CHANGE IN AIR FOR LAUSD; BOARD OKS SWITCH ON CONDITIONER JOB.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

After 15 months of dueling price estimates, political battles and turf wars, the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously agreed to turn over the air-conditioning of 150 schools on an 18-month fast track to an outside group of companies.

Faced with mounting evidence that air-conditioning systems being installed have noise and environmental problems and also involve large cost overruns, the board agreed to turn over the job.

Under the contract, PG&E Energy Services/CH2MHill will do the work for a $155 million fixed price.

The project will be paid for out of the $2.4 billion Proposition BB funds. The deal also includes energy-cost discounts of $11 million.

Board President Victoria Castro said she was comfortable with the deal because the job was guaranteed.

``What's before me is a time line, a fixed cost, we won't be seeing (cost overruns) and there will be control of the quality of work,'' Castro said.

Turning over the work was urged by Superintendent Ruben Zacarias and Los Angeles Unified School District attorneys, and the Proposition BB Citizens Oversight Committee.

``The board did the right thing,'' said Steve Soboroff, chairman of the BB panel. ``This will mean a lot to the LAUSD - accountability, less cost and the ability for other BB projects to be completed more quickly.

PG&E will install air conditioners in 150 schools scheduled in the first and second phases of the project. Work at the first 150 schools - most in the San Fernando Valley - will continue to be overseen by the LAUSD facilities division and 10 private construction management companies.

Since voters approved Proposition BB in April 1997, air-conditioning work on the phase-one schools has been plagued with poor designs, months of delays, sound problems as well as hefty cost overruns.

In 15 months since work began, 16 of 150 schools have been completed. Cost estimates at some schools have risen by as much as 99 percent.

Barbara Boudreaux, a board member for an area that includes South Central and southeast Los Angeles said she was shocked to learn about huge cost overruns at schools in her region.

``Work has been done willy-nilly and I don't like it,'' Boudreaux said.

Soboroff, whose committee has been urging the fast-track concept for more than a year, said Tuesday it was unfortunate that all schools couldn't benefit.

Since BB was passed by voters, the LAUSD facilities division sought to control air-conditioning work. While business and political leaders called for the fast-track plan, the district maintained they could do the work as well and for less cost.

On Tuesday, the district's director of the independent analysis unit said the fast-track proposal could cost the LAUSD as much as $20 million more than if the work was competitively bid.

While costs have been hotly contested - Soboroff has called district estimates ``fantasy'' - both the BB committee and district officials agree that work under the fast-track proposal will be more consistent and of higher quality.