City of Los Angeles spreads contract work around; Tutor-Saliba tops the List but much city work is ending.

A wide variety of companies, large and small, representing numerous industries, do business with the City of Los Angeles, as is evidenced by this week's List of the top 25 city contractors.

As would have been the case last year if such a list had been published, Tutor-Saliba Corp., a Sylmar-based construction company, led the pack with $75.6 million in contracts in 1992-93, down slightly from a year earlier, when its city contract work totaled $76.7 million.

Tutor's contracts with the city, however, have wound to a close. They were for renovation of the main city library, which opened Oct. 3, and construction of the Hyperion water treatment plant, which will be completed in December.

For fiscal 1994, Chief Executive Officer Ron Tutor estimated the company will post a residual $50 million to $60 million from those contracts.

"Next year (calendar 1994) we'll be zero," he said.

Tutor-Saliba also does a lot of work for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority -- roughly $75 million to $100 million in contract work this year.

Tutor admitted the company has been hurt by recent publicity surrounding allegations that it skimped on thickness of Metro Rail tunnel walls. But he insisted the allegations, published in the Los Angeles Times, are not true.

"I'm blessed to have a little packet of information that dispels the articles in the Times and shuts them up," said Tutor.

Meanwhile, Shea-Traylor, a now-defunct joint venture between J.F. Shea and Traylor Bros., earned $43 million from the city in 1991-92, but wound up in 12th place on The List, with only $6.1 million in 1992-93.

Bob Gordon, who was the project manager on the sewer construction contract Shea-Traylor had with the city, explained that the joint venture was formed solely to bid on that one contract, which ran from 1989 to 1992 and totaled $125 million.

Gordon is now project manager for a joint venture of Shea, Peter Kiewit (of Kiewit Pacific Co., No. 2 on The List) and Kenny Construction that has captured a Metro Rail construction contract with the MTA.

Kiewit Pacific Co. in Santa Fe Springs last year had $73.1 million in city contract work, more than double its fiscal 1992 total of $35.7 million. Kiewit is building a waste water treatment plant.

BLT Enterprises of Los Angeles is in the final year of its contract with the city for the processing and transferring of recyclables and waste products, but is negotiating a new 10-year deal, said President Bernard Huberman.

BLT ranked 6th on The List with $13.5 million in contract billings last year.

Also involved with waste disposal for the city is Valley Reclamation Co. of Sun Valley, No. 8 on The List, with $8.2 million in billings to L.A. last year.

Laidlaw Transit Inc., which provides public bus service on a contract basis, was ranked 7th on The List. It came close to doubling its contract work with the city last year -- from $7.7 million to $13.2 million.

The Los Angeles office of IBM Corp. sold the city $6.64 million in computer products and services last year, and Infosystems Computer Center of Torrance sold L.A. $6.5 million worth of products.

Security Paving Co. Inc. of Sun Valley provided the city with $2.6 million in street maintenance services. La Salle Paper of Santa Fe Springs sold the city $2.5 million worth of paper.

Inter-Con Security Systems Inc. of Alhambra provided $2.32 million in security services. And Berlin Tire Centers Inc. of Los Angeles sold the city $2.25 million worth of tires.