Contractors feud over library renovation contract
DOWNEY – The City Council on Tuesday will consider rejecting all bids it received for renovation of the Downey City Library after two companies began feuding in competition for the contract.
The public library closed last week in anticipation of an $8.5 million renovation that is projected to take more than a year to complete. The renovation is funded by Measure S, a sales tax increase approved by Downey voters in 2016.
On Feb. 27, the city clerk opened 11 construction bids, the lowest of which was $5.091 million by AWI Builders.
According to a staff report from assistant city manager John Oskoui, a representative of the company that submitted the second-lowest bid, Cal-City Construction Inc., filed a bid protest, alleging collusion between AWI and its subcontractor, Construction Contractors Corporation.
Cal-City’s bid totaled $5.25 million.
In a letter to the city of Downey, an attorney representing Cal-City accused AWI Builders of colluding with Construction Contractors Corporation to gain “an unfair competitive advantage,” wrote attorney Marcia Haber Kamine of Kamine Law.
According to the letter, Anna Mekikyan is listed as president of AWI by the Contractor’s State License Board, while her husband, Robert Mekikyan, is listed as RMO (responsible managing officer) of Construction Contractors Corporation.
“The fact that Robert Mekikyan is listed by the CSLB as the RMO of the major subcontractor for this project by AWI and also listed as the senior project manager creates the appearance, if nothing else, that there could have been collusion in setting the bid,” Kamine wrote. “Further, the address for AWI listed on its bid as 7831 Paramount Blvd., Pico Rivera, CA 90660. This is the address listed for CCC with the CSLB. They are two companies occupying the same location sharing employees. This screams collusion.”
AWI Builders denied any allegations of impropriety. In a letter to Oskoui from attorney Scott Lane of Lane & McGowan, LLP, the company called Cal-City’s protest as having “no merit.”
“The protest relies on speculative and unsupported innuendo outside of the bid documents,” Lane wrote. “The protest ties to mask its weakness by citing a slew of legal authorities that simply do not support the alleged grounds for the protest.”
“Whatever offence Cal-City takes from Mrs. Mekikyan’s temerity to engage in the construction business, the City of Downey ought to be cautious about denigrating her lawful role as a woman business owner by insinuating that she is a mere instrumentality of her husband or his separate business entity, not to mention her rights to the equal protection of the laws,” the letter also states.
Oskoui is recommending the city council authorize the re-solicitation of bids. If the council agrees, the results of the new bid process would likely be presented at the April 23 city council meeting.