Adding to the growing list of charges – rumor and innuendo,
according to Morgan Hill School District officials, fact according
to district detractors – state inspector John Coyle poured out a
stream of complaints during Monday
’s School Board meeting. Trustee George Panos, who was acting as
president for the absent Tom Kinoshita, told Coyle the board would
look into his claims.
Adding to the growing list of charges – rumor and innuendo, according to Morgan Hill School District officials, fact according to district detractors – state inspector John Coyle poured out a stream of complaints during Monday’s School Board meeting.
Trustee George Panos, who was acting as president for the absent Tom Kinoshita, told Coyle the board would look into his claims.
Coyle told trustees he was “fired” from his position as inspector of record for the district. He said the Division of the State Architect (DSA) “wants us here.”
“I find that astounding,” Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said Thursday. “They (the DSA) do not tell districts to hire this one or that one. I find that very surprising. I have no knowledge of that personally. It would be odd and unusual.”
McKennan said the district decided to seek bids for an inspector of record for the Sobrato High project, and Coyle was not awarded the job.
“Coyle competed for class one inspector and proposed services for a class three inspector,” she said.
A class three inspector, she said, can have an assistant who is on the job site on a day to day basis, with the inspector on the site less frequently.
“We would like someone to be there daily,” she said. “Safety is very important to us. It has been our experience that (Coyle) hires specialty inspectors, hires some folks that are not class one, that are not DSA inspectors.”
McKennan also said Coyle required full-time clerical help, at $5,600 per month.
“We have been doing that for the past 18 months, when other inspectors do not operate that way,” she said. “We chose not to bring Mr. Coyle along. He was not competitive for the next phase in the project.”
Drain traps in the floors of the mechanical rooms at Barrett Elementary were also on Coyle’s list to the board.
The drain traps that were installed, he said, were not the right kind and let “sewer gases” come back up into the school. He said Jacobs “got out the door before” doing it the right way.
McKennan said there was another inspector at the time the drains were approved for installation.
“By the time (Coyle) came along, the rooms were complete,” she said. “We were quoted a price of $165,000 to tear up all the rooms, tear up all the tile. We had a variety of sources tell us they were perfectly safe, and they were approved by the inspector of record. It was already over by the time he came along.”
Coyle also mentioned Barrett’s lack of state certification.
“I don’t believe it has been certified by the state, and I don’t believe it ever will be.”
He told trustees that should someone be injured on a site that isn’t certified by the state, they could be personally liable.
McKennan said it is not unusual for state projects to remain uncertified for a time after completion. The school opened in fall 2001.
“He is correct in that (that Barrett is not certified),” she said. “That is not unusual. What is unusual and quite extraordinary is that he said he thinks it never will be certified. He is inspector of record for that project and that he would participate in something that he thinks would never be certified. I’m taken aback by that.”
Coyle is one of three persons who have said they have been interviewd by a representative of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office in connection with a criminal investigation into district construction practives.
Another pesky issue the district is dealing with also concerns Jacobs Facilities, Inc., the construction firm that built Barrett Elementary and completed the first phase of Live Oak High renovations. Information surfaced that McKennan was quoted on the Jacobs website, praising the company.
The quote said: “I feel like it’s a family affair. We have really built a trusting relationship, and we do honestly believe that Jacobs has our best interest at hear. They have done everything, from helping us pass a bond to land acquisition to finance strategies. We feel they have looked out for us.”
McKennan said the quote was “from another era.”
Trustee Del Foster said a request had been made to remove the quote from the website.
“It’s been brought to her attention and she’s requested that it be removed,” he said Friday. “If she’d done it within the last six months, I’d really question her judgment.”
Panos said “the only news about this is that Jacobs hasn’t updated its website.”
Trustee Shellé Thomas said she was surprised to see the quote.
“I was shocked and I felt compromised because I was looking at a 2003 date on the website, and as a board member I have not been informed of this,” she said. “But I do know some board members are more informed than I am. It appears we have had a non-businesslike relationship which allowed our School District and our community to be financially harmed.”
The quote was removed by Thursday.
The district filed suit against Jacobs Aug. 7. The complaint seeks “declaratory relief, relief based on rescission, breach of contract and conversion.”
McKennan said after the suit was filed that the district was concerned about getting the computer-aided design (CAD) drawings of Sobrato from Jacobs. She said Thursday that Jacobs has agreed to give the CAD drawings to the district, but she didn’t know if Director of Construction/Modernization Al Solis actually had the software in hand yet.
Foster, who is an attorney, said the board would not have to vote to authorize serving the papers. Serving the papers would give a time limit for Jacobs to respond to the complaint.
“We’ve authorized a lawsuit; how it proceeds is at the discretion of counsel,” he said.
