Airport Garage Builders Charge County Shares Blame for Delay

COSTA MESA —  In a last-ditch effort to salvage their $25-million parking garage contract at John Wayne Airport, officials with the embattled construction company said Monday that the county shares blame for project delays and suggested that they will sue if the firm is fired from the project.

The threats did not appear to have much immediate effect: Four of the county’s five supervisors were interviewed Monday and all indicated that they were leaning toward firing the company anyway.

“We don’t feel we’re being treated fairly,” James T. Capretz, corporate counsel for Taylor Woodrow California Construction Co., said during a morning tour of the airport construction sites. “We feel the public ought to know where things stand so that people can judge for themselves.”

In a bid to bolster its contention that work is proceeding quickly, Taylor Woodrow hired an outside firm, Kellogg Co. of Denver, to review Taylor Woodrow’s work. Preliminary findings from that report suggest that the county and its project manager may be at fault for some delays. Moreover, it concludes that Taylor Woodrow has in some cases been unjustly punished for problems it did not create.

“Termination of (Taylor Woodrow’s) contract would be unreasonable and commercially senseless, based on the preponderance of evidence reviewed by Kellogg at this time,” the report concludes. The report found that the parking garage is 98.7% complete and that the roadway leading to it and the terminal are 99.9% finished. Both, it says, should be completed by mid- to late June.

According to Taylor Woodrow, which is also building the $60-million airport terminal, that project, the crown jewel in the $310-million expansion, remains on schedule for a Sept. 16 opening. The opening date had been postponed from April 1.

Monday’s public statements by the company and its representatives marked an odd new wrinkle in the brinkmanship that has surrounded negotiations between the county and Taylor Woodrow for the past several weeks. Company officials, who had balked at discussing the project in the press, said they held the tour because the county has backed them into a corner.

“There’s more to this story that’s not being told,” Capretz said. “The county has no basis or business terminating this contract.”

County officials were equally blunt. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton called the company’s media tours a “dog and pony show” and said he was “just incensed that they are spending time with that kind of thing.”

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez agreed, albeit more mildly, calling the company’s actions “an interesting turnaround from the last couple of days.”

At the airport, officials tried to steer clear of the fray.

“We may disagree with some of the things Taylor Woodrow said on today’s tour,” said Jan Mittermeier, deputy airport manager, “but we’re not going to comment, in keeping with Taylor Woodrow’s own policy of not arguing its case through the news media.”

After lunch, Taylor Woodrow extended the tour invitation to supervisors and their staffs as well, a move that only served to further infuriate some board members. The invitation, which arrived in supervisorial offices at about 1 p.m., offered to provide a mini-van to shuttle officials to the airport at 2:45 p.m.

“I don’t need Taylor Woodrow to invite me to tour the airport,” said one supervisor, who said few if any supervisors or staff members accepted the invitation. A company spokeswoman would not comment.

Monday’s exchanges seemed to deepen the growing rift between the supervisors and Taylor Woodrow, and several county officials predicted that the board would fire the company from the garage contract, in part to send the company a strong message that further delays at the terminal would not be tolerated.

“They’ve led me down the primrose path with promises that we were right on schedule,” said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport. “But then there are always these ‘unforeseen delays,’ and I’m tired of unforeseen things.”

Taylor Woodrow plans to present the Kellogg report and press its case with the supervisors during their session today, but Riley called the company’s efforts “too little, too late.”

“We know the risks of a lawsuit, but I believe my colleagues and I are ready to take the necessary action,” Riley said.

Board Chairman Don R. Roth agreed, saying that although he remains open to hearing the company’s testimony, he, too, was tentatively prepared to fire Taylor Woodrow.

Neither Roth nor several of his colleagues were moved by Taylor Woodrow’s argument that delays on the parking structure and terminal have been largely the fault of the county or HPV, the consulting firm that the county hired to oversee the entire airport expansion.

“What else would you expect them to say?” Roth asked, referring to Taylor Woodrow. “You want them to beat their chest and say it was their fault?”

On the tour Monday, company officials pointed to what they said was evidence that the parking garage, although more than eight months behind schedule, now is nearly completed. Lines have already been painted for the parking spaces, and exit signs are in place.

Elevator lobbies, some exterior grill work, interior glass work and a few other details remained unfinished in the garage, but company officials said that work could be done quickly.

Although the supervisors and the company appear headed for a legal showdown over the garage, there is less dispute over the county’s recommendations for speeding up work at the terminal. Those proposals include such things as lengthening the work week, increasing manpower and regulating payments to the project’s subcontractors.

Capretz would not discuss those conditions in detail, except to say that he considers the county’s requests reasonable.