Palo Alto's effort to rebuild Mitchell Park Library and Community Center -- the centerpiece of the city's $76 million bond package -- is facing heavy scrutiny from city leaders because of escalating costs and possible errors by project architects.

The City Council approved early Tuesday morning (Sept. 13) a request by Public Works to increase the construction and design contracts for the library project by $3.7 million. But while the council voted 7-0 to approve the change order, council members expressed great frustration about the rising costs for the project, which now has an estimated price tag of about $41 million.

Though the project remains on schedule and well within the budget, its price has risen after the city's contractor, Flintco Pacific Construction, Inc., requested a change order from the city. Officials from Turner Construction Inc., the city's construction manager, said Monday night (Sept. 12) that some of the rising costs could be attributed to details that were missing from the plans at the time that Flintco entered its $24 million bid. The bid was about 25 percent below the city's expectations.

The design plans, created by Group 4 Architects (the firm charged with designs for all three libraries in the bond) specifically did not include any details about the steel that would be needed to support various elements of the building's exterior, including stone cladding and window openings, said Greg Smith, the field supervisor for the project.

"The steel needed is not shown on any plan and is not shown on structural drawings," Smith said.

After realizing that it would need more steel to finish the project, Flincto submitted a change order requesting more money. Sartor told the council that staff is recommending increasing the contract to "keep the project moving on schedule and to avoid claims down the road."

During the course of their hour-and-a-half discussion, council members expressed frustration at the rising costs, the apparent errors and the fact that they were not alerted earlier about the problems at Mitchell Park Library. Councilman Larry Klein said he's "not happy with where we are" and told Sartor that he should have approached the council earlier and that he should have been more candid.

"We have to be frank with ourselves," Klein said. "We're not doing as well as we expected on this deal."

The council also agreed to increase the "contingency costs" for the project -- the costs that are tagged on to the price tag to account for unexpected developments and complications. Initially, the Mitchell Park project carried with it a contingency cost of 10 percent. The council agreed to raise the contingency cost to 20 percent, short of the 25 percent staff was requesting.

Councilwoman Nancy Shepherd scrutinized the details of staff's request and said she was "shocked" by the rising costs. City officials had expected the project to fall far below budget because of the tight construction climate.

"Quite frankly, I've been a construction accountant for about 25 years and I've never seen a 25 percent contingency factor in a construction project -- especially of this size," Shepherd said. "I'm deeply concerned."

Meanwhile, the city attorney's office is mulling a claim against Group 4 because of the errors in the design plans. Klein, an attorney, said it seemed like "we have a very serious claim against Group 4." Sartor agreed. He said the firm has "accepted the fact that the plans have problems" and has added staff to address these problems as quickly as possible.

"Whether its at the level of errors and omissions or not, we have not determined," Sartor told the council.

Group 4 did not return a request from comment Tuesday.

In approving the change order, the council tacked on a series of conditions strengthening its oversight of the project. The council directed staff to provide monthly reports on all change orders over the project and asked City Attorney Molly Stump to provide monthly reports regarding potential claims the city should file against Group 4 or other contractors working on the Mitchell Park project.

"We have to exercise a lot more oversight into what's going on to make sure the city is getting its money's worth and that we're being sufficiently aggressive," said Klein, who crafted the motion with the added oversight provisions. "If Flintco thought they'd be able to recoup their low bid just by putting in change orders, one of our answers will be that we won't let them do that unless where it's appropriate."

Stump told the Weekly Tuesday that her office is reviewing the roles of the various contractors do determine whether the city should file any claims.

Though errors in the design plans contributed to the rising cost, Flintco's low bid also played a part, Sartor said. The construction climate had prompted contractors to submit low bids and then look for ways to raise costs.

"We had an extremely low bid in a very tight construction climate, which has created a situation where this contractor and other contractors we've been working with in the last couple of years really squeezed every opportunity they can to identify potential changes," Sartor said.

The city has received about $4 million in change-order requests from contractors, Smith said, and has settled requests totaling about $1.25 million.

The explanation did not entirely satisfy Councilman Pat Burt, who said he's concerned whether "we've been gamed and how aggressively we're willing to push back on a contractor who it seems like they low-balled us and they're coming back with change orders that on a fixed bid shouldn't be that big."

Sartor assured the council that he does not expect any other major additions to the contract. Staff, he said, does not take the contract adjustments lightly. He told the council he was "freaked out" about the latest changes, but said he is confident the increased contingency would be sufficient to pay for the project and to complete the project by fall of 2012.

"There's a lot riding on this project, particularly considering future potential bond elections," Sartor said.

The Mitchell Park Library and Community Center is one of three library projects that are funded by a bond voters passed in 2008. The Downtown Library was renovated and reopened in July, while the renovation of the Main Library is scheduled to begin once the new Mitchell Park Library reopens.

Seeking to accommodate the digital age, Palo Alto officials are revising design plans for new city libraries to enable more laptops and electronic books.

But not everyone is happy about the new approach, with some calling it a violation of promises from the 2008 library-bond election.

City officials and project architects from the Group 4 Architecture firm discussed the looming changes at a Tuesday night public meeting at Main Library. Main is the third and final library slated for major renovations under a $76 million bond measure residents approved in 2008.

Construction is underway at the Downtown Library and the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center. Work is slated to start at Main in 2012, shortly after the new Mitchell Park branch reopens.

When it reopens, the Main Library will have a new wing with a program room, along with new bathrooms and four group-study rooms.

But under recently revised plans, the book collection would remain the same or possibly even be reduced. That's because library officials are banking on electronic books becoming more popular in coming years and they want local libraries to be prepared for the digital era.

Here is the accompanying article:

The College Terrace branch of the Palo Alto library system re-opened Saturday afternoon, following a year-long, $4 million renovation.

With the snip of a ribbon, Palo Alto Vice Mayor Sid Espinosa welcomed a crowd of about 100 adults and children to view the newly renovated facility, located on Wellesley Street in the College Terrace neighborhood.

"Libraries these days are not just places to check out books. ... They're places for neighbors to get to know each other," Espinosa said. "In our crazy lives, when we're online and we're not meeting as many people as we sometime used to in public forums, libraries still serve as that gathering place."

City Manager James Keene and retiring Library Director Diane Jennings also addressed the crowd.

The re-opening of the library, built in 1936, was almost delayed until next summer due to proposed budget cuts. But after residents spoke to the City Council Finance Committee in May, it recommended to forgo the $74,000 in savings and open the library branch on schedule.

The remodeling job included seismic upgrades; new electrical, heating, air conditioning and lighting systems; a new roof; and changes to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The interior has remained much the same, except for wider aisles and some new access points for ADA compliance.

An early morning fire at Cubberley Community Center damaged the office of "Friends of the Palo Alto Library" Monday, destroying computer equipment and causing major damage to the trailer complex just days before the group's monthly book sale.

The sale will proceed next weekend.

Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after 4:30 a.m. and managed to contain the flames to the sorting room, where the nonprofit group organizes its activities and accepts donations. John Burt, a volunteer with the Friends group, said a homeless man who frequents the Cubberley campus with his dog saw the flames and alerted the Fire Department.

The building was unoccupied and no one was injured, but the fire destroyed two computers, a copy machine and various miscellaneous office supplies, said Jim Schmidt, president of the Friends group, who visited the scene shortly after the fire.

Palo Alto is preparing to sell $60 million in library bonds later this month to fund voter-approved renovations of three city libraries.

The City Council is scheduled to consider tonight (Monday) a staff proposal to sell bonds for the renovation of the Downtown Library, the Main Library and the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center -- a project city voters approved in November 2008.

If the council approves the bond sale, the money would be used to pay for the required permits and construction costs for the Downtown Library and the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, as well as the cost of setting up a temporary library at Cubberley Community Center while the Mitchell Park facility is closed.