SPANISH FORK — There are at least four ways to kill someone with a toilet seat.
Utah County sheriff's deputy Mark Johnson demonstrates one. Angled against the wall in a housing pod of the new section of the Utah County Jail, a toilet seat bears the brunt of his aggression and snaps almost in half. The result? A knife-sharp edge that if forced into an inmate's neck would be fatal.
That's not usually a problem because jails don't have toilet seats. At least, they're not supposed to.
However, the expansion of the Utah County Jail received toilet seats for the toilets in the new housing areas. Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy was surprised by the shipments and other incidents that have caused major delays and cost thousands of taxpayer dollars in the creation of the new section.
Some county officials are angry about the mistakes they believe were made by the contractor and architect — mistakes they feel should be paid by the contractor but have been billed to the county. They estimate that the contractor, Comtrol, has charged the county $780,000 for change orders that were oversights by the contractor or architect, not the county.
Sorting out who should pay for what could require a lawsuit, said Utah County Commissioner Gary Anderson.
From the toilet seats to omitted monitor screens, multiple mistakes have been reported. There are structural beams that don't connect to columns and end in the middle of doors. An air conditioning unit was omitted.
Originally billed as a $20 million project, the county has spent that and blown through most of the $2 million contingency budget set aside for contract changes made at the county's request. More needs to be done, and funds are limited.
With projects that are bid out, contractors make most of their money on the change orders and not necessarily on the project itself, Anderson said. After the design is complete, if something needs to be changed there are two categories those changes can fit into — errors and omissions and "value added." Any changes deemed errors and omissions will be covered by the contractor or architect; any changes that are value added will be charged to the building entity.
County officials believe they've been charged for errors and omissions and don't want to pay for those.
"We've been charged for things that should have been charged under errors and omissions," said Utah County Commissioner Steve White.
Contractors predict the jail should be done in September, nearly a year after original projections, Anderson said.
However, Anderson said a flimsy contract is one of the main reasons the project has been so delayed. Drawn up by county attorneys, the contract failed to dictate a deadline for the contractor or penalties if the contractors didn't have the jail finished by that deadline, he said. That means the contractors can take their time.
"I'm disgusted with it," Anderson said. "This isn't the way government should work. It could have been avoided."
The Utah County Attorney's Office maintains that the contract was sufficient and had a substantial-completion date of Oct. 5, 2007. But with each change-order request the county makes, whether the mistake was made by the county or other parties, the deadline is extended to allow the contractor to finish change orders. That lengthens the time of a project, said Cort Griffin, deputy county attorney.
"They've (the contractors) timely done what they've been asked to do," he said.
"The contractors are following the plan," he said. "I don't think the contractor, in any manner, has delayed completion of the project."
Comtrol denies that it has intentionally prolonged the building process or grossly overcharged the county. Eugene Cook, the head contractor for the project, said, "We have not purchased anything in the building or done anything in the construction phase that has caused a delay to the project, and the items that we've had to make changes and reorder are not a result of being ordered wrong, but a request from the owner for a change than they originally had specified."
Cook said he could not speak for the whole company and referred questions to Comtrol owner Ralph Burke. Burke didn't respond to phone calls.
Both Tracy and Utah County Commissioner Larry Ellertson say the county has requested changes it should pay for. Ellertson said fingers have been pointed too much in one direction.
"I think that sometimes in this discussion the general contractor is the one that's looked at as being the one that is at fault and is the reason these things have happened, and that's not the case," he said. "The general contractor is very good and continues to be."
Johnson, who demonstrated the dangers of toilet seats, is a member of a sheriff's office liaison team organized to help engineers and architects understand the needs of deputies at the jail. Sgt. Nancy Killian and Lt. Neal Castlebury are other team members.
Tracy said the deputies' main frustration was that they weren't involved from the beginning of the design process, so some things were omitted or constructed incorrectly. He also says that the transition team was left out of meetings.
"The transition team never saw a final draft (of the design)," Tracy said. -->
Besides the toilet seats, 72 doors were ordered incorrectly, some for the Special Housing Unit in the new section, which holds violent prisoners. Cell doors are designed to protect the deputies guarding the inmates. A deputy should be able to see directly into the cell. There also should be a small horizontal opening for food to be passed to the inmate and for deputies to handcuff inmates without entering the cell, Tracy said.
But several different types of doors were ordered for the Special Housing Unit. Some had small windows on one side, others didn't have the openings for food and handcuffs, Anderson said.
Members of the liaison team also noticed that metal desks with attached chairs were being installed in cells in the Special Housing Unit and told the workers not to install them because they could be used as weapons, Tracy said.
The liaison team also found other major errors, such as omitted monitors for touch screens to control the doors within the housing pods. About $300,000 worth of cameras were also left out, Tracy said.
The architectural firm, GSBS, did not return repeated calls for comment.
Anderson said the county is trying to work through these issues with Comtrol and GSBS.
Ellertson said the county has looked into getting some of the money back.
"We're going to abide by the contract and attempt to seek remedy in accordance therewith," he said.
E-mail: csmith@desnews.com