More than four years after Don Haskins PK-8 School opened in El Paso’s Upper Valley, a group of subcontractors say the El Paso Independent School District still owes them tens of thousands of dollars for work done years ago.
EPISD officials acknowledge withholding more than $370,000 as leverage for obtaining a warranty for the roof on the school, and said the subcontractors’ dispute is with the general contractor on the project, which appears to have gone out of business.
District officials said they’re working with the bonding company that insured the construction contract to close out the project, but EPISD hasn’t provided details about what steps are needed and when the money will be released.
Carlos Ornelas, the president of Southwest Specialty Contractors Association, said he’s identified more than $270,000 still owed to members of his subcontractors organization from the Don Haskins project. He said withholding the money creates cash flow problems for small businesses, who have already paid for materials and labor for the project.
“I think we’ve been new and this has been our only job, it probably would have broken us,” said Monica Cazares, who owns ATSS, an earthworks company, along with her husband, Ruben. “But because we’ve been in business for so long and he’s pretty busy, we survived. But it was really bad.”
At issue is what is known as retainage, a part of the award to the general contractor that is held back until the project is certified completed. Retainage is often about 5% of the total project cost, which is most if not all of the profit for subcontractors on a job, Ornelas said.
Ornelas said he’s been unable to reach several subcontractors who worked on the Don Haskins project because their phone numbers no longer work.
“I would be curious to know how many subs have gone out of business as a result of this,” he said.
Urban Associates, an El Paso-based company, was awarded the general contract for the Don Haskins work, and in turn hired subcontractors to do specific work such as roofing, flooring and electrical. The district pays the contractor for work, and the contractor pays subcontractors.
Cezy Collins, the general counsel for EPISD, said the district released most of the retainage in December 2022 so that payments to subcontractors wouldn’t be held up by a dispute between Urban Associates and a roofing contractor. The roofing contractor won a judgment against Urban Associates last year, but the warranty on the roof – which has held up the remaining retainage payment – hasn’t yet been issued.
None of the subcontractors still awaiting payment worked on the roof, Ornelas said.
The $44.3 million Don Haskins PK-8 School project was part of a $668 million bond issue approved by EPISD voters in 2016. The school – named for the legendary University of Texas at El Paso basketball coach – was built on the site of the old Lincoln Middle School and consolidated the former middle school with Roberts and Bond elementary schools.
The school opened in January 2022. Many of the subcontractors had finished work months before the school opened, but the district withheld payments.
The district released about $1.5 million of the retainage in December 2022 to Urban Associates, but withheld another $373,000 until it received a warranty on the roof, Collins said.
At some point after Don Haskins K-8 opened, Urban Associates appears to have closed its office at 1400 Geronimo Drive and ceased doing business. El Paso Matters was unable to find a bankruptcy filing by the company and couldn’t reach officials of Urban Associates for comment.
“The district regrets that the defaults by Urban have caused problems for the subcontractors, as well as for the district,” Collins told El Paso Matters.
Construction projects are insured by bonding companies, also known as sureties. If the contractor can’t or won’t finish work, the owner of the project – in this case, EPISD – can ask the bonding company to step in to ensure the project is finished.
That’s essentially what the subcontractors have been asking EPISD to do.
“You need to force the district to demand the bonding company to do a job,” Ornelas said.
EPISD spokesperson Liza Rodriguez told El Paso Matters that the district “has been working with the surety for some time to bring this project to a close including the remaining work on the Don Haskins PK-8 campus roof.”
But she didn’t say what needed to be done to close out the project, or provide an estimate for when the money might be released.
The post Years after Don Haskins PK-8 opened, subcontractors claim unpaid work from EPISD project appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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