Fact #5:

(1) March 13, 2013 – Consulting Agreement for Facilities Planning Advisory Committee Expert B-46/12/13 ,  Agreement for Educational Consulting Services  

“RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the Consultant Agreement with BCA Architects to act as an expert on school buildings for the Facilities Planning Advisory Committee to consult at a cost not to exceed $5,000.00” 

NOTE: The “expert” from BCA Architects was Paul Bunton.

“BACKGROUND: The Facilities Planning and Advisory Committee [FPAC] is researching the options of modernization, new construction and property acquisition/exchange for the North School site, in order to report their findings to the Board of Education.  The committee requires a school architect expert opinion to provide relevant data to the committee for their consideration.”

“FISCAL IMPACT: The cost of $5,000 is budgeted to Capital Facility Fund #25”

(2) June 12, 2013 – Proposal to Close Out Division of State Architect Projects at Hermosa View School and North School B-76-12/13 

“RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the proposal from BCA Architects to assist the District with obtaining Division of State Architect (DSA) closeout of projects at Hermosa View School and North School at a cost not to exceed $2,400.00.”

“BACKGROUND:  District received notification that three past construction projects, two at Hermosa View School and one at North School were not closed out with DSA.  The architect Y’Deen & Associates was responsible for closing these projects, but did not.  Staff has compiled information to close out the projects, but needs the assistance of an architect to complete the close out. The District received four proposals: PM Solutions - $15,000.00; Another Perspective, Inc. - $12,480.00; Dougherty & Dougherty - $10,000.00; BCA Architects - $2,400.00”

NOTE:  According to the DSA client #F19-45 (HBCSD) list of applications, the last time construction work was done at North School was in 1998, DSA application #A-100604.    It is interesting that apparently fifteen years after the fact, the DSA was NOW notifying the district that certain projects still needed to be closed out.   From 2001 onward, HBCSD architects were Dougherty and Dougherty.

NOTE: The three other bids for this job were four to six times higher than the bid that BCA Architects submitted.   It seems that the other bids were not serious ones.  They seemed to have been submitted just to satisfy the district’s need to get competitive bids but the bidders were not interested in taking the job.  Another possibility was that the other firms were told by the district admin ahead of time that they should bid high so that the district could award the “job” to BCA Architects.

NOTE:  Why didn’t HBCSD contact the original architects to close out the projects that were their responsibility?  Y’Deen & Associates is still in business with an address in Brea, CA.

NOTE:  Was this proposal to close out old projects from as far back as 1998 for North School simply a way to throw an extra $2,400.00 to Paul Bunton for his work “advising” the Facility Planning and Advisory Committee?