EARTHQUAKE: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY : Riordan Seeks to Use City Workers to Raze Quake-Damaged Buildings : Demolition: Mayor and some council members say private program to clean up after riots was too costly and too slow.

Los Angeles officials may drop plans to pay up to $15 million to private firms to oversee the demolition of hundreds of buildings damaged in the earthquake, saying that city workers may be able to do the job for less.

Mayor Richard Riordan called Friday for public employees to manage the work, putting a damper on what one official called a “feeding frenzy” by firms that are bidding for the work.

Riordan Administration officials and City Council members said they want to reconsider the use of private firms in part because a similar program after the riots was too slow and too expensive.

“I want to give the city employees the chance to do it,” Riordan said in an interview. “They did a great job immediately following the earthquake and I met with them several times and they convinced me they can do it.”

But the use of private firms is still supported by some City Council members. And the Riordan plan could hit a snag because federal regulations might prevent the city from getting reimbursement of its expenses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Riordan aides said they are confident they can get FEMA to pay for the work once federal officials see that public employees can do it for less.

In preliminary estimates late Friday, an official in the Department of Public Works said the city could oversee demolition for about $6 million, compared to the $9 million it would cost to hire private firms.

In either case, other companies would be hired to do the actual demolition and they may have to be paid as much as $60 million more, said Andres Santamaria, manager of the program for the Public Works Department.

Dozens of private firms are expected to be hired to handle that work. The structures will be torn down, at no cost to owners, to promote the fastest possible reconstruction of neighborhoods damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Debate has grown intense, though, over how to accomplish the job quickly at the least cost.

The City Council had been scheduled Friday to award the demolition oversight contracts to three partnerships that had been recommended by the Board of Public Works.

But Riordan and his appointees on the board proposed that city staff do the work, and the City Council voted to wait a week to get more details on its alternatives.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said the city should avoid unnecessary expense. “We don’t want this to become the Full Employment Act for everyone who wants to learn to demolish a few buildings,” he said.

Board of Public Works President Charles Dickerson said the reconsideration of the use of private firms came about partly because of a significant reduction in the scope of the work. The board had previously thought that as many as 10,000 buildings might need to be torn down, but that number has been reduced to 1,000. And of those, officials say up to 60% may be razed by their owners, leaving only about 400 for the city to remove.

Officials in the mayor’s office, which appoints the members of Board of Public Works, also said they were concerned about the performance of a private partnership that managed demolitions after the 1992 riots.

A Times investigation last year found that more money, about $6.3 million, had been paid to the Los Angeles Community Partnership for management of the riot cleanup than to all the firms that had actually demolished buildings and recycled rubble.

The work was supposed to last six months but took twice as long, even though less than half the number of buildings projected had to be torn down.

Firms in the partnership said the delays were mainly caused by building owners who took months to decide whether to raze their structures. They said the high cost of the work was in large part because they had to plan for demolition of many more buildings than actually were torn down.

Several of the companies involved in the Los Angeles Community Partnership have joined again to oversee some of the earthquake demolition. The group was one of the three recommended by the public works board.

Councilmen Richard Alatorre, Richard Alarcon and Mike Hernandez argued Friday for going ahead with the private contracts to speed up demolition. They questioned whether the city’s Department of Public Works can handle the job without neglecting its normal duties.

“We’ve got to get these things cleared up,” Alatorre said. “I think the (city employees’) regular work would suffer. Something has got to give.”

Alatorre also doubted that FEMA will change its regulations to reimburse the city for the cost of the work. The councilman said he backs three partnerships recommended by the Board of Public Works.

Alatorre has ties to several of the firms involved in the partnerships.

The community partnership group, recommended to oversee cleanup in most of the San Fernando Valley, includes the Cordoba Corp. The company once employed the councilman’s son and is owned by Alatorre’s longtime political ally, George Pla.

The partnership recommended to oversee work south of Mulholland Drive includes Pacifica Services Inc., owned by Ernest Camacho, Alatorre’s onetime campaign manager, and The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), which has been a financial supporter and ally of the councilman.

Alatorre said those connections had nothing to do with his support of the contracts.

Riordan Adminstration officials said the question of FEMA reimbursement was raised because the agency has already rejected $50 million or more in city claims for salaries of employees working on earthquake-related matters.