BUILDER RULING WILL BE APPEALED LEGAL FIGHT AGAINST CONTRACTOR NOT OVER.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The city of Lancaster will appeal a Superior Court judge's ruling in favor of a contractor who filed a $3.2 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the city after he was fired from the Prime Desert Woodlands project for missing deadlines.

As a precursor to an appeal, the city filed an objection to the tentative ruling by Judge Victor Chavez in favor of M.A. Butters & Associates, a Rancho Cucamonga firm. In the lawsuit, the contractor said he was wrongfully fired in September 1999 from a project building trails and an interpretative center for the woodlands.

``Obviously, we'll appeal,'' said Mayor Frank Roberts.

City Attorney David McEwen did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Butters' attorney, Glenn Nichols, also did not return phone calls.

Butters said he was owed $700,000 at the time he was terminated. The city's actions hurt his company's overhead and had a tremendous financial impact on his business in terms of his ability to bond other work, he said.

Lancaster paid Butters $805,285 under the $1.8 million contract and, at the time he was fired, owed the contractor $742,167 for work performed, the lawsuit alleged.

City officials have said Butters was terminated because the contractor was behind schedule and showed no promise of getting the project on track. City officials say the work was about 55 percent to 60 percent complete when Butters was declared in default of the contract, prompting the city to file a breach-of-contract lawsuit.

A particular point of contention was the construction of the 5,060-square-foot interpretative center made with straw bales. The building is one of the largest, perhaps even the largest, building of its type in the state.

The contractor said city officials did not adequately spell out how to build a straw-bale interpretive center and, in particular, how to apply plaster to the bales. City officials said the company was given proper instructions.

Another company, Hanes and Associates, was brought in to finish the work. The Prime Desert Woodlands, a project first suggested in the early 1980s, was opened to the public in October 2001.

The woodlands preserve covers about 100 acres in an area bordered roughly by avenues K-4 and K-8 between 33rd Street West and 40th Street West, east of Rawley Duntley Park.

The area was selected for preservation because of its Joshua trees, California junipers and creosote bushes.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com