By Nathan McIntire
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (California)
LOS ANGELES — Ruling in a lawsuit brought by an Arcadia company, a judge has voided a $30 million contract the county awarded to a fire equipment distributor.
The order by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant potentially leaves local fire departments on the hook for millions of dollars of equipment they’ve already purchased.
County officials awarded the contract to L.N. Curtis and sons to provide breathing apparatus — masks and air tanks for breathing in smoky conditions — for county and municipal firefighters.
The goal was to outfit every fire department in the county with the same type of breathing apparatus. The actual funding for the contract came from the federal Department of Homeland Security.
However, rival equipment maker Allstar Fire Equipment Inc. sued the city and county of Los Angeles, claiming the selection process used to award the contract was improperly handled.
The judge agreed.
“Curtis was neither the lowest bidder nor the highest rated in the performance evaluation,” Chalfant wrote in his ruling. “The award to Curtis was defective, and the bidding process was compromised.”
The judge’s order requires the county to either restart the bidding process or re-evaluate all the bids properly.
But many fire departments, including Pasadena’s and Monrovia’s, have already purchased the equipment from L.N. Curtis, expecting to be reimbursed by grant funds. L.N. Curtis distributes equipment manufactured by Santa Ana-based Sperian Protection.
The city and county of Los Angeles contended that payment was already underway — nearly $7 million worth of Sperian equipment has already been shipped to local fire agencies. Federal grant money could be put at risk if the contract was voided, the two entities argued.
Chalfant, however, was not swayed.
“Respondents and Curtis all knew the contract was being challenged, and proceeded at their own risk,” he wrote. “Respondents cannot rely on their own failures, and their efforts to perform a contract that they knew was being challenged, simply because their grant money was at risk.”
Elizabeth Friedman, an attorney with the County Counsel’s office, said L.A. County is “reviewing judge Chalfant’s decision and considering its options.”
She declined to comment further.
Officials from the Los Angeles Firefighter Unions, in an Oct. 13 letter to Jim Hone, president of the Los Angeles-Area Fire Chief’s Association, also criticized the decision to move forward with the purchase of Sperian equipment. The association helped secure funding for the contract.
Copyright 2008, San Gabriel Valley Tribune (California)
Related Information: Southern California Area Fire Departments May Lose Federal Grants for SCBAs (Press Release - Sperian)