Tuttle Won’t OK More Payments on Pollution Ship : La Mer: Controller says this is the first time he has withheld funds because of questions about a project’s management.

In an extraordinary move, Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle on Thursday refused to authorize any more payments on a $6-million ocean-monitoring ship until final repair costs can be pinpointed.

The action, Tuttle said, represents the first time in his seven years as controller that he has told a city department that he will not approve 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 did not return calls seeking comment Thursday. A spokesman for the city Board of Public Works, which oversees the Sanitation Bureau, said a response to Tuttle’s letter will be issued as soon as possible.

Last year, The Times disclosed that the 85-foot La Mer, commissioned in 1986 to monitor pollution in Santa Monica Bay, 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 Port Commissioner Robert Rados Sr.

Previously, Tuttle’s concerns about La Mer were evident when he used its soaring price tag to propose a city policy to better control cost overruns on competitively bid contracts. That policy is pending before the City Council.

Currently, 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 Inc. The litigation began when Knight & Carver sued Los Angeles for withholding its final payment of $212,000 on the ship’s $4.1-million cost of construction, a cost that included $546,000 for changes ordered by the city or Rados International.

” . . . I believe 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?”

Specifically, Tuttle said, he wants sanitation officials to determine how much more repair work will be required to complete La Mer, its annual maintenance costs and what controls are in place to “prevent future La Mers.”

Tuttle said that although the costs to design and build La Mer have sparked controversy at City Hall, he has been just as concerned with repairs, which have totaled more than $553,000 with an estimated $150,000 in work yet to be done. Those repairs have been done by San Pedro Boatworks, a company 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.

In a brief interview, Tuttle said he took the unusual step of writing the letter because he and his office were frustrated by efforts to obtain information about the project’s final cost.

“This La Mer thing is simply at the point where it has to be addressed at a level where we can get some answers,” Tuttle said. “I don’t ever recall taking such an action . . . but this situation just cries out for it.”

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

But as recently as last month, 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.

Several months ago, Tuttle’s frustration with the ship’s costs led him to propose a city policy that will greatly limit the amount a competitively bid contract can increase after it is awarded.

That policy, which will call for immediate cancellation of a contract once its cost overruns exceed a specified threshold, is still being drafted but is expected to be approved by city officials in the next two months, said Tim Lynch, administrative deputy controller.