Spokane Valley looks to settle with contractors over sinking city hall lawsuit
(The Center Square) – As Spokane Valley continues to deal with a sinking foundation at city hall, its attorneys are gearing up for settlement discussions with the contractors they say are responsible.
The city initially filed its lawsuit against Meridian Construction, Architects West, Allwest Testing & Engineering, and Eight31 Consulting in April 2020. While the case has been ongoing for years, City Attorney Kelly Konkright said on Tuesday that it’s heading to trial next July if the parties don’t settle this fall.
The defendants nearly completed city hall in 2017, with the finishing touches wrapping up over the following year. During that time, city officials noticed damage to the east-curved wall in the council chambers due to poor compaction that led to the foundation partially sinking.
“The parties have engaged in substantial discovery, taking depositions, giving written discovery, which is quite luminous in a large construction contract,” Konkright told the city council.
He said this round of mediation would occur from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, with additional discovery and depositions happening beforehand for a “more fully-informed mediation” on both sides.
Spokane Valley spent $14 million on the initial city hall project in 2017 but has since devoted another $6.1 million to fix the structural defects and sue for monetary damages. However, with only $100,000 remaining from the $6.1 million, the city needs to appropriate another $300,000.
The city council didn’t approve the appropriation during that discussion on Tuesday. Still, Communications Manager Jill Smith told The Center Square that the council did approve the funding during another portion of the meeting.
Most of the $6 million the Valley has spent so far went toward correcting the defendants’ alleged mistakes. According to Tuesday’s agenda, $4 million was devoted toward repairs with another contractor, though not all was spent, with the rest going to other contributors, attorneys, professional services, experts and staff time.
“They basically rebuilt most of [the council] chambers here, including the radius wall behind us,” Senior Engineer Glenn Ritter said on Tuesday, listing off what the contractors have fixed so far.
According to a letter that an attorney representing the Valley sent to Meridian Construction in February 2019, the contractor neglected to make record of the required soil compaction tests.
Councilmember Al Merkel, who didn’t take office until 2024, told The Center Square that some blame falls on the city. He said that the Valley should’ve asked the contractor for the compaction records before moving on to the next phase of the project, though he said he doesn’t have any special knowledge of what happened during that time.
Konkright said the Valley would not comment further to avoid impacting the upcoming mediation or trial.
“Now, because we are in active, pending litigation,” Konkright said, “those conversations need to occur in executive session.”
