Transit agency mulls tilting pacts to local bidders.

Proposed policy would give boost to hometown firms.

Acknowledging the "competitive disadvantage" faced by Southland industry, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is poised this week to endorse a policy favoring local companies on future transit contracts.

The draft of the plan, dubbed the Local Business Enterprise Preference (LBE), was approved by the LACTC's legislative and intergovernmental services committee in early December. A formal policy could be on LACTC books as early as January, if the full commission OKs the tentative plan this week.

"Higher taxes, wages and insurance tend to place local businesses at a disadvantage when they compete with companies from other areas on LACTC contracts. It's a fact," said Travis Montgomery, the commission's economic development specialist. "What we are saying is let's develop the LBE as a commission policy, and not just on a case-by-case basis."

Under the proposal, an LACTC bidder that agreed to perform between 35 percent and 50 percent of a contract's work within Los Angeles County would get a 5 percent bonus on a contract-rating scorecard. A firm that consented to do more than half the contract work within county borders would receive between 5 percent and 7.5 percent extra points.

But there are limitations to the "Build-in-L.A." plan. State law requires that competitively bid contracts greater than $50,000 be awarded to the lowest bidder. Because of that, the LBE policy would apply only to smaller deals and to rail construction and equipment contracts based on more than just price.

Montgomery did not know what percentage of LACTC's contracts are negotiated for under the $50,000 cap.

The LBE concept was spurred by complaints from industry and transit officials that soaring labor costs, combined with tough environmental and land-use rules, have forced potential L.A. contractors to offer higher bids than their rivals. And with no rail car plants in the area, the result has been Metro Rail subway vehicles manufactured in Italy and Blue Line trolleys produced in Japan.

At the same time, both companies bidding on a $120-million rail-car contract for the Norwalk-to-El Segundo Green Line have vowed to at least assemble the vehicles locally. The LACTC was expected to decide in favor of either Idaho-based Morrison Knudsen Corp. or Sumitomo Corp. of America late last week.

State assemblyman Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, two weeks ago urged the LACTC to work quickly to keep transit contracts local and out of the hands of overseas companies.

In other transit news:

* General Motors Corp. Vice President Joe Spielman met with a group of local officials, including Mayor Tom Bradley, last week about the fate of GM's Van Nuys plant. However, city officials failed in their 11th hour attempt to keep the 44-year-old plant open past next summer. The facility presently employs 2,600.

* Southland construction leaders were expected to meet with LACTC Executive Director Neil Paterson last week to express their concerns about the state's Congestion Management Plan.

The CMP, enacted in 1990 along with a series of transit bond measures, requires California cities to ensure that new real estate development does not worsen traffic levels. If congestion is aggravated, municipalities risk losing tens of millions of dollars in state gas tax revenues.

Among those expected to meet with Peterson were representatives of Kaufman & Broad, Newhall Land & Farming, Lusk Co. and the Building and Industry Association. Developers and construction leaders fear the CMP will further dampen an already depressed building industry.