Recreation Center Delays Anger Group

Work crews started building a recreation center for the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts at the same time that construction began on the $360-million Staples Center downtown.

That was in the summer of 1998.

Since then, Staples Center has hosted more than a year of sports and concerts, as well as the Democratic National Convention.

But in Watts, the Imperial Courts recreation center is only 25% completed--a mess of half-finished walls, exposed iron reinforcement bars, stacks of cinder blocks and scaffolding that reaches more than 15 feet high. The $1.5-million project appears to be the victim of a bankruptcy and a series of disputes between the city of Los Angeles and a West Hills construction company.

Angry residents say the project has become an eyesore and a hazard for children of the housing project. It is also, they say, a symbol of City Hall neglect.

“Just because we are low-income, we are not low-class,” said Wendell Taylor, president of a residents group at Imperial Courts.

Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for Mayor Richard Riordan, said the mayor feels strongly about helping low-income residents improve their living conditions. For that reason, Hidalgo said, Riordan has launched two initiatives in the past eight months to clean up parks, streets, alleys and sidewalks throughout Los Angeles.

Hidalgo promised that Riordan will investigate the problems at Imperial Courts.

Los Angeles Recreation and Parks officials, who are overseeing the project, blame delays on contractors. But attorneys for D&M; Construction, the West Hills firm that did most of the work, accuse the department of bungling the planning and delaying required permits.

City officials predict it will take at least 18 more months to hire a new contractor and complete the project--four years after it was originally scheduled to open.

To make room for the new gymnasium, the city demolished a small gym in 1998 that was used for after-school programs. It was the social and recreational gathering spot for housing project residents.

“If we knew it would take this long we would have said we don’t need a new gym,” Taylor said as he surveyed the construction site, which is encircled by a chain-link fence. “We would have stayed with the old gym.”

The city has since built an outdoor basketball court in the outfield of an adjacent baseball diamond. But residents say the basketball court is no replacement for a real gym. The nets on the basketball rims are missing and resident complain about the scrapes and cuts that children suffer while playing on the blacktop.

Dwight Lockett, an Imperial Courts resident for more than 20 years, said he used to take his four children to the old recreation center. Now, he said, he keeps them near home.

The new recreation center is to include a full-size basketball court, a stage, bleachers, bathrooms, a kitchen and a multipurpose room to hold before- and after-school programs, housing officials said.

Imperial Courts is one of five housing projects in Watts. Just north of Imperial Highway, it is home to more than 1,400 residents, many under age 18.

In the summer of 1998, the city Recreation and Parks Department selected Ed Hodges Construction of Garden Grove to build the project. But only a few months later, Hodges Construction went bankrupt, city officials said.

The surety company for Hodges Construction conducted a bidding contest and hired D&M; Construction of West Hills to complete the project, city officials said.

But park and recreation officials said they were leery of hiring D&M; because the firm has a history of problems.

Recreation officials cited a litany of problems when the Recreation and Parks Commission voted last month to dismiss D&M; from the Imperial Courts project and two others, including a recreation center in North Hollywood.

In North Hollywood, D&M; was rebuilding a former police station at the corner of Lankershim Boulevard and Tiara Street as a multipurpose center for seniors and youth.

“About 20% of the work has been done,” said Richard Klink, Recreation and Parks contracting administrator, adding that work would not resume until the city finds a new contractor.

A city report said D&M; repeatedly hired unskilled labor and unauthorized subcontractors and submitted false invoices to the city for payment. The president of D&M;, Ayala Davidovicz, was convicted last year of criminal labor and wage violations and was fined $185,000. She was sentenced to five years’ probation, according to city records.

Michael Peters, an attorney for D&M;, said the firm has had problems, but he attributed most of the labor and wage violations to subcontractors.

“D&M; has without fail addressed every problem and corrected every violation,” Peters said.

He accused recreation officials of failing to quickly process required permits and payments to subcontractors. Peters said the project was stalled eight months because city officials gave D&M; a set of construction plans without approving the necessary construction permits.

Peters said D&M; plans to sue the city for unfairly removing the company from the Imperial Courts job and the two other city projects.

Armando De La O, contract administrator for the Recreation and Parks Department, conceded that the city’s permitting and bidding process can be slow.

But he said most of the delays came from D&M;, which he described as a “problem contractor.”

De La O said recreation officials had problems with D&M; on previous jobs but were required under city rules to give the job to D&M; because it was the lowest qualified bidder.

“We don’t have any control over who bids our work,” he said.

Officials of the Los Angeles Housing Authority, who manage city housing projects, say the recreation center might have attracted higher quality contractors if the city had budgeted an additional $500,000 for the job.

“We thought the job was a little thinly funded,” said Don Smith, executive director of the Housing Authority. “I think there wasn’t enough money on the table.”