Results of Muddy Contracts and Accounting by Schwab/Berry

'Great furniture saga' leaves Grand Terrace senior center with bare rooms
10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 23, 2010
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise
GRAND TERRACE - The city will be shopping for furniture, Grand Terrace City Council members learned Tuesday night, after a contractor removed at least four rooms of furniture from the city's new senior citizens center on Monday.

The council met in closed session to discuss what City Attorney John Harper called "the great furniture saga" before approving a $469,000 payment to the Corporation for Better Housing for work on the senior center and canceling additional work that would have added $72,540 to the cost.

That sum will instead be used to replace the furniture that City Manager Betsy Adams said she thought the city had already paid for.

Adams said during a break in Tuesday's council meeting that she is still not sure how it came about, but that she had received an e-mail from the Corporation for Better Housing saying it was taking back furniture.

The nonprofit organization disputed that the city had paid for the furniture, she said, and asked that the extra orders for painting and other improvements be withdrawn.

Adams said virtually all of the furniture in the center's lobby and card, crafts and dining rooms had been removed, and furniture may have been taken from the library.

Councilwoman Bea Cortes said she has found a donor to provide some of the furniture needed.