CITY'S BOND DEBACLE STYMIES PARK REPAIR.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

STUDIO CITY - One drizzly morning last spring, Jasmine Dowlatshahi came to work to find the recreation center she helps run draped in wet toilet paper, portable toilets tipped over and a crowd of complaining residents.

It was just one of many difficult days that park users have endured at the Studio City Recreation Center, where a $269,000 renovation supposed to be completed 18 months ago is still far from done.

In the meantime, the center has sat exposed to vandals, and classes and other activities serving hundreds of youths have had to operate out of a tiny trailer with a couple of portable bathrooms.

``We do the best we can with what we have,'' Dowlatshahi says, ``but vandals see the place in shambles for so long and they figure why not trash it some more?''

The fiasco is another in a series of missteps by the city Department of Recreation and Parks which, as the Daily News reported Sept. 30, has bungled dozens of major construction projects worth more than $50 million in the five years since Los Angeles voters approved a massive bond issue.

Problems at the Studio City center range from bad planning to red tape and an overall dysfunctional system of handling construction projects, officials acknowledge.

And the problem is quickly getting worse.

The Department of Recreation and Parks, which dealt with only a handful of construction projects before the 1990s, is now faced with some 500 over the next four years funded by $25 million annually from the city's Proposition K, passed in 1996, and an estimated $44 million from the statewide Proposition 12, passed last year.

The department's staff, which has not been increased to handle the new load, is overwhelmed by the quantity of projects and the quick turnaround mandated by law.

Proposition K requires the department to allocate funds, plan a project and award the contract to the low bidder - all within one year's time, or else face losing the funds. That needs to change, said Maureen Tamuri, planning and construction manager for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

The city's chief administrative officer, Bill Fujioka, who sits on a city task force preparing a report for the City Council on the recreation-construction dilemma, said he is not sure when a solution will be forthcoming.

``We're putting together a long-term plan on how to address these projects getting done on time and within budget,'' he said.

Joel Wachs, who retired from the council Oct. 1, asked in July for a report to be prepared addressing the problem and even suggested sharing construction responsibilities with the city's Bureau of Engineering.

In response, Tamuri has issued a report asking for at least eight additional project manager positions, and even using the Bureau of Engineering.

``This is an issue of resources,'' she said. ``I've made my recommendations on a solution, and now it's up to the powers that be to do something about it.''

The Studio City construction contract, to expand and renovate the facility, was first awarded in December 1999, and was scheduled for completion four months later.

But one problem after another has kept the project from being completed, and contractor Damon Construction continues work with a new completion date of November that will not likely be met, officials acknowledge.

``This is a nightmare,'' said Harry Meskin, a local resident and soccer coach who also serves on the Studio City Park Advisory Board.

``The system has to be changed,'' he said. ``We have hundreds of kids using the park and only a couple of Porta Potties for two years. There has to be some accountability somewhere.''

Emmanuel Damoulakis, who runs Damon Construction, said cost overruns and inaccurate estimates have made completing the project nearly impossible. Halfway into the work, he said, he discovered asbestos in the building, which is expensive to remove and should have been pointed out when the contract went to bid.

``I just want to get this job done and put this behind me,'' he said. ``I don't know if I'll ever bid for a Recreation and Parks contract again after

this.''

Both asbestos and lead had to be abated from the site, said city project manager Armando De La O. He also said that $3 million in Proposition K funds have been earmarked for a new center and gym at the site, but a start date - which could be next year or 20 years from now - has not been determined.

Time and money could have been saved if the asbestos had been detected earlier, but Recreation and Parks only has enough resources to do visual asbestos inspections and not more thorough invasive inspections, Tamuri said.

The little one-square-block park is heavily used by the surrounding community. Activities there include a community co-op preschool, martial arts and theater classes, and basketball, baseball and soccer teams involving more than 500 youths.

But since the center closed in 1999, numbers have dwindled at the preschool and other community classes at the park, forcing the reduction of classes from 43 to about 20 - now taught out of a cramped little 20-foot trailer that doubles as an office.

``Nobody wants to bring their kids to this cramped little space with these dirty, smelly portable toilets for two years,'' said Jean Everman, who teaches preschool courses there. ``They're just going somewhere else in the meantime and waiting for us to open again.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1) With no room inside for her piano, Robin Harris plays outdoors while a preschool class takes place inside the temporary unit at Studio City Park.

(2) Studio City Recreation Center worker Jasmine Dowlatshahi stands in what will be her office if an overdue parks renovation project is ever complete.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

Map:

Studio City Recreation Center