State officials opened bids this week for the 1st construction phase of a $356 million death row complex at San Quentin State Prison, despite a Marin County lawsuit also filed this week seeking to block the project.
"We're moving forward with the process," said George Kostyrko, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The county's lawsuit filed Tuesday requests a temporary restraining order to prevent the state from "encumbering or expending any funds for the San Quentin Condemned Inmate Complex until this litigation is resolved."
Deputy County Counsel David Zaltsman said he had sent messages to the corrections department and the other defendants in the suit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang, to see if they would voluntary agree to halt progress on the project until the suit is resolved. Zaltsman said he would seek a hearing to enforce a restraining order if he gets no cooperation by the end of the week.
The corrections department on Tuesday opened the nine bids it received ranging from $126 million to $145 million on the part of the project that involves demolition, site grading, utilities, housing units and towers. The low bid of $126 million was submitted by McCarthy Construction of St. Louis, Mo. A high bid of $145 million was submitted by Amoroso Construction of Redwood City.
The procedure calls for execution of a contract within 60 days of the bid opening. Kostyrko said all bids submitted were significantly lower than the department's $165 million estimate.
The county of Marin's lawsuit asserts that Schwarzenegger last year improperly used a line-item veto to ignore budget control language on conditions for financing the project.
Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, added the language that Schwarzenegger vetoed to one of the more than 30 bills that legislators approved in 2009 as part of a deal to erase the state's $26 billion deficit.
The language prohibited issuance of bonds until the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation determined it could lawfully double-cell condemned inmates; resolution of federal court litigation on prison overcrowding; and corrections department completion of environmental analyses for modifications to the project.
H.D. Palmer, an aide to Schwarzenegger, has said the governor had the power to veto the language because it was in a budget bill.
But in its suit, Marin County states, "Although no one disputes the Governor's authority to reduce a true item of appropriation, that authority does not extend to eliminating substantive restrictions or controls that the legislature places on appropriations."
The 541,000-square-foot complex would contain 768 cells with 1,152 beds.
Bids are scheduled to be opened Aug. 30, 2011, on the second phase of the construction project, which will consist of secure support buildings, a medical treatment center, non-secure buildings and the security and communications systems. A contract award for phase two is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2011.
The corrections department anticipates all construction will be finished by September 2013.
Also this week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation broke ground on a 1,722-bed inmate medical facility southeast of Stockton, slated to cost more than $900 million.
Source: Marin Independent Journal, November 11, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment