COUNCIL SCOLDS MANAGER FOR POLICE CENTER DELAYS; CONTRACT RENEWAL TABLED FOR AT LEAST 1 WEEK IN DEBATE.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Delays and cost overruns in construction of a police training center in Granada Hills are once again catching flak from the City Council, this time as part of a debate over extending a contract with the project manager.

The council decided to postpone, for at least a week, consideration of a one-year extension of the contract with CRSS Inc., the private contractor hired to oversee police construction projects financed by a 1989 bond measure.

Councilwoman Laura Chick noted the original three-year contract in 1990 was for $2.5 million, but it has been extended twice and now adds up to $8.5 million.

``They do a lot of oversight of the projects, and yet we've seen lots of change orders go in and extensions and cost increases,'' Chick said during council debate on the matter Tuesday.

In particular, Chick and Councilman Mike Hernandez criticized the cost overruns and delays on the center for weapons practice and for training officers in emergency driving, as when pursuing a suspect.

Financed under the 1989 bond measure, the center was scheduled to be completed in December 1997, but a challenge to the contract-awarding process added four months to the project.

El Nino rains were blamed for further delays, and then the prime contractor, American Kuk Dong, defaulted, citing the effects of the Asian economic crisis on its Korean parent firm.

With work 85 percent done in March, officials said the contract would have to go out for bids again, delaying work again.

On Thursday, City Architect William Holland said completion is now scheduled for Sept. 25.

``If AKD had not defaulted, we'd be done by now,'' Holland said. ``We lost five months because of that.''

Originally budgeted at $7 million, the center now is budgeted at $29 million for design, planning, environmental studies and construction, said Sgt. Bill Dolan.

``I'm hearing that, despite the increases and changes this council was persuaded to approve, we're in trouble again on that budget,'' Chick said.

Hernandez said a friend who is a bricklayer on the project told him that workers had to rebuild a recently completed wall.

``He explained to me they built this wall and then they had to take it down and rebuild it again,'' Hernandez told his colleagues on the council. ``He was happy about all the work he got to do but he didn't understand why.''

Dolan said a 40-foot-length of a 24-foot-high fence had to be taken down and replaced in 1996 after a Fiberglas form failed while concrete was being poured. He disputed Hernandez's claim that 700 feet of wall needed rebuilding.

Holland said the cost of the mistake was probably less than $10,000 and was borne by the manufacturer of the forms. CRSS officials could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bernard C. Parks told the council that the CRSS contract must be extended for another year to avoid jeopardizing the final project planned with 1989 bond money: construction of a parking garage at the Van Nuys police station.

``If you do not approve the contract, there would be no way that the work could continue on schedule,'' Parks said.

The council already had promised the employee union there would be no more extensions, but union officials said they have dropped their opposition to an extension.

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