$75.5-Million Glitz : Undaunted, Beverly Hills Pushes On With Civic Center

Although appalled at the price of finishing a project that few other cities would dare to dream of, the Beverly Hills City Council has told its general contractor to go back to work on a police station, library and outdoor courtyard that could end up costing as much as $75.5 million.

The final tab remained unknown after the 5-0 vote Tuesday night because the two sides agreed to set aside for now the $14.5-million payment dispute that caused the J.A. Jones Construction Co. to pull its workers off the job in mid-January.

But it is clear that the city will have to pay somewhere between $9 million and $22.5 million more than it planned to complete the final phase of its new Civic Center, which has been rising along Santa Monica Boulevard for the last seven years.

The money is there, secured by a 30-year mortgage on the Civic Center itself, but City Council members said that other projects may have to be dropped in order to finish the last 10% of the work on the police and library complex.

The financing was arranged by selling $116 million worth of $5,000 certificates of participation, a form of revenue bond that does not require approval by the voters.

While calling the situation “a financial tragedy,” Vice Mayor Allan L. Alexander said it was in the best interests of the city to proceed.

Designed by architect Charles Moore, the Civic Center already includes an $11-million firehouse and a $9-million parking garage with room for 553 cars. Both are in use, and work is almost finished on an $11-million renovation of the 59-year-old City Hall, complete with a new coat of gold leaf for the knob atop the cupola.

It was to be a civic center for the ages. Moore’s design, inspired in part by Italian architect Francesco Borromini’s plans for a 17th-Century Roman palazzo, includes an elliptical colonnade with soaring concrete arches, linking the City Hall and firehouse on the west side of Rexford Drive with the police station, parking garage and library on the east side. When completed, the center will total nearly 600,000 square feet. The old police station, cramped and dingy, will be replaced by a command center more in keeping with the image of the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies.

In the City Council chambers, which once seated 80, there will be room for 130 spectators, and a two-way audio-visual system will allow as many as 400 people to take part in public hearings.

Even the parking garage was designed to the nth degree, with a spring-loaded “stainless steel cable system for vehicular restraint”--for use on the ramps between levels, instead of concrete walls, to improve visibility. But that feature proved to be impossible to build and had to be replaced with a simpler array of galvanized iron cables.

The entire project was priced at about $30 million when Moore submitted his original design, a sum that could have been paid out in cash at that time, according to a 1982 staff report.

But it now appears that the price tag could read more than $100 million, despite a 1986 decision to cut costs by dropping an auditorium and cafeteria.

“It’s going to serve the people for the next 100 years,” Mayor Max Salter said last year, describing the complex as “overbuilt somewhat,” but arguing that “quality is remembered long after cost is forgotten.”

Now, however, Salter seems as fed up with it as his colleagues. Moore’s soaring arches “should’ve been in the Vatican,” he said Tuesday.

One apparent victim of the imbroglio is veteran City Manager Edward S. Kreins, who announced his retirement shortly after the cost overruns became known in January. Mark Scott, his successor, will take over March 31.

City Council members have said little in public about Kreins’ departure, but bitterness over his role surfaced Tuesday when a motion was offered to delete a phrase praising his efforts on the Civic Center. It failed by just one vote.

“I’m sure there are errors on the part of the city. No one is free of guilt,” Salter said in closing the debate, but his voice rose in exasperation as he blasted the Jones company for failing to alert the City Council about the rising costs.

Jefferson Welch, Jones’ West Coast representative, said the North Carolina-based firm kept the city informed through JLH Consulting Inc., a construction management company that reported to the city staff. JLH was recently replaced by a new firm, the city’s third construction manager since the job began.

As recently as November, city staffers assured the council that all was well and that it would cost no more than $53 million to build the police station, library and courtyard.

With that memory still fresh, “the (new) cap of $75.5 million (for the final phase) is really an appalling figure,” Councilwoman Vicki Reynolds said. “It’s almost too much to bear, but that’s where we are and we have to go forward.”

The city, which already has paid Jones just under $53 million, will now pay the contractor $2 million to settle existing claims by its electrical, mechanical and drywall subcontractors. It will then pay Jones $7 million more as the work proceeds, with the police station scheduled for completion in two months. The final stage, an outdoor area known as the boat court, is to be finished in September.

The two sides reserved the right to seek arbitration or go to court to settle their outstanding claims, but they agreed that the final cost will not exceed $75.5 million.

Jones also agreed to open its books for an audit by the city.

Welch, Jones’ West Coast representative, said the overruns reflected “a fairly large number of changes made by the city” and several unanticipated problems, including asbestos removal in the old library, ground water under the police station, the departure of key designers and adjustments for the elimination of the theater.

But City Atty. Greg Stepanacich said the city is not responsible for Jones’ costs.

“That’s the dispute at this point,” he said.

Other headaches remain, including suits filed by subcontractors left out of this week’s agreement.

Spencer Graffam, vice president of Tucson, Ariz.-based Harshbarger Industries, which did much of the steel work on the project, said his firm is suing Jones and the city for more than $3 million in damages caused by changes and delays.