Contractor for SLO Women’s Jail project sues SLO County over ‘failures and breaches’
The contractor in charge of constructing the San Luis Obispo County Women’s Jail — a years-long project that fell behind schedule and went millions of dollars over-budget — is now suing the county over money it says it’s still owed.
El Dorado Hills-based construction firm Roebbelen Contracting, Inc., filed a lawsuit in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Tuesday seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages and roughly $1.5 million it claims the county is still holding of its fees.
The company is also asking a judge to order the county take nothing by way of a $3.14 million liquidated damages assessment the county allegedly filed against the company’s performance bond.
The Roseville-based attorney listed for Roebbelen Contracting, Marcus Turner, did not respond to messages seeking comment late Wednesday afternoon.
County counsel Rita Neal said by email late Wednesday that the county was served with the lawsuit Tuesday and is still reviewing the complaint.
A lawsuit represents just one side of the story and the county has yet to respond in court.
The construction company’s lawsuit states that Roebbelen Contracting submitted its $27.7 million bid in November 2017, with the “reasonable” bid coming in 1% lower than the second lowest bidder.
The complaint states that the company “performed all, or substantially all, of the significant obligations, conditions, covenants, and promises that the contract requires and/or (Roebbelen Contracting) was excused from having to perform them.”
Spurred by a 1999 county civil Grand Jury report highly critical of the old 8,500-square-foot women’s jail, which only had 43 beds, the Women’s Jail expansion project took close to a decade from the early design phase, which launched in 2006, to groundbreaking in 2014.
The new state-of-the-art 36,000-square-foot, 198-bed women’s complex was finalized in 2017, and inmates moved in April 6, 2017.
According to Tribune archives, the overall project cost $40.7 million, of which $27.7 million went to construction. State grants provided roughly $25.1 million for the project, according to previously released figures.
At one point, in 2016, the project was a full year behind schedule and $3.3 million over budget.
During a tour in 2016, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office officials told The Tribune that construction crews encountered an unexpected amount of rock and cobble in the ground that made drilling and construction of the foundation far more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated.
Changes also were made in the construction of hollow metal walls required by the state fire marshal, and that contributed to the delays.
Roebbelen Contracting contends in its complaint that it was the county’s duty to to negotiate change orders in good faith, to issue time extensions and to “compensate RCI if its performance were delayed, impeded, or obstructed by circumstances for which the county was responsible.”
The lawsuit goes on to describe a lengthy list of the county’s alleged “failures and breaches,” which it allegedly bungled “in a multitude of ways,” including:
- Failure to timely pay the company,
- Failure to complete accurate designs,
- Failure to direct the changes in the plans,
- “Unreasonably protracting” the change order approval process,
- Improperly assessing unmerited liquidated damages in a punative or retaliatory manner,
- Interfering with the company’s performance and
- Improperly withholding an “unmerited amount” of Roebbelen Contracting’s earned monies for progress pay and retention.
The lawsuit also states that the county filed a $3.14 million claim against the company’s performance bond, which it is asking a judge to order exonerated. The Tribune could not gather more information about the county’s claim early Wednesday evening.
A case management conference for the civil case is scheduled for May.
