Santa Barbara County filed a lawsuit against engineering and architecture firm Rosser International after the company told the county it can’t complete its work on the county’s Northern Branch Jail project.
According to the lawsuit, on June 13 Rosser International informed the county that it’s going out of business and would “no longer be providing services” to the county. On July 12, the county filed a complaint against the firm citing a breach of contract and professional negligence.
This isn’t the first time the county has had issues with Rosser International over the jail project. The county filed a lawsuit against the company in November 2018, again citing a breach of contract and professional negligence. The lawsuit was dismissed about a month later.
County counsel didn’t return a request for comment before press time.
The language in both lawsuits is similar, with the only significant difference being added language in the more recent complaint regarding Rosser’s inability to complete the project. Both lawsuits state Rosser and the consultants it hired failed to perform duties to the standard outlined in the contract the company signed with the county.
“This has caused significant delays to project completion, has cost the county millions of dollars in extra costs, and has exposed the county to potential claims from its general contractor,” the lawsuits state.
According to both lawsuits, Rosser’s actions lead to a delay in obtaining approval from the Office of the State Fire Marshall, which set the project back by 287 days. Additionally, the plans submitted by Rosser contained numerous incomplete or missing design details. Ultimately, the lawsuit states, Rosser’s design plans were only about 80 percent complete.
At a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting on July 16, supervisors voted in favor of adjusting the existing contract the county has with Kitchell CEM, which will take over the remaining engineering and architectural work Rosser failed to complete. Previously, Kitchell was only in charge of construction management for the Northern Branch Jail project.
According to a staff report from the July 16 meeting, construction of the jail is about 90 percent complete, and the project is on track to be finished by the end of the year.
The county began construction on the estimated $111 million jail in 2016 on Betteravia Road, west of Santa Maria. The county is building the 376-bed jail, which includes 32 beds for mental health purposes, to address overcrowding at the county’s main jail in Santa Barbara.
—Zac Ezzone
This article appears in Aug 1-8, 2019.
