Panel Backs Lockheed as Tollways Collector

A subcommittee of Orange County’s tollway agencies has recommended that Lockheed Martin’s toll collection contract be renewed for two more years, despite what they say is the company’s demand for $75 million more in fees.

“Our decision was to not discontinue the contract at this time,” said Laguna Niguel Mayor Patricia C. Bates, one of the subcommittee members. “Our thought was, ‘Do we really need to be butting heads on this?’ ”

The tollway agencies have been at odds for six months with Lockheed, which since 1992 has held a $600-million contract to handle the project’s automated toll collection technology, considered crucial to the success of three new tollways planned in southern and eastern Orange County.

At issue was the construction of a segment of the Foothill Transportation Corridor from Mission Viejo to the San Diego County border.

Lockheed officials were worried that the section might never be built--there’s no money for construction--even though the company based its bid on all the planned segments being completed.

According to tollway officials, Lockheed was demanding about $75 million more in fees.

In a letter obtained by The Times last week, Costa Mesa councilman and tollway board member Peter Buffa said some tollway officials had discussed terminating Lockheed’s operations contract by Aug. 1, “as an effective counterattack against them in the current dispute.”

But Buffa recommended against such drastic action, saying it would be premature because Lockheed had never had a problem with the agencies before.

Some tollway board members were furious at Lockheed for the company’s reluctance to divulge how much profit it was making. In his letter, Buffa said Lockheed officials felt such information “would give competitors an unfair advantage in bidding on future projects.”

Tollway officials, reluctant to comment about the dispute because the matter is in arbitration, issued a brief statement Tuesday, a day after the subcommittee made its recommendation to renew the contract in the vote next month.

“While there are ongoing discussions between the agency and its contractor regarding the toll operations contract, we expect the issues will be resolved satisfactorily for all concerned,” said tollway agencies spokesman Paul Glaab. “There is a process in place for resolving such issues and we expect to continue to follow that procedure.”