First in a series
Re “Businessman as Baffled as Others by Bilodeau Killing”
Even though the still unexplained murder of Paul Bilodeau 2½ years ago flared and then quickly vanished from front pages, even though police supposedly have their man, even though Fire Station No. 3, Fox Hills, resembles church picnic grounds more than a cleaned-up crime scene, the climactic chapters of this bizarre story — with a contracting company in the bullseye chair — are not nearly written.
The intriguing drama has bounced back into the news because City Hall and the controversial Venice Boulevard firm hired to build Fire Station 3 are locked into an arbitration case stemming from the builder’s failure to come within a mile of satisfying his $5 million deal with City Hall.
Charles Herbertson, the city’s quiet-spoken Public Works Director, said that Gabriel Fedida, the outspoken President/CEO of FEI Enterprises, agreed to complete the project in one year.
In fact, the Station was not finished for three years — last September — six months after fed-up City Hall frustratedly fetched the plug and the deal with FEI gurgled down a drain.
City Hall withheld a portion of the payment to FEI, around $400,000 when it cut the ties with Mr. Fedida, and in response, the construction company sought more than $1 million in back payments.
After mediation failed, the two parties turned to arbitration, where the binding outcome can be all of what is sought or a portion. A verdict is anticipated later this month, after the Bilodeau murder suspect makes his next court appearance.
Mr. Herbertson said FEI’s flameout was the “worst” experience in his 26-year career.
Would he ever hire FEI for another project?
“Not voluntarily,” Mr. Herbertson, a master of understatement, said dryly. “I would retire first,” ironic because earlier this month he declared, with his 54th birthday at hand, he intends to work many more years.
According to police, on the night of Jan. 2, 2009, one Myron DeShun Grant, now 26 years old, described as a known gangmember with three felony convictions, happened to be walking by one of the most isolated neighborhoods in Culver City, the mostly dark, still-early construction site in Fox Hills, distant from a trace of civilization.
He noticed a light on in a construction trailer, creatively forced his way onto the locked grounds, knocked off the 45-year-old working-late Mr. Bilodeau for no gain other than his inexpensive cell phone.
Mr. Grant willfully ignored tens of thousands of dollars of costly equipment, walked away as mysteriously as he arrived, and was nailed one year ago this month, a year and a half after the deed.
Is that all there was?
(To be continued)
