State unwilling to pay library’s cost overruns

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Feb. 9, 2001 | 11:29 a.m.

The state of Nevada is not likely to pay $5.8 million in claims submitted by contractors for UNLV's recently completed Lied Library, a senior deputy attorney general said this week.

"There cannot be any hidden costs after the fact," Brett Kandt said. "If those claims are for extended overhead (labor caused by time overages), the state is not obligated to pay for that."

The costs were submitted by general contractor Tibesar Construction and seven subcontractors for work that was a result of time delays approved by the state Public Works Board, headed by Perry Comeaux.

Cost overruns for the library hit $3.6 million after the board signed 30 change orders for additional work on the building. The state, however, is in the process of sifting through $5.8 million in additional claims that appear to be labor related, Kandt said.

But if those claims do not get paid, state officials may end up in court, said Don Puls, Tibesar's vice president of field operations.

"First of all, the claims are not for extended overhead only," Puls said. "We tried to get the state to let us put those costs into the change orders as we went along. They directed us to take them out and submit them separately."

Some of those separate claims have been with the Public Works Board for more than six months without word on when they will be paid.

"I think the feeling was that we were going to look at them at the end of the project and guess what, we're at the end of the project," Public Works Board Manager Dan O'Brien said.

But contractors are growing impatient for payment of the millions of dollars they feel they are entitled to, Puls said.

"They (Public Work Board staff members) have not returned phone calls. They will not sit down with us and go over this. This leaves us no alternative but to file suit," Puls said.

The state also has not released $365,646 owed to Tibesar. That is because several items have not been completed at the library, Kandt said.

Puls said that out of 8,000 items that were given to him for completion, all but four have not been finished.

"They can't hold $365,000 for a couple thousand dollars worth of things," he said. "When you've got 8,000 things and only four of them fell through the cracks, I'd say that's not bad."

O'Brien said the Public Works Board could not meet with Tibesar until claims analysts are hired to look over pending bills.

The extended overhead costs that the state refers to include fees that subcontractors paid to keep supervisors on the construction site for each month of the delay. Other possible charges include the rising cost of labor and administrative costs associated with the project, Puls said.

The final audit results from claims analysts are not due for a few more weeks, but early indications based on a meeting with the Kandt, auditors and Public Works Board members last week show that much -- if not most -- of the $5.8 million will be disallowed, state officials said.

"I don't believe from what I've observed that the state should be taking the full responsibility," O'Brien said. "If the state is responsible for something, then it should own up to it, but they should not be paying for what they don't owe."