Calabasas : Water District Plans to Buy New Furniture

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District plans to spend as much as $250,000 to purchase office furniture for its new headquarters now under construction, officials said.

The agency will accept bids for the furniture until Aug. 30, but the staff has recommended purchasing the furniture from Herman Miller Inc. of West Hollywood and Westwood-based Hayworth Inc.

The district’s principal planner, Gene Talmadge, said he believes the agency, which has bought furniture in the past from both companies, will get the best buy from the two suppliers.

Among the items to be purchased are five, high-backed chairs for the board of directors, seven chairs for agency staffers, and 50 audience chairs, for use at board meetings, Talmadge said. The agency, he said, will also purchase modular furniture for 10 individual offices and 51 workstations.

Modular furniture is versatile because it can be assembled into various configurations, said Talmadge. Each employee’s work space, he said, can be assembled, for example, to accommodate a left- or right-handed person.

Talmadge said the office furniture in the existing building is old and outdated. Also, much of the existing furniture, he said, is not compatible with the electrical wiring powering today’s computer systems.

The agency has drawn fire from critics, who say the $8-million building is a waste of money. Talmadge said the agency has been extremely careful to make sure it can get the best deal possible in purchasing furniture.

The district hopes to trade in some of the existing office furniture to the suppliers, Talmadge said. In addition, it expects to receive a 70% discount because it is a government agency, he said.

The new headquarters, next to the existing headquarters at 4232 Las Virgenes Road, is expected to be completed in December, district officials say.