Liability Insurance An Issue for Belmont Bidders
By Michelle Logsdon - February 8, 2002Los Angeles Unified School District wanted bidders on the Belmont Learning Center project to include liability insurance for the 70 years the school will be functioning. But of the three groups that submitted bids for the work, one was disqualified due to a conflict of interest, and the other two only offered 30 years of liability insurance.
Superintendent Roy Romer is still considering those bids despite critics who say it is unfair to change the terms of the Request for Proposals (RFP) after the bids are submitted. Some say other groups might have submitted bids if the liability insurance terms were lower.
The Center is already the nation’s most costly school with $175 million spent on the project so far. In 1999, the complex was approximately halfway complete when the school board stopped construction because of health concerns. Belmont is located on an abandoned oil field and district officials were worried about the toxic gases seeping up from the soil.
The bids submitted had to include a $15 million dollar network of piping to treat and collect the dangerous gases. For months now, the public and the district have been awaiting the results of a study by a panel of experts who were reviewing the viability and the cost of continuing the project.
“The Belmont Learning Center can be completed and can be safe,” Terry Sanglerat, an environmental expert on the panel, told the Los Angeles Times. “Our recommendation is that the district should proceed and finish the center.”
Romer is optimistic about going forward with Belmont. He told reporters at a press conference Feb. 6, “We need this school. It can be built safely and cost-effectively.”
Romer has not expressed an opinion on the bids presented. The bid he disqualified was that of Finish the Dream Team, headed by the Eastridge Companies. The Eastridge executive in charge of the Belmont bid allegedly worked as a real estate consultant for the district while he was preparing the bid.
The other two bids are by Komex, an environmental mitigation firm that wants to complete the project as originally planned, and Alliance for a Better Community, a non-profit group that wants to build a newly designed school.
Both groups offered 30 years of liability insurance to cover anyone who might be injured by the gas. Romer said the school district has a $100 million environmental insurance policy to cover the school for the 17 years left on the 20-year policy.
The school board is scheduled to vote on completion of the project March 12. | 
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