When Ebenal allegedly did not pay the contracted amount, British Columbia-based Cascadia Windows filed a lawsuit Oct. 15 to collect the remaining $260,000, court documents show.

“I’ve been involved in the construction industry, in fairly senior roles, for 28 years,” Ganzert said. “I’ve never sued anyone, never been sued. And then I did my first job with Ebenal.”

Ganzert said the lawsuit is still ongoing and there has been no settlement.

“We are very disappointed with what has happened,” he said.

Ebenal has been sued before, 14 times by subcontractors in 2009 and 2010 alone for breach of contract, with claims totaling more than $1.2 million, according to court documents.

David Ebenal said he and his companies take subcontractors to court — 11 times in Whatcom County since 1998 — to keep them honest.

“From time to time, Ebenal must go to court to force subcontractors to live up to their agreement,” he said via e-mail. “Ebenal views this as protecting its customers, including the university, rather than trying to pass on high prices to the owners or asking them to accept shoddy work.”

Since 1999, Ebenal and its sister companies — managed by David Ebenal — have been sued at least 35 times.

Many of the lawsuits are for nonpayment to subcontractors, and none have gone to trial, although many of the cases have ended in a settlement.

“I’ve researched many contractors on many different levels, and Ebenal is the only company with legal problems,” said Bob Flansaas, a northwest regional labor union manager. “They happen year after year — it’s difficult for subcontractors.”

Flansaas has organized two anti-Ebenal protests on south campus, exemplified by a 15-foot inflatable rat.

The next-lowest bidder on the $14.6 million Buchanan Towers East project was Bellingham-based general contractor Exxel Pacific, which has not been sued within the last six years, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

Exxel Pacific president Kevin DeVries refused to comment on Ebenal General’s business practices and whether his company could have completed Buchanan Towers East on time.

“I really don’t know the reasons for all the delays, but when the project was bid,” DeVries said, “Exxel understood the importance of the timing on the project and certainly understood the implications of $5,700 per day liquidated damages. That is a very serious number.”

The liquidated damages clause allows Western to charge Ebenal for each day the project goes unfinished past the official deadline.

The university and Ebenal will have confidential negotiations in January 2011 about who is at fault for the missed deadline, which prevented students from moving into the 105-bed addition at the start of fall quarter, and likely all school year, director of University Communications Paul Cocke said.

Ebenal said the university owes his company damages because of delays, including architect changes and 150 work-order changes during the course of construction.

The lead architect, however, has been the same since the onset of the project, Cocke said, adding the project has not had an unreasonable amount of change orders.

“The contractor has articulated claims to which he feels entitled,” he said. “Those claims have not been resolved and the parties are entering confidential mediation.”

According to the Buchanan Towers East Steering Committee agenda for the July 14 meeting, Ebenal General’s subcontractors called the university about not being paid for labor and supplies. The documents also state Ebenal’s project manager quit, along with the coordinator for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. There were also “serious concerns for quality of installed work,” according to the agenda.

Bob Schmidt, the project manager for the Buchanan Towers addition, declined to comment on the status of the construction.

Cocke said the university is working with Ebenal to finish the project as soon as possible, but that may not be until December, at which point they will address whether to move students in.

In September, however, University Residences said they did not plan to move students into the hall for the rest of the year.

“Nobody’s looking for housing in the middle of January,” said Martin Reed, the associate director of University Residences, in September. “So we probably won’t open it until next fall, because then we know we could fill it and students would want to move in. But right now, we’re not planning on it.”

Reed did not respond to e-mails and voicemails asking for further comment.

A union’s dispute
Last year, Flansaas’  Laborers International Union of North America Local 276 members inflated a 15-foot-tall rat outside of Buchanan Towers. David Ebenal said the union was only trying to hassle him into a labor union contract.

Flansaas said they were not, and that many general contractors do not have labor union contracts, such as Dawson Construction, Inc., which built the Academic Instructional Center on south campus and is currently renovating Miller Hall.

Like Exxel Pacific, Dawson has no unsatisfied complaints or lawsuits within the last six years, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

“We just want them to be honest,” Flansaas said. “He says that the subcontractor isn’t doing the work properly and that he’s protecting the owner — there’s no truth to it.”

Safety violations
Ebenal companies have racked up 43 safety violations since November 2000, costing the contractor $11,320 in fines, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. More than half were serious or repeat offenses.

During an inspection in 2007, regulators found Ebenal General workers misusing a stepladder by stepping on the top cap and top step, according to an administration report.

At the same site on Camano Island, the inspector held Ebenal responsible for not ensuring all workers were wearing hard hats.

The report states three employees were working near a crane-suspended load without head protection. Both serious violations were addressed immediately, but Ebenal General was fined $570.

Another inspection in 2005 found $5,400 worth of penalties for serious safety violations, although the final penalty was reduced to $3,600, according to the inspection report.

Ebenal Homebuilders, LLC, did not follow proper procedure when setting up scaffolding on a Bellingham building — nor were guardrails installed on the upper levels — exposing workers to a potential 20-foot fall. Ebenal also did not provide a ladder, so workers climbed up the side of scaffolding.

By comparison, Dawson Construction has had 11 violations since 2001, seven of which classified as serious, totaling $3,490 in fines.

Dawson declined to comment on Ebenal General’s business practices.

Exxel Pacific has had 17 violations, 11 of which classified as serious, totaling $8,749 in fines.

Flansaas said some universities, such as the University of Washington, have a stipulation within their requests for bids that limit contractors with excessive lawsuits or those that miss deadlines.

Cocke said the university ensures bidders comply with state law, and that “excessive lawsuits with clearly adverse findings against a contractor” can be terms for rejecting a bid.

“However,” Cocke said, “it is not unusual for such cases to be resolved through a compromise settlement with no admission or finding of fault.”

Additional reporting by Caleb Hutton and Andrea Davis-Gonzalez.