Efforts to Speed Bond Projects Seen Failing : Audits: Many public works programs remain incomplete, studies say. The city’s outmoded procedures are blamed.

Despite efforts to step up work on voter-approved public works programs, many of Los Angeles’ bond-financed projects continue to lag, snarled in cumbersome bureaucracy, according to two city reports released Friday.

The projects--some authorized by voters as early as April, 1989--include improvements to the 911 emergency communications systems, seismic reinforcement of public buildings and bridges, and the construction of police facilities and branch libraries.

Together, they represent more than $900 million approved by voters in five bond measures between 1989 and 1992.

The reports, one by the city administrative office and the other by the city controller’s office, cited outmoded city procedures as a major cause of the delays.

City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie called for “a fundamental change in the project management methods” used by the Bureau of Engineering, the agency responsible for overseeing most of the bond-financed projects. Comrie’s report said the bureau’s traditional approach led to delays and in some cases resulted in penalty assessments when completion deadlines were missed.

Among Comrie’s recommendations to the City Council were to change management methods, improve coordination among departments and seek monthly status reports on the bond projects.

City Engineer Robert S. Horii said he and other top bureau officials had not yet read either report and would have no comment Friday. However, Comrie’s report noted that the city engineer has reviewed and accepts the audit’s recommendations.

“If I had to give a report card, I’d have to write ‘a lot of improvement definitely needed,’ ” said City Controller Rick Tuttle, whose office looked at the progress of all bond-financed projects, including those shepherded by the Police Department and Recreation and Parks Department as well as those under the jurisdiction of the engineering bureau.

Tuttle said the snail’s pace of the projects not only thwarts the will of the voters but has also resulted in higher expenses because of rising labor costs and interest rates. Further, it has deprived the recession-plagued city of “good jobs in a community with high unemployment,” he said.

Tuttle, whose report recommended that a private project management firm be hired to expedite matters, said his office concluded that the city “does not have a management structure which allows it to easily manage large, complex construction projects.”

Additionally, “there seems to be no sense of urgency on projects that, on their face, seem to merit priority attention,” the report found.

Of the 28 library construction or renovation projects funded from an April, 1989, bond measure, only four have been completed. The 911 system improvements called for by voters in November, 1992, are not yet done. Work has been completed on only 15 of the 118 bridges scheduled for seismic strengthening from proceeds of a bond measure passed in June, 1990, the controller’s office said.

Efforts to speed up bond-financed construction projects were launched by then-Mayor Tom Bradley in March, 1993, and continued by Mayor Richard Riordan, who shortly after succeeding Bradley selected deputy city engineer Rodney Haraga to oversee what has been called the Bond Acceleration Program.

Despite the support of two mayors, Tuttle’s office found “a mixed record in achieving any real acceleration.” Comrie’s office said the program prompted “numerous changes in city procedures” that has led to improved coordination and communication between departments but added that more remained to be done.