Voiding of Freeway Call Box Deal Upheld

For the second time in a month, a San Diego court has ruled that a multimillion-dollar contract to install nearly 1,000 emergency call boxes for stranded motorists along county freeways is invalid because it was not awarded to the lowest bidder.

The ruling, issued Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, may mean that installation of the call boxes along the county’s 300-mile freeway system could be delayed several months if the San Diego agency in charge of the project decides to start over again and solicit new bids, according to those involved in the legal proceedings.

The call box project grew out of public pressure two years ago for added freeway safety after one woman motorist was murdered and another raped at gunpoint when their cars broke down.

On June 30, the county’s Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE)--a board composed of locally elected officials--awarded a $9.6-million contract to Comarco Inc. of Anaheim to install and maintain 963 solar-powered cellular telephones along the freeways over the next 10 years.

Challenge by Cubic Corp.

But San Diego-based Cubic Corp., which submitted a bid that was $1.1 million lower than Comarco’s, challenged the award in court. On Aug. 11, Superior Court Judge Richard D. Huffman nullified the contract, ruling that it violated state laws for competitive bidding.

Huffman stopped SAFE from executing the contract and ordered the public agency to “award the call box contract to the lowest monetary bidder who is qualified to perform the contract,” presumably Cubic Corp.

SAFE officials, in turn, appealed Huffman’s ruling. They argued that the state Legislature had specifically exempted the agency from the competitive bidding procedures when it was created.

To support their position, they noted that an Orange County Superior Court judge had ruled contrary to Huffman in a virtually identical case. The judge said the Orange County SAFE was not bound by competitive bidding procedures, and said that Comarco could be awarded a call box contract there although Cubic Corp. had entered a bid that was $1.2 million lower.

San Diego County’s SAFE, which is run by elected officials from the county and cities, also told the appellate court that Cubic Corp. was unqualified to handle the call box contract because part of the firm’s equipment failed to pass a technical test, said Granville Bowman, San Diego County’s director of public works and administrator of the SAFE program. The equipment also failed to meet the three-watt specifications called for in the contract, he said.

The appellate court sided with Huffman, however, and its opinion Wednesday left open what would happen next.

Officials with SAFE, Cubic and Comarco agreed that it was possible the public agency could scrap the current contract and send out a new call for bids--a process that would mean a delay of six months to a year on the project.

Thomas Lundmark, a deputy county counsel, said rebidding the project is “certainly” an option, but he declined to say whether it was the preference of SAFE staff members, who will make their recommendation to agency board members in a meeting next week.

Cubic officials said Wednesday they will try to persuade SAFE to simply award their firm the contract so the call boxes can be installed quickly.

“They’ve already stated that they will go out and rebid,” said Keith Burnett, chairman of Cubic Communications, a subsidiary of Cubic Corp. “Now, I’m going to try to convince them not to do that.”

Test Results Disputed

Burnett said he disagrees with the contention that Cubic equipment failed technical tests for the call boxes.

A Comarco official, however, said Wednesday that he hopes that questions about those test results will lead SAFE officials to declare Cubic unqualified for the job.

That way, the agency can still award the contract to Comarco and be within the constraints of Huffman’s order to pick a competitive, “qualified” firm.

“I think that SAFE wants to buy a call box system from a qualified company,” said Tom Franza, general manager of Comarco’s digital products division. “They have studied it for two years and found that we are a qualified company.

“I think that SAFE is going to continue to press to install a system as quickly as it can, and the quickest way to do that is to declare that Cubic is not qualified,” he said.

If that happens, Franza said, Comarco can begin installing call boxes starting Sept. 21. The job will be completed in nine months, he said.

Funded by Registration Fee

Money to pay for the call box project will come from a special $1 fee assessed on annual vehicle registrations for cars in San Diego County.

Each yellow call box will be able to put stranded motorists directly through to the California Highway Patrol via a cellular unit and a receiver.

The boxes, which will be installed along the outside lanes of all local freeways, initially will be spaced about a mile apart, except along busier stretches of roadway, where they will be closer. Eventually, the distance between all boxes will be shortened to a quarter-mile as more funds become available, SAFE officials have said.

San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl, chairwoman of SAFE, was out of town on vacation and could not be reached for comment. County Supervisor Leon Williams, also a SAFE board member, was also on vacation and couldn’t be reached.