SLOW GOING—Last month the Ventura County grand jury released its report on a sewer line repair project in west Simi Valley that backed up traffic on Los Angeles Avenue for 19 months. Photo above was taken during construction in August 2008. A Ventura County grand jury investigating a sewer project that caused traffic delays on the west end of Simi Valley for months found that the city needs to be “more diligent in the administration of public works contracts.”

In a report released May 14, the 19-member panel also recommends that the public works department change its codes to prevent insurance companies from rehiring bad contractors after an insurance bond has been exercised.

Most public works contracts have an insurance bond provided by the contractor. The bond obligates the contractor’s insurance company to complete any work not completed by the contractor as a result of default, termination or nonperformance.

The grand jury report stems from a sewer line repair project on Los Angeles Avenue near Madera Road.

As the Acorn reported in August 2008, the project frustrated many commuters on the west end of town because eastbound traffic on L.A. Avenue was slowed to a single-lane pace from Madera to Sinaloa roads even when contruction was halted.

Some members of the 2009-10 grand jury who got tired of seeing the orange cones in the roadway day after day encouraged the citizen led panel to launch an investigation into the project, which had been underway since 2007.

The function of the grand jury is to act as a civil oversight of county and city government, special districts, governing boards, personnel commissions, school districts and humane officers. It is the panel’s responsibility to ensure that government is serving the best interests of the county’s residents.

Each juror serves a one-year term that begins in July.

As outlined in the grand jury’s report, part of the project required barricading one of the two eastbound lanes of Los Angeles Avenue, a major traffic artery, so the contractor could do work beneath the shoulder lane.

The contractor, Los Angelesbased Colich Construction, began its initial work in September 2007, but the project was delayed for five months due to unacceptable plans submitted by Colich, pushing the actual construction start date to Feb. 21, 2008.

Not long after construction began, the city found the contractor in default and terminated Colich for breach of contract and for being three months over the contract completion date and working unsafely.

In August 2008, the city negotiated an agreement with the contractor’s bonding and insurance company to take over and complete the project.

However, the city contract documents did not prohibit the insurance company from reemploying the terminated contractor.

The company rehired Colich, who again failed to finish the project by the specified completion date of Oct. 31, 2008. The city terminated the takeover agreement with the insurance company in January 2009 and hired a different contractor, who completed the work.

All these problems prolonged what was supposed to be a shortterm sewer line fix and caused one lane of the roadway to be closed for 19 months—from Sept. 17, 2007 to April 10, 2009, the grand jury report said.

“During much of this period, no road work was performed,” the report said. “This resulted in needless exposure of vehicular traffic to additional hazard and delay as well as an inconvenience to the public.”

The grand jury recommended that the public works department amend its contracting specifications and/or insurance bonds to require city approval of the new contractor hired to complete the work when an insurance bond is exercised.

Foreman Hank Kelley said the grand jury felt this new language would protect the interests of the city by making sure a terminated contractor cannot be rehired.

“The current contract language doesn’t preclude that and we feel that they should tighten up their contract language . . . to the extent that the city has a say in who replaces any terminated contractor,” said Kelley, a Camarillo resident. “In our mind it didn’t make sense to fire somebody and let them right back in on the same job again.”

The grand jury also recommended the city be more diligent in the administration of public works contracts.

“This whole scenario didn’t happen in a vacuum; it was going on over (many) months’ stretch of time,” Kelley said. “We felt the city could have done more early on once they found out they had a bad contract and taken steps to correct the situation.”

City officials were unable to comment on the findings and recommendations of the grand jury because of an ongoing legal battle with Colich Construction.

According to Ventura Superior Court records, Colich filed a civil suit against the city Sept. 14, 2009. A jury trial is set for Aug. 23.

Despite the contract dispute, City Attorney Tracy Noonan Noonan said the city would respond to the grand jury’s report as requested since it is required by law to do so.

The Acorn tried to contact Colich Construction at three listed numbers but all were disconnected.

In a Nutshell

•In a recent report, the 2009-10 Ventura County grand jury, a 19-member panel of citizens, looked at an oft-delayed sewer line project on Los Angeles Avenue. •The report states that several problems with the contractor prolonged what was supposed to be a short-term fix and caused one lane of the roadway to be closed for 19 months— from Sept. 17, 2007 to April 10, 2009.