Caltrans Told to Reinstate Private Contracts : Courts: Judge rules the work will be temporarily returned to companies that had lost it. The debate continues over the interpretation of laws on working with outside consultants.

A Sacramento judge Thursday ordered Caltrans to reinstate for at least 22 days all contracts that it had canceled two months ago with private highway design and engineering firms.

The temporary order means that about $40 million worth of highway design, engineering and surveying work will be returned to the outside companies effective immediately, said Jim Drago, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.

Superior Court Judge Ronald B. Robie, who ruled against Caltrans, set an Aug. 27 hearing to determine whether a more lasting injunction should be issued.

“For us, the order amounts to about $2 million worth of work that we’ll get back,” said Ruel del Castillo, president of Coast Surveying Inc. in Irvine. The company is one of nearly 600 outside consulting firms that Caltrans has approved for agency work.

Caltrans has been in a quagmire for several years as it battled with its staff of 8,000 architects, engineers and surveyors over how much work it could turn over to outside consultants under a state law that went into effect in 1989.

The law was intended to broaden the court rulings that had narrowly interpreted a provision in the state Constitution. Courts have ruled that, with few exceptions, the Constitution requires state work to be done by state employees.

The Professional Engineers in California Government, the union covering the Caltrans design staff, had gone to court to block previous Caltrans efforts at contracting, arguing that more staff needed to be hired. In a mid-May ruling, another Sacramento Superior Court Judge, Eugene T. Gualco, said that Caltrans was using improper methods to determine how much work could be contracted out.

James W. van Loben Sels, the agency’s director, decided in June to cancel all contracts with consultants, an action that threatened the livelihoods of numerous private companies that relied on agency work.

Two trade groups and six companies filed a court action Wednesday seeking an injunction against Caltrans and reinstatement of the contracts.

“Basically, Van Loben Sels overreacted,” said John H. Findley, a Sacramento lawyer for the trade groups. “We told the judge that Gualco never intended for Caltrans to cancel all contracts, and we stressed that the people doing the work, the private consultants, have been put in the middle of this and have never had their day in court.”

Robie’s ruling will give the state Legislature time to review an emergency bill introduced in late June by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach). The proposed law, already passed by the state Senate, would give Caltrans wider authority to contract with private architectural, engineering and surveying companies.

A delay also would give Van Loben Sels more time to come up with better rationale for retaining consultants, Findley said.