City Council approves $42 million amendment to Ernst & Young contract; staff to provide monthly status reports

The Los Angeles City Council on Feb. 20 approved an amendment increasing the city’s consultant contract with Ernst & Young (EY) and named subconsultants to $42 million, council members and staff said. The City Administrative Officer said the extension covers project-management work during construction and fills gaps after earlier contract terms expired.

Matt Szabo, the City Administrative Officer, told councilmembers the EY contract has evolved from a three‑year, $2 million agreement into the larger package because the firm’s role expanded from conceptual work to project management, including schedule monitoring, design review, quality assurance, milestone verification and dispute-support services. Szabo named subconsultants involved in technical work: Mott McDonald (technical subject-matter expert), an independent cost estimator, and Sign Value (signage expertise). He said some subconsultants were selected through separate procurements.

Councilmember Yaroslavski questioned procurement choices and oversight after noting the contract’s escalation “from the original three year, two million dollar agreement” to the current amendment amount. Szabo said the work since 2019 included an economic-impact study and continued project-support tasks and that the contracts were selected via open processes or separate RFPs when required.

Szabo and council members said construction is expected to continue through 2029 and that the city has budgeted a roughly $70.6 million cap for consultant-related retained costs on the project. Szabo said staff expects to exhaust the budget contemplated in prior council actions and that the administration anticipates returning for additional amendments as needed.

Councilmember Rahman and others pressed for stronger public reporting and accountability. The CAO committed to deliver a first status report in the first week of March detailing timelines, deliverables and expenditures and to provide monthly public committee updates thereafter so council and the public can track change orders, schedule milestones and costs.

The council voted 12–0 to approve the amendment as circulated, authorizing payment for consultants whose contracts had been exhausted in December and allowing work to continue without interruption.

The contract amendment approved Tuesday does not itself transfer construction responsibility to EY: city staff said the consultants are retained to advise and protect the city’s interests and to hold the project’s developer/contracted delivery team accountable.

Next steps: staff will produce the promised status report in early March and provide monthly updates to the Budget and Finance Committee or other council forums as requested.