City to Track Bad Contractors

A year after parks officials awarded a contract to a firm being prosecuted for bilking another city department, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday created a system to evaluate contractors’ performance and share the data with other city agencies.

“These are, quite frankly, steps that should have been taken a long time ago,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who proposed the contractor evaluation program.

“It is a disservice to taxpayers in this city not to regularly evaluate and monitor the work of city contractors,” Chick said. “We need to do this so we don’t make the same mistake twice.”

The central database was proposed after an incident last year involving an Agoura Hills construction contractor that the city attorney’s office charged with overbilling the Public Works Department. Officials with the firm later pleaded no contest to theft charges and agreed to repay $35,000.

A day after charges were filed, the city Recreation and Parks Commission awarded the company a $1.7-million contract to build a gym in Pacific Palisades.

Embarrassed parks commissioners said they did not know about the pending charges, and the contract was later rescinded.

More recently, a contractor on a project to refurbish a pool in the San Fernando Valley was hired for another job after the pool project suffered serious problems, Chick said.

“It is staggering to me that we keep finding examples of departments not sharing essential information with each other,” Chick complained.

Under the ordinance approved by a unanimous council vote, city departments will be required to evaluate the work of all contractors and provide the information to city administrators, who will maintain a central database.

Whenever a city agency is about to award a new contract, it will be required to check the database to ensure the contractor has a good performance record.