L.A. Awards Contract to Build Downtown, Valley 911 Centers

Bowing to pressure from Mayor Richard Riordan, city officials awarded a $37.7-million contract Wednesday for new 911 centers in downtown Los Angeles and West Hills, projects approved by voters nearly seven years ago.

Tutor Saliba Corp. of Sylmar, which turned in the lowest of three bids, was picked and plans to begin construction in a few weeks on the newly expedited projects.

About 8,400 callers to 911 hang up each month because operators cannot get to them quickly enough, said Police Capt. Mike Downing. About 87% of the calls are answered within 10 seconds.

Ellen Stein, president of the city Public Works Board, said her panel acted after Riordan demanded to end delays in the project, which has been called important for public safety.

Paul Cauley, the acting city administrative officer, had asked for a few more weeks to complete a study of whether the city could save up to $7 million by locating the San Fernando Valley 911 center at the Department of Water and Power’s partially vacant office building in Sun Valley.

Cauley was asked by City Council members last year to determine whether the estimated $20-million cost of the Valley 911 center could be reduced if it is located in the existing Anthony Office Building owned by the DWP.

“I suppose [the board action] makes the study moot regarding the 911 facility, but we are still studying the use of the Anthony Office Building for other city facilities,” Cauley said after the vote.

There still may be a slim chance to revisit the project, said state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who was a City Council member last year when he and Councilman Joel Wachs called for the study.

“I would have preferred that they had waited to see if it could save taxpayers $8 million,” Alarcon said. “If the study shows that they could save $8 million, the City Council and mayor should reconsider it.”

Riordan has no plans to revisit the issue, said spokeswoman Jessica Copen.

“No more delays,” she said.

The mayor believes that any potential savings in moving the project to Sun Valley would be outweighed by additional costs of delaying construction, redesigning the dispatch center for a new site and retrofitting the DWP building to withstand major earthquakes.

In addition, the city might lose some of the money it spent to buy the former Hughes Missile Systems property in West Hills, officials said.

Riordan accused Cauley last week of jeopardizing public safety by seeking to delay the award of the contracts.

“The mayor congratulates the Public Works Board on this important and decisive action,” Copen said. “We need those 911 facilities.”

The two police dispatch centers are funded by Proposition M, a 1992 bond measure that provided $235 million to upgrade the police communications systems. The new 911 centers are viewed as critical because the existing system has crashed on occasion and is unable to accommodate the emergency call load.

While it has taken more than six years for contracts to be awarded for the projects, both 911 facilities are still three years from becoming operational, said Linda Bunker, program manager for the 911 overhaul.