Firm Abandons Air-Conditioning Bid

Only a day after being named front-runner for a lucrative air-conditioning contract, an Orange County firm abruptly backed out Tuesday, accusing the Los Angeles Unified School District of “bad faith.”

The district’s business czar, Hugh Jones, said New West/Rodgers informed him by fax Tuesday afternoon that it would no longer seek the $200-million job installing air conditioning as part of Proposition BB bond-financed school improvements.

In the letter, New West/Rodgers general manager Steve Siverson accused the district of “consistently” misrepresenting the firm’s proposal.

The letter singled out a negative evaluation of the firm that Jones showed the school board Monday as part of his presentation recommending New West/Rodgers. Jones assured the board that he had investigated the report by a bid review committee and found it invalid.

In an interview Tuesday, Jones said he included the report--which questioned the strength of the firm’s financial backing--so there would be no question that he was hiding anything.

Adding another twist to the convoluted situation, Jones said Siverson called him after Monday’s board meeting to inform him of an error in the firm’s $180-million bid that would add $15 million to it.

Jones said that Tuesday morning he told Siverson the negotiations could still go forward despite the error and that Siverson said nothing of backing out.

Siverson did not return a call from The Times.

Steven Soboroff, chairman of the citizens committee set up to oversee the Proposition BB school bond spending, said Siverson told him he had concluded that the district had no intention of awarding his firm the contract.

Siverson suspects that the district wants to keep the air-conditioning work under the management team it hired to handle more than $1 billion in Proposition BB repairs and improvements, Soboroff said.

“ ‘All they are going to do is reject us,’ ” he said Siverson told him.

Ironically, Soboroff too has accused district officials of trying to fend off private sector bidders for the air-conditioning work, but said he trusts Jones, who was recently appointed to watch over all the district’s business operations.

Soboroff said he will ask the Proposition BB oversight committee at a special meeting today to recommend that the proposals from the three remaining outside bidders be reconsidered before a decision is made to let the district management team complete the work.

Jones said he has told Soboroff he is willing to do that.

The lowest of those bidders, the Energy Alliance, precipitated the turbulent bidding in May with an unsolicited proposal to install the air conditioning for millions of dollars less than the district’s estimate and in about a third the time.