Expert Groups to Study Flaws of Freeway’s Social Goals

Disturbed because women and racial minorities have not benefited as much as expected from the $2.5-billion Century Freeway project, federal Judge Harry Pregerson has appointed two groups of management consultants to study the problems and recommend solutions.

This is the first time in the 16-year history of the Century Freeway litigation that outside experts have been brought in. It indicates Pregerson’s displeasure with the way some aspects of the consent decree governing construction of the complex freeway, light rail and affordable housing project are being implemented.

“The judge is irritated and he plans to play a much larger personal role in the future,” said an attorney experienced in the case.

Focus on Problems

Pregerson ordered the Century Freeway Affirmative Action Committee, a court-created watchdog group, to contract with the firm of Price Waterhouse to study problems that female and minority contractors and subcontractors have had on both the freeway and housing parts of the project.

The 1979 consent decree that ended a seven-year court injunction and allowed the project to proceed established some of the highest affirmative-action contract goals of any construction project in the nation. Modified several times, the goals now call for 35% of the freeway work and 47% of the housing construction contract dollars to go to female or minority firms.

However, a series of articles in The Times last year found that an overwhelming majority of minority and female contractors to receive Century Freeway contracts have gone broke or dropped out of the program because of inexperience, lack of financial backing, disputes with prime contractors and other problems.

The articles also pointed out that many large Century Freeway contractors have established female or minority “fronts”--firms that supposedly are run by women or racial minorities but in fact are controlled by the Anglo firms that dole out the contracts.

These are some of the problem areas that will be examined by Price Waterhouse.

Employment Issues

Pregerson also ordered the Century Freeway Affirmative Action Committee to hire the Los Angeles management consultant firm of Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler to study “eliminating obstacles to employment of women and minorities which may exist.”

The project has high affirmative-action hiring goals--50% for minorities, 10% for women. The minority goals have been achieved on both the freeway and housing construction but only 1.3% of all the jobs are held by women.

The consultants’ reports are due in 90 days.

In a separate order, Pregerson established a task force, including representatives of the parties involved in the litigation and others, to identify the most important problems facing the project.

In taking these actions, the judge fell short of granting a long-standing request by the Center for Law in the Public Interest, representing a coalition of plaintiffs in the case, that a “special master” or masters be appointed to supervise implementation of the 1979 consent decree.

Hopeful Reaction

But Center attorney John Phillips said he was pleased by the orders.

“We need independent, outside people with skills that will help us solve some of the difficult, intractable problems that have prevented the decree from being properly implemented,” Phillips said. “We expect these consultants to be extremely helpful to the judge and to all of us.”

Joseph A. Montoya, chief counsel for Caltrans, said: “We have been in agreement for some time that there are some serious problems out there. They are being addressed but not in a focused way and these consultants should help us do that.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Roger E. West, who represents the Federal Highway Administration in Century Freeway matters, sent word through a spokeswoman that he would have no comment on Pregerson’s actions.

However, other lawyers in the case said West has warned that any order appointing a special master in the case would be appealed.

Dispute Persists

Meanwhile, the parties continued at loggerheads over a new plan for the affordable housing component of the massive project.

The consent decree called for construction of about 3,700 units of low- and moderate-income housing along the Century Freeway corridor, which runs 17.3 miles between Norwalk and the eastern edge of Los Angeles International Airport.

By December, 1987, about 1,000 units had been built but construction costs were extremely high--at least $110,000 per unit, the vacancy rate was also high, some of the projects were in poor locations or were shoddily built, and there was opposition to the program in several communities along the route.

Faced with these problems, the three signatories to the consent decree--Caltrans, the Federal Highway Administration and the Center for Law--reached tentative agreement on a plan to restructure the housing program, taking it away from the state’s Housing and Community Development agency.

State Balks

But the Deukmejian Administration balked at this proposal.

“We couldn’t see any point in it,” said John Sullivan, Undersecretary of Business, Transportation and Housing. “Despite problems in the program, HCD had built up a lot of experience and was making progress with the problems. It didn’t seem to make sense to change lead agencies.”

So Caltrans backed away from the tentative agreement to restructure the program and the matter remains unresolved.