams and discolorations on carpets, scratches on glass windows and walls that needed touch-up paint. Other problems included double doors that must be replaced because they were too narrow to lock and wheelchair lifts that failed to function during a recent inspection.

“At this point, a lot of the changes are just cosmetic stuff and 98% of the work is already done,” said Mike McNeil, county building inspector. “But when you’re talking about a $52-million building, that 2% adds up to a lot of little things left to be done.”