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Zephyrhills Airport Experienced Turbulence

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: January 15, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - Local pilots who waited years for a private hangar at the Zephyrhills Airport were thrilled when the city's $2.8 million expansion was completed in November.

But behind the scenes, the contractor was fuming.

David Carr, owner of Carr Contracting, says infighting among city departments caused construction delays that cost him $170,000. He also says an engineering firm billed the city for hours it never worked, contributing to cost overruns that reached $100,000.

"I lost a lot of money on this job through no fault of my own," Carr said. "I'm still reeling from it."

His complaints prompted the Zephyrhills Airport Authority to hire an outside auditor to review the project, and a state agency is investigating whether the engineering company overbilled the city.

'Personal Issues'

Work to add 60 private hangars began in January 2008 and was supposed to cost $2.7 million. The Florida Department of Transportation agreed to pay for 80 percent of the work, and the city paid the balance.

It was saddled with delays and cost overruns while the city's fire marshal and airport director butted heads over the design. A few months into construction, the fire marshal stopped work on the project, saying the hangar design didn't meet state fire codes.

Airport Manager Trina Sweet refused to pay for any change orders out of her department's budget because the fire marshal had signed off on the original designs. The fire department ended up having to pay $100,000 from fire impact fees for the changes.

The dispute dragged on for months, and Carr says the city owes him more than $170,000 because of time lost to the delays.

In November, Carr filed a protest letter with his final bill. He said his company would have completed the hangars four months earlier if not for the "personal issues" between the two department heads and problems with the engineering firm, LPA Group of Tampa.

The city rejected his request, saying the project was completed within the time allowed in the contract. But Carr said he used additional workers and equipment to complete the job on an accelerated schedule. Those workers could have been on other jobs if the hanger project had not stalled, he said.

Carr also complained to the DOT about LPA Group, saying the engineering firm billed the city for meetings it never attended and for inspections it didn't perform.

The DOT investigated but found no evidence that grant money was misused, although hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of invoices have yet to be submitted by the city for reimbursement from the DOT.

"The invoices that did come in, several people reviewed them to look for irregularities," said Raymond Clark, a DOT aviation manager. "There didn't seem to be any padding of hours."

Even so, DOT referred Carr's complaints to the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, which is reviewing the records. If the board finds misconduct by LPA Group or its engineers, LPA could be fined or have its license suspended or revoked.

'The Prudent Thing To Do'

At the same time, the airport authority is preparing to hire an independent auditor.

Authority Chairman Dan Evans did not return phone calls seeking comment. Authority member Arjay Morgan downplayed the audit, suggesting it was routine.

"The reason for the audit is just that it's the prudent thing to do," Morgan said.

City Manager Steve Spina said the authority wanted an accountant to review logbooks for the LPA Group and Carr Contracting Services to determine if any overbilling occurred.

"There have been all kinds of little internal disputes between LPA and the contractor," Spina said. "I know Carr has made allegations to the city and the state that they billed for work that they didn't do."

Carr said his documents prove LPA overbilled the city.

"I have quality control logs. I stand behind my logbooks based on the amount of time the engineers actually spent on the job," he said.

The Tampa Tribune reviewed the documents and found discrepancies. For example, LPA Group billed the city 65 hours at $100 per hour for site inspections in February, but Carr's records indicate the inspector made four visits and spent 16 hours on the site.

In March and April, the city was billed for 69½ hours, but Carr's records indicate there were only three site visits in March and none in April.

Carr's records for May show the inspector was on-site a total of 5½ hours, but LPA billed the city for 69 hours. There were four site visits in June. According to Carr's log, the inspectors were on-site for a total of 13½ hours. LPA billed the city for 87 hours.

LPA Group billed the city for 71 hours in July. Carr's logs indicate there was one phone call and no site visits. LPA submitted three unsigned computerized worksheets indicating the inspector was on the site July 22 through 24 for 10 hours each day.

The firm made numerous site visits over the next four months, but by that point it already had billed the city for 381.5 hours, even though the contract set a not-to-exceed limit of 260 hours for inspections.

Bill Schipper, the engineer's inspector-construction manager, submitted timesheets to the company and/or mileage reports for at least 20 site visits where there is no documentation to substantiate he was on the job.

Sweet, the airport manager, said the city did not pay for more than 260 hours.

But if Carr's records are accurate, Schipper was on the job site less than 100 hours.

'We Trust Our Employees'

Mohsen Mohammadi, who heads LPA's Tampa division, said Schipper was a temporary employee hired specifically for the Zephyrhills project. He was terminated in August as the project neared completion, Mohammadi said.

Schipper declined requests for an interview. The company never questioned his timesheets, Mohammedi said. Nor has Mohammedi reviewed Carr's logs.

"We trust our employees and we wouldn't question their integrity - certainly not because a contractor made an allegation," Mohammadi said.

He said Schipper did not keep detailed records of his site visits unless he encountered a problem that needed to be dealt with. "Ideally, he would have logged it," he said. "The charges Bill Schipper made to the project were for work he did."

LPA principal engineer Mark Kistler had another explanation for the large number of hours billed for inspection service. In a letter to the auditor, Kistler wrote that work performed by higher ranking LPA staff members often was billed at the inspector rate to save the city money.

He wrote that the company was doing the city a favor.

"The City should not be expected to pay senior staff rates for site visits that could be conducted by a construction manager, at a lower rate," he wrote. "Hence, all hours for site visits were placed under the Designer/Inspector classification."

Kistler wrote that LPA actually performed hundreds of hours of work for which it never billed the city. He contends that the firm's costs added up to more than $115,000, but LPA billed the city only $76,000.

"This project required a lot more work from LPA than was ever anticipated," Mohammad said.

LPA has been the exclusive engineering firm for the city for the past eight years. It has a no-bid contract and works on projects ranging from feasibility studies for a new library to surveying roads and drainage projects.

The city has paid LPA Group $265,000 the past two years and has three years left on its current contract.

Such contracts are common among cities that don't have professional engineers on staff. LPA Group has similar consulting contracts with St. Petersburg, Polk County and numerous Florida airports.

Sweet is expected to hire the auditor this week.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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