L.A. Revokes Firm’s Construction Contract

The Los Angeles City Council revoked a contract with an Agoura Hills-based construction company after finding that the company may have acted improperly on another city job.

At the request of Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the council took over jurisdiction of the contract from the Board of Recreation and Parks and declared that Guy Construction Co. was a non-responsible bidder.

In February, the board gave Guy Construction the contract to build a gymnasium in Pacific Palisades despite the fact that the city attorney had filed a complaint against the company the previous day.

The city attorney alleged that Moshe Levy, who operates the construction company, and David Farrell, the co-owner of the five-unit apartment building in Northridge, collected $35,321 in public funds for insurance they never purchased and work on the building that was never done.

City officials also said that Farrell promised to reimburse the city some of the money, but has not done so.

Appearing before the council, Levy said the apartment owners intend to reimburse the money and that the construction company had done nothing wrong.

“I don’t believe you can take the job away from us,” Levy told the council Tuesday. “We’ve been charged, but we have to go through the court process to make us guilty.

“Guy Construction is a responsible company. We can do the job.”

But the council decided to give the $1.77-million contract to the second-lowest bidder, Begl Construction Co. in Van Nuys.