Controller Refuses to Fund L.A. Boat Repairs

Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle on Thursday refused to authorize more payments for repairs on an ocean monitoring vessel that has cost the city Sanitation Bureau more than $6 million.

Tuttle said it is the first time in his seven years as controller that he has told a department that he will not approve future payments on a project because of questions about its management.

“The recent expenditures for the La Mer project have raised concerns in my office that we may not yet know when this project will end, nor do we know how much it will cost to complete this boat to the satisfaction of the city,” Tuttle said in a letter to Sanitation Bureau Director Delwin Biaggi.

Biaggi could not be reached for comment Thursday. A spokesman for the Board of Public Works, which oversees the Sanitation Bureau, said a response to Tuttle’s letter will be sent as soon as possible.

Biaggi and other sanitation officials have defended the 1986 decision to commission the custom-designed vessel for the monitoring of pollution in Santa Monica Bay. Biaggi and other sanitation officials also have argued that the repairs, while regrettable, will result in a vessel that will serve the city’s ocean monitoring needs for 20 years.

Last year, it was discovered that the 85-foot La Mer had cost more than four times original estimates. The costs include $1.1 million paid to the ship’s designer, a San Pedro firm owned by former Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner Robert Rados Sr.

The vessel is the subject of a lawsuit involving the city, Rados International Corp. and the ship’s San Diego builder, Knight & Carver Custom Yachts. The litigation began when Knight & Carver sued the city for withholding its final payment of $212,000 on the ship’s $4.1-million cost of construction--which included $546,000 for changes ordered by the city and Rados International.

“It is important to know what the end point is in this controversial project, which as you know has had excessive cost overruns,” Tuttle wrote. “And, once all the proposed repairs are done, will the city have a vessel which meets its needs?”

Tuttle said he also wants to determine the La Mer’s annual maintenance costs and what controls are in place to “prevent future La Mers.”

Repairs to the La Mer have totaled more than $553,000 with an estimated $150,000 in work to be completed. The repairs have been done by San Pedro Boatworks--owned by Rados’ nephew, Andy Wall--under a competitively bid city contract originally valued at $85,000.

The repair costs, according to the controller’s office, include a 15% markup authorized by sanitation officials for technical services by San Pedro Boatworks.

“Because of these and related concerns about the way this project has been managed, the disturbing pattern of stretching the rules to thwart the intent of the city’s competitive bidding process, and the inability of your staff to explain these matters to my staff, I have decided to cease further payments on this vessel until . . . questions are answered to my satisfaction,” Tuttle wrote.

Tuttle said he took the unusual step of writing the letter because he and his office are frustrated by efforts to obtain information about the project’s final costs.

“I don’t ever recall taking such an action . . . , but this situation just cries out for it,” Tuttle said.

As recently as last month, the La Mer was laid up again in dry dock, undergoing about $2,500 in repairs to, among other things, prevent seawater from entering its engine room.

Because of La Mer’s soaring cost, Tuttle previously proposed a policy to better control cost overruns on competitively bid contracts, which is pending before the City Council.