Consultant Faulted in Harmon Hotel Fiasco

LAS VEGAS-It was not simply an accident that Clark County-approved private inspectors did not report mislaid reinforcing steel that doomed the upper floors of the Harmon hotel tower at MGM’s $8.4-billion CityCenter development, according to an administrative hearings officer. Responding to a request for judgment from Clark County, hearings’ officer Charles Thomas determined that the third-party inspectors who signed dozens of documents saying the rebar was placed properly were not conducting thorough inspections.

The third-party inspectors were hired by Converse Consultants, the Monrovia, CA-based firm the county hired to oversee inspections on its behalf. The officer’s report is part of the county’s review of whether it should keep the consultancy that hired the inspectors on its list of qualified inspection services. The report states among other things that Converse Consultants did not provide proof that the third-party inspectors were experienced in such inspections and did not have proper oversight.

“Converse’s assumption that the Assigned Special Inspectors erred in their individual inspections is not correct,” states the hearings officer. “Based upon the fact that not one [Non-Compliance Report] was issued by the Special Inspectors on the steel reinforcement on levels 5 through 15 and that 276 [Non-Compliance Reports] were written by Converse’s inspectors after the fact on the same levels, the Hearing Officer’s conclusion is that thorough inspections on the link beams were not conducted by the Special Inspectors.”