Henderson: Company probed in death gets contract

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

An ongoing OSHA investigation into the September trench collapse that killed a worker at the Henderson water treatment plant project didn't stop the City Council from awarding another construction bid to the same general contractor.

In fact, the Henderson City Council on Tuesday night approved the bid by the Ellsworth-Peck Construction Company for a new flow control and water metering station with no discussion as part of the consent agenda.

After the meeting, Mayor James Gibson said he had no trepidation about awarding the bid to a company under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

OSHA is continuing to look into the Sept. 16 death of Kenn Egbert, 36, who was killed when the walls of a 20-foot-deep, 25-foot-wide and 30-foot-long trench collapsed as workers were laying pipe in an $8 million expansion of the treatment plant.

Ellsworth-Peck, based in Utah, has a record of almost three dozen violations of OSHA standards at seven worksites in Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming since 1994.

But the company did come in with the lowest bid for the new flow station that will eliminate two city pump stations and move water by gravity into part of Henderson. Ellsworth-Peck made a bid of $1,281,999, just over $125,000 cheaper then the next lowest bidder's price.

"We provided the City Council with information about this company's history of violations and accidents," said Bill Hendrickson, public works specialist with the Southern Nevada Foundation for Fair Contracting, referring to an Oct. 28 letter his group sent to the city.

"Our only concern is that the contract awarded to the lowest responsible bidder provides enough money for employee safety. We believe the city has to take that responsibility when awarding bids to low and responsible bidders."

Hendrickson said his group does not automatically oppose companies under OSHA scrutiny from being awarded municipal contracts.

In a memo presented to the City Council before Tuesday's meeting Assistant City Attorney Andrew J. Urban said that the foundation's letter was forwarded to Ellsworth-Peck, and that the company's law firm responded.

In the memo Urban says the company's lawyers point out that "Ellsworth Peck has been inspected on various occasions by OSHA," and that "the company has received no citations in Southern Nevada for safety infractions.

"The cave-in at the city's water treatment plant project is still under investigation by OSHA, and no safety violations have been issued at this time."

Jacob Prieto, a cement mason who worked at the site of the cave-in said he complained to Ellsworth-Peck several times that the trench was unsafe. He said he was told by representatives of Ellsworth-Peck that, "there was no money in the budget," to shore up the sides of the trench as required by OSHA rules.

The letter from the Foundation for Fair Contracting alleged that the company was able to submit the low bid on the new flow station because of a lack of safety precautions, according to Urban's memo.

"There is no correlation between the bid breakdown submitted by the bidders and the Foundation's assumption that Ellsworth-Peck was able to submit the lowest bid because they intend not to provide safety equipment at the work site. This conclusion is not based on any factual evidence," the memo says.

As the mayor opened the meeting, he asked the council and city staff if there was any need too pull the bid item from the agenda for discussion in light of the memo, but no one asked that it be pulled.