SUBWAY CONTRACT DERAILED\MTA questions choice of firm.

Byline: David Bloom and Chip Jacobs Daily News Staff Writers

MTA board members blocked the award of a $15 million Eastside subway contract this week, saying they want to know why a subsidiary of a firm blamed in the Hollywood Boulevard sinkhole is being recommended for the job.

The contractor - Metro East Consultants - includes DeLeuw, Cather & Co., a subsidiary of the Ralph M. Parsons Corp. in Pasadena. DeLeuw, Cather was part of the team that oversaw the first leg of Red Line construction, where excessively thin concrete tunnel walls were discovered.

Another Parsons subsidiary, Parsons-Dillingham, approved the wooden wedges used in tunnel construction that were blamed for sinking along Hollywood Boulevard in 1994.

"I want to know how we end up with some of these same firms that are part of the Hollywood Boulevard problems," said Supervisor Gloria Molina. "I'm not willing to accept 'Hollywood Boulevard - The Sequel' for the East L.A. community."

Officials with Parsons and its subsidiaries did not return calls seeking comment.

Metro East Consultants is based in Encino, in the same office where one of the partners - the O'Brien-Krietzberg and Associates construction management firm - has regional offices.

Judy Johnson, manager of business development for O'Brien-Krietzberg, said Metro East's qualifications were good enough to win the top rating by an MTA proposal evaluation panel and thus the award recommendation.

"I don't think we're in the position we're in by accident," Johnson said. "But we believe the process (of evaluation), comments on that process and the scrutiny of that process should be done by the MTA. For me or any other member of our team to comment on the procurement is inappropriate."

The $15 million contract award that was to be considered this week is part of a contract expected to total $65 million for construction management services on the eastward extension of Metro Rail from Union Station to East Los Angeles.

The questions swirling around the contract award recommendation led MTA officials to pull it from this week's board agenda and refer the award process to the MTA's inspector general's office for review, said board member Raul Perez and others.

According to Molina, those questions also include the participation of The East Los Angeles Community Union and the Cordoba Corp. Both firms have longstanding ties to MTA board member Richard Alatorre, a political rival to Molina.

Molina said the inclusion of TELACU and Cordoba "caught all our eyes. There's no doubt these guys sort of end up wherever Mr. Alatorre takes charge."

Alatorre dismissed Molina's comments, noting that board members are barred from discussing contract awards with MTA staffers.

"I wasn't involved in it," he said.

"Mr. Drew feels very strongly that the process was above-board but none of us need a hashing out of allegations, so he felt it was the best the (inspector general) make sure it's squeaky clean," Alatorre said. "I think the people who won it won it fair and square."

The inquiry will focus on, among other things, how the bidders were graded, what acquisition rules were used and whether politics played a role in the staff's bid recommendation, according to an MTA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Board members generally gave O'Brien-Krietzberg high marks for its work overseeing construction of the MTA's Green Line light rail across southern Los Angeles County. The company also is part of the team overseeing the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail project, Johnson said.

The third partner is Hoctief, which Johnson said is a German tunneling expert, and the fourth is TELACU.

TELACU's business ventures include building hundreds of government-subsidiz ed housing units for the poor, a community thrift and loan, a roofing and building supply firm and a utility construction company.

MTA board member Jim Cragin of Gardena said he questioned TELACU's subway experience. TELACU President David Lizziraga did not return phone calls seeking comment, and Johnson refused to respond to the issue.

A major Metro East subcontractor is the Cordoba Corp., which would get 7 percent of the contract, up to $4.55 million of the possible total value, to do "safety, contracts and controls" work.