SIMI MAY SCRAP BIDS FOR NEW POLICE STATION.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Citing costs that exceed the city's budget, city manager Mike Sedell announced Tuesday he will recommend that bids for the construction of a new police station be rejected.

Simi Valley received seven bids from contractors on Jan. 13, with the lowest bid submitted by C.W. Driver Contractors in the amount of $10,492,000. Bernard Brothers Construction, the second lowest bidder, protested the amount on Jan. 16 citing ``technical issues'' related to the C.W. Driver bid, city officials said.

Sedell said that his recommendation is not based on this protest, but rather on bids exceeding the project's budget.

Simi Valley mayor Greg Stratton said he is disappointed that the project may be delayed, but that ``a short term delay is certainly more prudent than awarding the contract in excess of the project budget.

``Our city has always maintained a fiscally responsible budget,'' Stratton said. ``And while the city council is also unanimous in our strong support for law enforcement, I believe that the council will agree that we can have both strong law enforcement and fiscal conservatism together in this instance.''

Should the city accept Sedell's recommendation at their Feb. 3 meeting, re-advertising for new bids would add about 30 days to the administrative process, city officials said. This would add no time to project construction.

After nearly a decade of planning for a new Simi Valley police headquarters, ground was broken in October for the $12.6 million facility.

Although the need for a new station was noted about 10 years ago, plans were formalized after the existing police station on Cochran Street was damaged by the Northridge earthquake in 1994.