Union: Overruns hit Yuba College projects
Yuba Community College District projects paid for with Measure J bond funds face major cost overruns that threaten other planned developments — including the new $29.5 million facility in Sutter County — a union says.
Teresa Dorantes-Basile, president of the California School Employees Association at the college district, said the Physical Education complex at the Linda campus is far from complete and already $181,000 over budget due to changes in football stadium seating. A building renovation project at the Woodland campus is $91,192 over budget, said Dorantes-Basile.
The union, which includes custodians and secretaries, had opposed a since-rescinded $29,282 pay raise for Chancellor Nicki Harrington.
"The same administration covering this $190 million bond — the taxpayers money — is the same administration that wanted to give Dr. Harrington a raise," she said.
District spokesman Adrian Lopez disputed the union's account, saying, "The projects are progressing."
Developments are on a timeline to finish as anticipated, he said.
The union's press release said that while construction projects of this scale miss deadlines and cost projections, taxpayers should be concerned that some of the first bond-financed developments are facing such major problems.
Adding 223 seats around the 50-yard line of athletic fields at Yuba College will boost the cost by $181,100 of the $4.5 million project, according to documents the union provided.
A "value engineered" heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system for the Building 700 renovation at Woodland Community College will add $111,300 to the $2.1 million cost. A significant increase in system efficiency and cost reduction will result, a college district document notes.
The $190 million bond initiative, known as Measure J and passed by voters in 2006, pays for the projects.
The Sutter County Outreach Facility on East Onstott Frontage Road north of Pease Road is among developments the bond is funding. The project will be the first permanent community college facility in Sutter County.
Dorantes-Basile, along with raising concerns about the bond measure funds, said the district is using students to replace classified workers laid off from jobs at the Woodland Community College library.
Such use of students violates a college district contract, Dorantes-Basile said.
"They're getting cheaper labor," she said. "They're not having to pay any health benefits."
Lopez said students have always worked for the college district — and added that the number of such students has actually declined since the layoffs at the college district.
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.
