CLUBHOUSE BOGEY MAN'S NIGHTMARE.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Talk about slow play: What was supposed to be a $2.3 million, 50-week face lift of the Woodley Lakes Golf Course clubhouse remains only partially completed 2 1/2 years after it started, and no one knows when it will be finished.

Accusations fly like range balls in every direction at the Sepulveda Basin course.

Angry golfers blame city officials for not pressing the contractor sooner. City officials blame the contractor for the delays. The contractor accuses city officials of providing incomplete specifications.

``This is absolutely the most horrible thing,'' said Hal Sullivan, who heads the city's Citizens Golf Advisory Committee. ``What you want is a good golf course, and we blew $3 million on this thing. I am not impressed.''

Most irritating of all, critics and duffers say, is that the clubhouse looks ready from the exterior. But when they peek through the windows, they see important work remains undone.

City officials have canceled the contract with Los Angeles-based Target Construction and are stuck in negotiations with the builder's bonding company to recoup expenses.

``We're humiliated,'' said George Noonan, who represents the Sepulveda Men's Club on the advisory committee. ``Everybody in the city is embarrassed. People come out to the club to play golf and they (ask) what the hell's wrong. They built Staples (Center) faster than they built our clubhouse.''

For the record, the $350 million Staples Center went from groundbreaking to completion in 18 months.

San Fernando Valley golfers, who had enjoyed the city-owned course's ofeat charm but welcomed an upgrade, are frustrated. A clubhouse would be a pleasant change from portable structures.

City officials say the project is 95 percent complete, and all that remains is some finishing in the restaurant and pro shop areas. But it is now bogged down in bureaucracy.

``There is no question that this is a problem,'' said Lisa Gritzner, chief of staff to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose 11th district includes Woodley.

Meanwhile, officials in the Department of Recreation and Parks are long on excuses and short on a timetable.

They blame the delays on Target Construction, saying the company committed infractions, including not paying workers the prevailing wage, thus violating terms of the contract.

That finding, made late last year, prompted the city's Office of Contract Compliance to impound payments to Target Construction until the issue was resolved, said Armando De La O, project manager for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

De La O said he knew that Target Construction was having trouble and had fallen behind schedule but initially hoped the city department could avoid cancelling the contract because that can be a drawn-out process.

He said regular weekly meetings were scheduled to promote progress, but at one in October he found just one worker on the job. Then he looked around and discovered that the kitchen appliances had been carted away.

A city report says a Target Construction representative claimed the appliances had been removed by the vendor for lack of payment.

``We tried to push him as hard as we could,'' De La O said. ``We made numerous attempts to get this issue off the dot, and he was not cooperative until the very last minute.''

Finally, on Nov. 15, parks commissioners canceled Target's contract. They said an audit of the company's books and interviews with employees turned up irregularities.

``The total restitution and penalties to be assessed for all violations will be a substantial amount,'' Ellen Oppenheim, department's general manager, wrote in her report to commissioners.

Noonan, a retired construction project manager, doesn't really fault city officials. ``The thing is the city has a very hard time doing a good job because of the restrictions imposed on them.''

Target officials did not want to discuss the issue in depth. One who would not give his name, however, blamed the problems on the city, saying that the company never received 42 pages of specifications relating to the kitchen and its equipment.

Now the city is negotiating a payoff from Target's bonding company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America.

David I. Hughes, an Orange County attorney representing the bonding company, did not return numerous phone calls.

De La O said that the city's General Services Department has completed an estimate of how much it will cost to finish the work but declined to reveal that number.

``So far the surety company is balking at the amount of money needed to finish the project, so further negotiations are necessary,'' De La O said.

These are the kinds of delays that irk Gritzner, Miscikowski's chief of staff.

``It was very frustrating to come in at the last minute and find out we are having this problem. The next step for me is basically to step in and create a sense of expediency for them, which is something we do a lot for these types of project.''

No doubt that would be appreciated by Golf L.A. Partners, the company that three years ago won the contract to operate the course and pro shop.

This bid was based on revenue projections with a new clubhouse. In the pro shop, manager Tim Cotti said that would be about four times the revenue that flows into the shop while it still operates in a trailer not much bigger than a cargo container.

``It hurts our business - very much so,'' he said of the construction delays. ``You can't sell anything. It's just been a frustrating process.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

A vacant clubhouse, scheduled for completion more than 1 1/2 years ago, stands behind temporary facilities at Woodley Lakes Golf Course.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

Map: Woodley Lakes Golf Course clubhouse