MOORPARK : Council to Take Bids on Fireplace Checks

The Moorpark City Council has unanimously decided to accept bids for fireplace safety inspections in about 250 homes, but in doing so a majority of the council expressed reservations about commissioning the work because of the costly precedent it could set.

“You’ve turned to us as almost a court of last resort,” Mayor Paul Lawrason told residents attending Wednesday’s council meeting who had urged the city to proceed with the inspections. “The city will support you, at what level is the problem I’m having.”

A vocal group of residents in the city’s Northview tract, built by Pardee Construction Co., approached the council several weeks ago contending that an independent fireplace inspector they hired had found serious safety flaws in their metal fireplaces and flues.

Responding to the concerns, the council instructed staff members to prepare a request for bids and to schedule a meeting with Pardee executives to discuss the problem.

Jim Aguilera, the city’s director of community development, said Pardee agreed in a Nov. 19 meeting to continue to repair the fireplaces as they become aware of problems. One of their subcontractors has thus far been granted permits to repair 22 of the fireplaces.

However, residents have complained that the repair work being done does not adequately address the safety concerns and that Pardee has been unresponsive to their complaints. City building inspectors have yet to accept any of the repairs as satisfactory.

Pardee officials did not return calls Thursday.

Council members John Wozniak and Scott Montgomery have been vocal advocates of the homeowners and have pushed the rest of the council to inspect all 300 homes in the tract at city expense.

“I think we should move forward with the request for proposals here,” Wozniak said at Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s well worth the effort for us to be involved in this. . . . I think we need to go through and show (Pardee) we are serious and we want them to fix the fireplaces.”

Montgomery agreed, but council members Bernardo Perez and Patrick Hunter, while saying they were concerned about the homeowners, shared Lawrason’s fear that the city could wind up inspecting all 8,000 Moorpark homes if it went ahead with the proposed inspections.