Council Decides Not to Review LAX Pact

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday against reviewing a contract with a firm that plans to move the southernmost runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

That means the project can go forward. The plan is to shift the runway 55 feet to the south -- or closer to El Segundo -- to create a taxiway between the pair of runways on the south side of LAX. The purpose is to reduce close calls involving planes landing, taking off and taxiing. Airport officials said LAX leads the nation in such incidents.

The contract with Tutor-Saliba Corp. is worth $253 million. The total cost of the project is $328 million, with construction beginning this year.

On Dec. 19, the city’s Airport Commission voted 5 to 2 to award the contract to Tutor-Saliba. At the time, some commissioners questioned the quality of the firm’s work on projects for UCLA and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Airport officials had squabbled with the company over its work on the Van Nuys FlyAway project.

Councilman Tony Cardenas had written the motion for the contract review, a process known as asserting jurisdiction. He chairs the council’s commerce panel, which oversees LAX. But there are rumors that he may lose that seat if new Council President Eric Garcetti reshuffles committee assignments.

Later, Cardenas released a statement: “The council’s action today sends a message to the bureaucracy that the city is willing to rubber-stamp a $250-million contract without providing substantial oversight.”

If the council had taken over the matter, the contract probably would have been referred to Cardenas’ committee and would have shifted the discussion to a forum that Cardenas controls.

Several of Cardenas’ colleagues said that asserting jurisdiction would have been no different than canceling the contract and that they didn’t want to go that far.

“If we cancel the contract, then we’re talking about months of further risk of planes running into each other,” Councilman Jack Weiss said.

Firm President Ronald Tutor defended his company and said Tutor-Saliba had been doing work at LAX for 40 years.