New Contractor Sought for Sheriff’s Station : Lost Hills: Although nearly completed, the facility is still not expected to be ready until the end of this year.

Although construction is nearly finished, Los Angeles County is looking for a new contractor to take over work on a sheriff’s station in Agoura that is months behind schedule.

The $7-million Lost Hills sheriff’s station was supposed to be completed in October. But county officials say that with time already lost by the slow pace of construction, plus the time needed to find a new contractor, the station will not be ready until the end of the year.

Until the facility is finished, deputies patrolling the Las Virgenes area will continue to operate out of the department’s Malibu station.

County supervisors, ending weeks of negotiations with the contractor, Cates Construction of Lancaster, voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to terminate Cates’ contract.

County officials blamed the firm for delays, saying that it was guilty of failing to line up competent subcontractors to keep the work going.

The contractor “seemed to be having trouble with the subs,” said David F. Stewart, director of the county’s Internal Services Department. “Things were starting to back up.”

But Danny Cates, who heads the firm, said Wednesday that the job was behind schedule “because we have been plagued by some 88 change orders from the county. The building plans were inadequate so they kept ordering us to change the work.”

He said the contract changes involved such items as security doors, landscaping and countertop materials.

Cates said that he has successfully built numerous projects for federal, state and local governments, but found Los Angeles County “very, very difficult to deal with.”

Nonetheless, Cates said, he agreed to the contract termination to end a very difficult situation.

The project originally was to be completed in April at a cost of $5.9 million, but changes ordered by the county pushed the completion date back to October and the cost to $7 million, both sides said.

All work on the project stopped June 2 at the orders of county officials dissatisfied with the pace of construction.

Since then, the contractor and the Internal Services Department have been negotiating, with supervisors prodding the two to come to an agreement.

Stewart said that because supervisors decreed the situation to be an emergency, he will be able to hire another contractor without going to bid.

Supervisor Pete Schabarum, the lone opponent of the termination, said “both sides seem to have screwed up.”

Deputies stationed at the Lost Hills facility will patrol the city of Agoura Hills as well as unincorporated areas of Agoura and Calabasas.