New LAPD building soars, just like its cost

Ever since I volunteered to peer through my office window and monitor construction of the new LAPD headquarters across the street, swarms of busy worker bees have outdone themselves, and the steel frame is now five stories tall on its way to 11.

But looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to government projects.

You may recall that the original cost for L.A.’s finest to depart the crumbling Parker Center was pegged at $302.7 million. But no self-respecting taxpayer could possibly have believed such a paltry number.

And of course, just as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, the cost soon hit $340 million, followed by a projected $396.8 million, with warnings that when all was said and done, we could be looking at a $420-million tab for the main building and nearby parking structures.

That’s a lot of doughnuts.

But I now have my hands on a document called the Proposed Revised Project Budget, which puts the new grand total at $437,855,713, provided it gets approved.

“The Bureau of Engineering has sent forward a recommendation” for an additional $40,493,370 on top of the already-approved $396.8 million, said Gerry Miller, the city’s chief legislative analyst.

A City Council committee will get the good news in coming weeks, and then the full council will get to weigh in. I’ll bet five bucks to your two that we’ll hear lots of fulminating about the disturbing but necessary cost overruns. Council members will promise close oversight in the future, and six months later we’ll repeat the whole charade.

It’s all nonsense, says Nick Patsaouras, a member of a project advisory committee appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“I believe there are unreasonable requests,” Patsaouras said of the $40 million in new costs, which include $9.7 million to acquire land for the parking and motor pool structures near the main building.

How, Patsaouras asks, could they have underestimated the cost of land by such a huge number?

Because the original estimate was made several years ago, said analyst Miller, and the price of land has gone up. Miller, whose office recommended approval of the $40 million in new costs -- as did a representative of Villaraigosa’s office -- also said the $9.7-million land cost is a top-end estimate in a deal that hasn’t yet been finalized. So it could be less than that.

If so, I’ll fall over backward and tumble from my perch in the window, and Patsaouras could be the next to go. He pointed out there’s also an additional $4.93 million in city staff costs in the revised budget, $1.5 million in architectural fees, and on the main building a request for an extra $300,000 for hardware.

“They say that for the purpose of uniformity, they want to change the hardware for the main building,” Patsaouras said of the city bureaucracy. “When I ask them if they have the money, they look at me like I’m an idiot.”

I asked Patsaouras if the problem was Tutor-Saliba, the main contractor and only bidder, which has a long history of performance and cost disputes with public agencies. No, he said, telling me that Tutor-Saliba is on schedule and hasn’t been responsible for much, if any, of the increase in projected cost.

I was going to call Ron Tutor and congratulate him, but two things stopped me. First, he hung up on me last time I called, and I didn’t even get a chance to ask about his company’s $25,000 contribution to the campaign to relax term limits for council members. Second, with six stories still unfinished on an 11-story building, I have confidence that Tutor can come up with a cost increase or two.

The real problem, Patsaouras said, is with subcontractors complaining of unanticipated expenses or increases in construction costs, and with city bureaucrats rubber-stamping their requests. Patsaouras, who also serves on oversight committees for projects at USC and UCLA and is a DWP commissioner, says true construction costs aren’t increasing enough to justify contractor demands for more money.

“There’s a pattern with city and county bureaucrats not watching the bottom line, and consultants get away with murder,” he said, speaking about public projects in general. “There’s no discipline, no accountability.”

Patsaouras, who had already asked City Controller Laura Chick to audit the LAPD project, said he’ll meet with her to discuss the $40-million overrun as her inspection gets going.

“I think the moving target of this budget, as we watch it grow and grow and grow, has incredible stories and lessons in it,” Chick said. “And it’s exactly what I’m going after in this audit.”

Meanwhile, I’ve begun taking nominations on a name for the new home of the LAPD, and I’ll see if I can arrange for the winner to get a police baton autographed by Daryl Gates. And as project monitor, I feel that it’s my duty to start a guessing game on the final tab for the project, which won’t be completed for nearly two years.

Do I hear half a billion?

--

steve.lopez@latimes.com