Four Companies Submit Air-Conditioning Bids

At the close of a contentious bidding process for the job of installing air-conditioning in nearly 300 Los Angeles schools, only four of eight firms in the running turned in final proposals, school officials said Wednesday.

One of the four companies that failed to meet the deadline sent a letter to Los Angeles Unified School District officials protesting bidding procedures that “left us feeling that too many firms will have perfectly logical reasons to sue regardless of what results.”

Jim DePorche, a manager for Construction Engineering & Management, said the firm was discouraged to find that the district was “politically cornered” into calling for bids on the project and that bidders were encouraged to lobby members of the school board and the oversight committee set up to review the Proposition BB bond that will pay for the air conditioning work.

DePorche urged the district to stick with its Proposition BB management team on the air-conditioning work, rather than switch to any of the new fast-track proposals.

Planning for the $200-million job was thrown into confusion in the spring when the Energy Alliance, a public/private consortium that included the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and The Gas Co., said it could do the work faster and for millions less than the district team and supply the electricity at a discount.

Amid the controversy over the bidding, one of the seven bidders withdrew early on, and at the close of the period Wednesday, only three firms submitted bids to compete with the Energy Alliance’s.

They are New West/Rogers Corporate Alliance, PG&E; Energy Services/CH2M Hill and New Energy Ventures.