JURY USED IN PAY-TO-PLAY PROBE RECORDS SUBPOENAED TO INVESTIGATE CLAIMS BY SHUNNED DEVELOPER.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

The U.S. Attorney's Office investigating an alleged ``pay-to-play'' system at Los Angeles City Hall has used a federal grand jury to subpoena records from Airport Commission President Ted Stein and a top airport official relating to the review of a controversial contractor, the Daily News learned Thursday.

A subpoena issued Wednesday seeks files and documents from Stein and James Ritchie, Los Angeles World Airports' deputy executive director of long-range planning, pertaining to last year's peer review of URS Corp. of San Francisco.

Sources allege that millions of dollars in planning work on the $9.1 billion LAX modernization proposal was taken away from the consultant because it refused to contribute to one of Mayor James Hahn's political causes.

Stein and Ritchie did not return phone calls Thursday. Stein has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam D. Kamenstein and URS's attorney, Thomas M. Brown, declined comment.

LAWA spokesman Paul Haney confirmed the department had received the subpoena.

``We are happy to provide these and any other documents that the U.S. Attorney asks for. We are confident that the documents will confirm the procedures and decisions made at LAWA were appropriate and justified by the facts,'' he said.

The subpoena is the latest issued in wide-ranging criminal investigations involving both the U.S. Attorney and county District Attorney's Offices into whether Stein or other city commissioners used their contracting influence to solicit political contributions to elected officials - a practice commonly known as ``pay to play.''

The U.S. Attorney's Office is seeking all documents pertaining to ``discussions regarding the choice to conduct a peer review, the findings and conclusions of the peer review, and discussion concerning the peer review after its completion.''

In a December interview, Ritchie said the peer review panel - which he said was made up of international aviation experts - backed up concerns by Stein and other senior airport staff that URS's proposal was too expensive.

Until that point, URS had been on track to do the planning for the $9.1 billion modernization of Los Angeles International Airport, a job sources said was worth more than $20 million.

Sources said URS officials recently spoke with federal prosecutors and told them the peer review panel had actually endorsed URS's proposal, calling it a great deal, but that Stein refused to put the panel's conclusions in writing.

``Ted Stein said nothing could be put in writing,'' the source said. ``Customarily, you put peer reviews in writing.''

Ritchie then put the work out to bid, and the contract is expected to be awarded soon to DMJM, which contributed more than $40,000 to Hahn's anti-secession campaign, L.A. United. It opposed the San Fernando Valley becoming a separate city. The company's proposed team member, HNTB, contributed an additional $100,000.

Company officials repeatedly have said their political contributions are unrelated to airport contracts.

In December, during a pre-bid conference, URS Senior Vice President Richard L. Haury said the company was never told why it lost the planning work, which had been part of a draft extension of an existing contract.

URS subsequently was awarded a $5.6 million one-year contract extension to complete environmental oversight of the LAX plan, with Stein disqualifying himself from the vote. The amendment brought URS's master plan total to $22.4 million since March 2001.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com