Contractor’s Attempts at PR Have Backfired

During the past week, executives with Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd. tried just about every trick in the public relations book to stay ahead of the storm gathering at John Wayne Airport.

None of them worked.

At first, the company was, for the most part, silent, refusing public comment while county officials met in closed sessions. Criticism from government officials went unchallenged, and Taylor Woodrow quickly shaped up as a villain.

On Thursday, the county told the company that it was likely to be fired from one of the two contracts it holds at the airport, a $25-million agreement to build a parking garage and elevated roadway.

Desperate and convinced that the story was being distorted, Taylor Woodrow officials dropped their silence Friday. On Monday, they went further, arranging press tours of the airport.

“There’s more to this story that’s not being told,” said James T. Capretz, the company’s attorney.

But while company leaders were talking to the press, county officials said they were not getting answers to their questions.

Ernest Brown, the county’s special airport counsel, said Monday morning calls to the company were not returned until late that day because the company was occupied with its airport tours.

Maybe the biggest blunder of all though, was the way that the company handled an eleventh-hour invitation to the supervisors, asking them to visit the airport and judge the progress for themselves, rubbed supervisors the wrong way.

That invitation, sent by facsimile machine and offering to shuttle supervisors and their staffs to the airport at 3 p.m., hit the supervisors after lunch Monday--and several were insulted. “Can you believe they did that?” Supervisor Thomas F. Riley asked. “Taking me down to the airport . . . like I haven’t been there before or I need their permission or something.”

After the supervisors voted to drop the company from the garage contract, Taylor Woodrow turned to a new tactic. Officials doled out statements and would respond only to written questions.

Judy Johnson, a consultant hired to be a and spokeswoman for the company, said she was not going to talk about whether Taylor Woodrow had shot itself in the foot.

“I’m not making any judgments,” she said Tuesday. “I’m not going to be sharing any opinions.”