Roadwork Contract Draws Fire : Ventura: Firms assail choice of Irvine-based Fluor Daniel to manage the largest street improvement project in the city’s history.

The Ventura City Council’s decision to award a high-stakes contract to an out-of-town firm has roiled some local businessmen, who question the city’s dedication to investing its money at home.

But city officials say some jobs are too important to limit applicants to Ventura companies.

Engineers and community leaders doing business in Ventura are criticizing the council’s vote to award Irvine-based Fluor Daniel a $197,000 contract to manage the largest road improvement project in city history.

“We are extremely disappointed in the city’s decision to hire an outside consultant when local consultants are just as qualified to do the work,” said John F. Heck III, a Ventura engineer whose bid was spurned.

Council members last week voted 5 to 2 to give the contract to Fluor Daniel. Councilmen Jack Tingstrom and Jim Monahan dissented, saying the money should have stayed in Ventura.

“I’m trying to keep a local businessman involved with doing local business,” Monahan said after the vote.

City transportation planners are supervising the huge extension of Olivas Park Drive--a $25-million project designed to dramatically improve traffic circulation around the struggling Ventura Auto Center.

But the city hired the Irvine company to oversee day-to-day management of the project, passing over two Ventura firms that were finalists for the job. Fluor Daniel Manager Mario A. Montes vowed to hire as many local subcontractors as possible.

The Olivas Park Drive extension, the most ambitious road improvement project planned by Ventura, is considered vital to the success of the auto mall, the city’s largest sales tax provider.

Plans call for contractors to link Johnson and Olivas Park drives with four-lane thoroughfares and build a levee along the north bank of the Santa Clara River. The south bank levee will also be upgraded.

The management contract, based on a rate of up to $111 per hour, could be increased to $350,000 or more before the extension is completed, said Everett Millais, community services director.

Millais recommended that Fluor Daniel, one of the world’s largest engineering firms, receive the contract because he judged it the most qualified of the three firms interviewed by city staff.

Also, Millais told the council, the Irvine company serves as project manager for a $100-million expansion planned at the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway interchange.

“Under normal circumstances, we try and do that [award contracts locally],” Millais said. “But these are not normal circumstances.”

But longtime Ventura engineer Andrew Oddo said there is no reason that a local professional should not be hired for the job.

“I’m very upset,” Oddo said. “It’s a shame when we have all this talent around here. For some reason, there’s a tendency to go with mega-firms.”

Monahan also maintained that local engineers are just as capable as those outside the city.

“I understand his rationale,” he said of Millais’ recommendation. “But I’m still for the local, qualified business person who can provide the service.”

Millais said the city uses strict guidelines in awarding consulting contracts to make sure that as much work as possible is steered toward Ventura businesses.

Smaller contracts are limited to Ventura companies, Millais said, and medium-sized projects are offered to firms based in Santa Barbara or Ventura counties.

Only when major public improvement contracts are awarded do staff members look to companies across the state, Millais said.

In fact, he said, of the $2.8 million in consulting contracts signed by the city in 1994, 43% of the dollars stayed in town. Another 21% were awarded to companies in Santa Barbara or Ventura counties, he said.

Tonight, the council will consider awarding a $309,000 engineering contract to Camarillo-based Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates, which would oversee a water line improvement project planned through east Ventura.

City staff limited the applicants to 12 firms from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, interviewed four companies and selected the Camarillo group.

For the Olivas Park Drive management contract, city officials solicited proposals from 10 companies. Of those, five are based in Ventura and three others in Ventura County.

The panel rated the six companies that responded by a formula that ranks management experience, project understanding and technical expertise. Extra credit was given to firms based in Ventura, Millais said.

“We’d rather keep stuff local,” he said. “It makes good sense all the way around.”

But Ventura-based Mohammed A. Hasan, with more than two decades of engineering experience, complained that his firm routinely loses out on public projects financed by the city of Ventura. Hasan Consultants was ranked third among the three firms interviewed by city planners. Heck’s firm was ranked second.

“I’ve been short-listed many, many times,” Hasan told the council last week. “Always we are told we’re second.”

Hasan tried to convince council members that his company should be given the Olivas Park Drive management contract because it is as qualified as Fluor Daniel and is based in Ventura.

“We live here, we breathe the air here and our hearts are in it,” Hasan said. “And economically, all my employees spend their money here and I spend my money here.”

Hasan also said the number of city contracts awarded to Ventura firms is misleading. “Many times they are not really local, they just have local offices,” he said of some competitors.

Representatives of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce and the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers also complained about the contract going outside Ventura County.

“It would make sense to shop locally and keep those funds in the community, rather than sending our tax dollars to Orange County,” taxpayer advocate H. Jere Robings wrote to the council.

“It is doubtful that Orange County would reciprocate.”

But Millais said that according to his research, Fluor Daniel was far more qualified and should be given the Olivas Park Drive management job. Most council members agreed.

“I feel very satisfied in my research that the staff did make the right decision,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said.

Public contracts for such professional services as engineering and architectural work are not automatically awarded to the lowest bidder, as state law requires for public construction projects.

Rather, they are based on decisions made by public servants, who are required to follow qualification guidelines established by state law.

“Construction contracts are based on specific plans,” said Paul Meyer, executive director of the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California, an industry group. “But when you’re hiring someone to design a project, the scope of work can be very open-ended.”

What’s more, there are creative ways for smaller firms to compete with such large companies as Fluor Daniel, said Meyer, who represents more than 1,000 companies across the state.

“If it’s a big project that requires a lot of specialization, joint ventures or consortiums can be formed,” he said. “Any one of the firms may be too small or not have all the expertise, but together, they can compete.”

John Knipe, a vice president with the Ventura engineering firm of Willdan Associates, just up the street from City Hall, said the city goes out of its way to hire local companies.

“Ventura is one of the prime, good examples of hiring locally,” said Knipe, whose company also applied for the Olivas Park Drive management contract but was rejected.

“They go on quality-based selection process,” he said. “They ask for a proposal then, based on those responses, they make a short list and interview the short list.

“In this case, Fluor Daniel was already providing the same type of services at the [Ventura Freeway / Pacific Coast Highway] interchange,” Knipe said. “To me, this was an obvious extension of that work.”

Meyer, the trade group director, said he hears complaints from smaller firms only infrequently. But he said he understands their concern.

“Times are really tough out there,” Meyer said. “In the ‘80s, when times were better for our industry, there were much less sour grapes because guys were hurting much less.”