Lockheed subsidiary takes lead in bidding for hotly contested city parking contract.

Lockheed subsidiary takes lead in bidding for hotly contested city parking contract

With its bid endorsed and its chief rival reportedly quitting the race, Lockheed Corp.'s Information Management Services has taken the lead for a bitterly fought-over parking-management contract with the City of Los Angeles.

Winner of the five-year contract -- valued at more than $40 million -- could be decided by the City Council later this month, after months of lobbying by former City Hall officials, charges of South African connections and allegations of favoritism.

Lockheed IMS, formerly known as Datacom, got an early Christmas present last fall when Andersen Consulting withdrew from a rival team of companies bidding on the lucrative contract.

Just weeks earlier the Department of Transportation had recommended that IMS be awarded the contract because of its experience, computer prowess and management. The Teaneck, N.J.-based company has held the city contract, worth $32 million, since 1985.

But any hopes city officials had for a smooth contract-renewal process were quickly dashed.

What had been the Andersen-led team, which includes Clifton, N.J.-based Computil Corp. and five other firms, said it could process the city's 4 million annual parking tickets for $43.1 million -- $6 million less than IMS proposed. The other company vying for the contract, Detroit-based Tixon Corp., bid $42 million.

However, in a late-breaking development, the team now led by Computil -- one that included Data Line, Corboda Corp., Denver Group, RCA & Associates and Data Pacific -- plans to withdraw from the bidding next week, according to one source familiar with the controversial contract. The reason was unclear.

But with Andersen out of the running, Ed Rowe, general manager of the city Department of Transportation, questioned whether the Computil team has a viable bid for the contract. Computil, a ticket-citation firm, has experience with municipal parking, primarily in smaller U.S. cities.

"Andersen was a major part of that bid and there is a serious question in my mind whether they (Computil) have a legal role with the major player dropping out," Rowe told the Business Journal last week. "Not only was Andersen providing critical computer skills to take over this type of project in a city this large, they also had the financial capabilities to make the commitments good."

Computil spokesperson Paul Neuman said the other companies had the ability to take over the role vacated by Andersen Consulting.

Once a part of Arthur Andersen, the accounting giant, Andersen Consulting withdrew from the bidding because the city placed it on a list of companies with economic ties to South Africa, despite the company's repeated claims of innocence. Under a 4-year-old law, the city is banned from contracting with companies deemed to have South Africa connections, though more than 1,200 exemptions have been granted.

There also have been questions raised about Lockheed IMS's links to South Africa, stemming from its sale of cargo planes to a company there in 1974. (As part of that contract, Lockheed agreed to supply spare parts if no other supplier could be found.)

Before Andersen offered to resign through its lobbyist, Arthur Snyder, last November, company officials accused the city's Department of Transportation with "bias" when it authored a report calling for IMS to get the contract renewed. They also alleged that some department officials were soliciting negative comments about Andersen from other cities.