OC Fires Airport Contractor : Supervisors Cite Delays in Project

In a dramatic showdown between the county and a contractor responsible for building a $25-million parking garage and roadway at John Wayne Airport, county supervisors fired the firm today, brushing aside threats that they would be sued as a result.

The supervisors took that action after Ernest Brown, a special counsel hired by the county to review work at the airport expansion, told them that the contractor has allowed one of its state licenses to lapse.

The result, Brown said, is that Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd. is violating state law by continuing to work on an elevated roadway and that the violation makes it impossible for the firm to sue the county.

The parking garage and roadway contract is one of two that Taylor Woodrow holds at John Wayne Airport. The other, a $60-million agreement to build the new airport terminal, remains in place, though the supervisors voted to add a list of rigorous new conditions intended to ensure that the terminal is finished in time to open in September.

Today’s action ends a spate of frantic negotiations between the county and Taylor Woodrow. For months, county officials have expressed their concern about delays in the project, both at the terminal and at the parking structure.

Steve Kold, information officer for the Contractors State License Board in Sacramento, confirmed that Taylor Woodrow’s class “A” engineering license officially lapsed in April. He said he did not know what effect that might have on any potential litigation between the county and Taylor Woodrow.

The county’s lawyers, however, argued that Taylor Woodrow’s failure to keep its license current “barred them from the courthouse door.”

Armed with that assurance, the supervisors voted unanimously to fire the company, preventing it from completing work on the parking garage and roadway, two projects that the company argues are within four weeks of being completed.

“The table is being set for a litigious food fight,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton told Taylor Woodrow attorneys who attended today’s session to plead their case. “But the fact is, you ain’t got a license.”

Although they argued strenuously with the supervisors and said they were being unfairly punished for delays that are not entirely their fault, Taylor Woodrow officials clearly were not taken by surprise.

Immediately after the session, they distributed a statement by William Ostfeld, senior vice president of the company, in which the firm said it has directed its lawyers to “take immediate and appropriate legal action to ensure we receive a fair hearing and prevent wrongful termination of our contract.”

The statement did not address the question of the company’s lapsed license, and company officials refused to answer questions.

The garage and roadway were originally scheduled for completion last September, and the company already could face $2.5 million in penalties for its late work on those projects. According to Brown, the county has been withholding payments to Taylor Woodrow as part of a provision in the contract that allows those penalties to be assessed.