Newport triples budget for Civic Center audit to $300,000
The budget for an audit of Newport Beach’s Civic Center project — which drew criticism over increases in its scope and price during its three-year development — also is expanding.
After a fierce debate Tuesday night among several City Council members about the need for a thorough review of the project, the council voted 4 to 3 to increase the audit’s budget to $300,000 from $100,000 and to contract with Florida-based R.W. Block Consulting to conduct the audit. Mayor Ed Selich and council members Tony Petros and Keith Curry dissented.
The City Council first approved an audit in June with the goal of securing an independent contractor to review change orders and construction practices to find out how the price tag on the new City Hall grew from an estimated $107.6 million to about $140 million between 2008 and the Civic Center’s opening in May 2013.
The council originally set aside $100,000 to fund the audit, but city staff realized that might not be adequate and asked the council to allocate $612,920 to cover the cost, according to a staff report. Councilman Kevin Muldoon proposed that instead of setting aside the recommended amount, the council allocate an initial $300,000 and then give the auditor the opportunity to ask for additional funds if further study is needed.
Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon said the audit would provide a road map for future city building projects.
“It is incumbent upon a government agency to do this,” she said. “We have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers who funded this project. My wish is that it gets a clean bill of health and we can move on.”
When the Civic Center project originated in 2008, city officials planned to redevelop the existing City Hall site at the entrance to the Balboa Peninsula. But the project eventually moved to the more upscale area of Newport Center, where construction on the new complex began in 2010 off Avocado Avenue at 100 Civic Center Drive.
Costs swelled as the scope of the project expanded, eventually including a 17,000-square-foot expansion of the Central Library, a 14-acre park and a 450-space parking structure.
The audit will review the construction contracts and subcontractor bids, determine whether delays increased costs and consider whether the final cost of the Civic Center was affected by using C.W. Driver, a Pasadena-based company, as both the lead contractor and project manager.
Dixon, Muldoon and council members Scott Peotter and Marshall “Duffy” Duffield were among the project’s harshest critics before they were elected last year. When they took their seats in January, city staff provided a look into the construction project and posted change orders and other documents on the city website.
Still, Dixon and Muldoon called for a deeper review of the project by an outside firm, saying it is common for large projects to undergo audits after they have been finished.
The audit request followed a city inquiry into whether former Assistant City Manager Steve Badum failed to report gifts from companies doing business with the city, including C.W. Driver.
However, the Orange County district attorney’s office announced in August that it had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Badum.
Curry, who along with Selich and Petros helped shepherd the project through its development, called the audit “politically motivated” and said his new colleagues had not read the documents produced by staff earlier this year before calling for a review by an outside firm.
He said the money used to fund the audit could be better spent on putting more police officers on the streets or building projects like the new Corona del Mar library.
“It’s simply wrong,” Curry said. “It’s a complete waste of money.”
