Riverbed Contractor Is Focus of New Controversy : Ventura: Firm that cleared river bottom for a third of contract amount may have cleaned beaches for $20,000 more than what a rival had offered.

Less than a week after Ventura officials acknowledged that they paid about $120,000 too much to clear out the Ventura River bottom, the same contractor is embroiled in a new controversy over cleaning the city’s beaches.

California Land Clearing received a $177,745 lump-sum contract in March to remove debris from the flood-ravaged riverbed, though it cost the Ventura company less than $58,000 to do the work in 11 days, according to a city analysis of its project records.

The contract was negotiated under an emergency provision that allowed city officials to avoid the two-month process usually required to advertise and award most public contracts.

The company also won an emergency $47,500 contract to clean the city’s beachfront, which was littered with tons of driftwood, tree stumps and other debris after the winter storms.

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But rival contractor Terence Strong said he offered to do the beach cleanup for less than $28,000--nearly $20,000 below what California Land Clearing received for the work, which was finished nearly two weeks ago.

“Oh, no! Not again,” said Councilman Jim Monahan, referring to California Land Clearing apparently receiving such high profits on a second contract.

“I think (City Manager Donna Landeros) has got some more unraveling to do,” said Monahan, adding that it appears taxpayers are being shortchanged again.

City officials said there was no legal way to award the contract to Strong, who owns Bobcat Construction in Bakersfield, because Strong bid the two city beach cleanup projects as a package deal with an offer to clean San Buenaventura State Beach.

Records show that Strong had initially offered to work on all three beach projects for just under $63,000.

But because the city and state later decided not to jointly contract for their cleanup work, the city could not consider Strong’s offer, said Paul Lust, the purchasing supervisor who awarded California Land Clearing the contract.

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In his winning proposal, Douglas J. Muelder, president of California Land Clearing, said he would clean any or all of the three beaches.

“I don’t have a problem with doing any of the areas collectively or individually,” said Muelder, whose company subsequently received a separate $149,745 state contract to clean San Buenaventura State Beach.

After state park and Ventura officials separated the three beach cleanup jobs, Strong said he was called and asked whether he wanted his bids to be considered for the city beaches at Marina Cove and Surfer’s Point.

Strong said he told the city purchasing department that he still wanted to clean both beaches for a total of $27,830. Weeks later he received a letter from the city stating it had awarded the contract to California Land Clearing.

“It doesn’t seem fair. Anybody could see that it’s not fair,” Strong said.

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But Lust said the telephone call never took place.

“We would not conduct business verbally that way,” the purchasing supervisor said. “Anything impacting an award would have to be handled in writing.”

Lust said he could not award the contract to Bobcat Construction because Strong’s original bid stated that it was an “all or none” offer. What’s more, Lust said, California Land Clearing did an efficient and timely job.

‘They’re a very good company and they know their business,” Lust said. “It was a very strategic decision (to offer to do any or all of the jobs). That’s why they won the award.”

Despite attempts to solicit numerous bids on the cleanup projects, city officials received a disappointing response. “We only got two bids back out of 10 companies,” said Terry Murphy, city parks supervisor.

Mayor Tom Buford refused to discuss the staff’s decision to go with the $47,500 beach cleanup bid.

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“There are two stops for that issue before it gets to me: the city manager’s office and the city attorney’s office,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get involved in a situation in which there may be a claim filed against the city.

“If it ends up being a council issue, I’ll take a look at it,” Buford said.

Public Works Director Ronald Calkins said he supports his staff’s decision to award the beach cleanup contract to California Land Clearing.

“I have confidence in our purchasing division,” he said. “They reviewed the bids and if it was their judgment that that was the firm we needed to award the bid to, then I believe them.”

The system “has checks and balances built in,” he said. “We use the process and I’m comfortable with the outcome.”

In the proposal submitted by California Land Clearing, the company bid $35,000 to clean Surfers Point, $12,500 to sanitize Marina Cove and $96,600 to clear away San Buenaventura State Beach.

Last week, Muelder was awarded a $149,745 contract to clean that stretch of San Buenaventura State Beach--a $53,145 difference he said owed to new conditions at the beach.

“There was an area that we didn’t realize was included (in the first estimate),” Muelder said.

But some of Muelder’s competitors question why California Land Clearing wins so many contracts.

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Jim Gofourth of Reed Land Clearing in Ventura, which had submitted a $175,000 bid to clean San Buenaventura State Beach, said his rival frequently underbids him because it is a non-union company.

“That makes it very hard to compete with them,” said Gofourth, whose company later won state contracts to clean McGrath and Emma Wood state beaches.

Another local contractor, who requested anonymity, said he cannot compete with non-union companies such as California Land Clearing.

“When they are in the competition, we have no chance because they don’t pay prevailing wage. We don’t even bid against them anymore,” the contractor said. “If I find out they’re on the bid list, I don’t even waste my time.”

But Muelder said running a non-union company prevents him from competing on certain jobs.

“There’s a lot of work we can’t do because we’re non-union, and there are a lot of jobs that union contractors can’t get because of their union position and cost,” Muelder said.

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Contractor Jim Schwan of Santa Barbara, who uses non-union workers, said not having organized laborers does not lower his work estimates.

“I wouldn’t say that’s an advantage,” Schwan said. “All of our (subcontractors) are owners of their own company, and they make more than scale. Our big advantage is that we have an owner on every job.”

Monday, City Manager Landeros told the City Council that the $177,745 riverbed cleanup contract awarded to California Land Clearing was “seriously miscalculated” by city staff members.

The lump-sum contract was given to California Land Clearing in March after a city engineer estimated the river bottom cleanup job would cost about $189,000.

Meanwhile, Fillmore contractor Jack Saunders bid $28,000 for the riverbed job, but his offer was rejected by Calkins, the public works director, as unrealistically low.

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Records later showed that California Land Clearing actually was able to do the work for less than $58,000. Muelder has said he would not consider returning any of that money--a move that Councilman Gary Tuttle called for last week.

Muelder said he could have just as easily lost money on the river bottom contract if he had estimated incorrectly. He added that he has not been contacted by the city with a request for a rebate.

The city did not ask California Land Clearing to submit payroll records, dump receipts or other documents related to the city beach cleanup; similar paperwork helped determine the true cost of clearing the river bottom.

“We didn’t ask them to turn in any dump tickets on this job,” Murphy said. “We’ve never done it before and it wasn’t required in the proposal.”