Sumitomo Corp Of America

Sumitomo Corp. said Wednesday in Tokyo that it has filed a "preliminary claim" with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, raising the possibility of a lawsuit over its loss of a $121.8-million contract to build driverless cars for the Metro Green Line. The company's domestic unit, Sumitomo Corp.

Considering the political uproar that erupted the last time the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission awarded Sumitomo Corp. a car-building contract, the selection last week of the Japanese-owned firm to build 15 Metro Green Line cars was a bold stroke of policy-making. Equally bold is the commission's goal of awarding a separate contract--a $200-million, 87-car order scheduled to be approved next year--to develop an advanced transportation industry in Southern California.

Japanese-owned Sumitomo Corp. of America confirmed Thursday that it has agreed to meet with Morrison-Knudsen Corp. executives to discuss whether the Idaho-based company might participate in Sumitomo's controversial $121.8-million Metro Green Line car-building contract. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission has been criticized for choosing Sumitomo to build the line's 41 innovative but costly driverless cars in Japan.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden on Tuesday criticized a decision by county transit officials to award a car-building contract to a Japanese-owned company, calling it the result of "collusion . . . designed to support the Sumitomo Corp." "I'm really shocked and angry that the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission wants to go ahead and award a 15-car contract to Sumitomo," said Holden, considered a potential candidate to succeed Tom Bradley as mayor.

"The mayor's asleep," Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky told me. Standing a few feet behind Tom Bradley at Wednesday's Los Angeles County Transportation Commission meeting on the commuter train controversy, it was impossible to see if the councilman was right. But I assumed he was. The mayor often seems to be dozing during long, tedious meetings. Watch him, though. He's like an alligator, eyes closed, waiting to snap up unsuspecting prey.

Angrily shunning doubts expressed by the builder and eventual operator of the Metro Green Line, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted 7-4 Wednesday to affirm the use of driverless cars on the 23-mile system despite rising costs and technical difficulties. The commission, after months of heavy lobbying, also chose Sumitomo Corp. of America to build the cars and Union Switch & Signal for the train controls.

You wouldn't expect to find George Deukmejian on the cutting edge of technology. In his eight years in the Capitol, he earned a reputation as "Governor No." No to spending. No to taxes. And no to new ideas. But that was then and--as the old saying goes--this is now. Now, Deukmejian, partner in the law firm of Sidley & Austin, is representing the Sumitomo Corp. of America, which wants to build the rail cars for the Metro Green Line from Norwalk to Los Angeles International Airport.

Attacking the Japanese is one of California's oldest and most dishonorable political traditions. Early in the century, U.S. Sen. James Phelan campaigned against the Japanese, using the slogan, "Keep California white." Unrestricted Japanese immigration, warned Gov. Henry Gage in 1901, was a "menace" to American labor. Such talk gave legitimacy to latent racism among California's predominantly white residents.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn said Thursday that "after receiving all of the facts" he opposes driverless cars on the Metro Green Line--a reversal in position that critics say will help their efforts to junk plans for the technology. Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, initially voted with the majority of the commissioners in favor of the automated technology.

With the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission poised to cancel its controversial contract for construction of the Metro Green Line on Wednesday, the commission's executive director, Neil Peterson, has formally notified Sumitomo Corp. of America to stop work on the project. The stop-work order, effective last Saturday, also applies to the companion contract for construction of a computerized train-control system.

Sumitomo Corp. said Wednesday in Tokyo that it has filed a "preliminary claim" with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, raising the possibility of a lawsuit over its loss of a $121.8-million contract to build driverless cars for the Metro Green Line. The company's domestic unit, Sumitomo Corp.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Thursday lashed out against local politicians who "fueled dangerous hysteria" against Japanese during the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission's debate over Sumitomo Corp.'s contract to build trains for the Metro Green Line. In a speech before about 100 community leaders from diverse ethnic, religious and civil rights groups, Bradley said "media hungry" politicians "descended to the gutter level of politics with their mindless criticism of Japanese companies."

It was a bruising contest for a major mass transit job. On one side was a foreign company long on experience. On the other, a scrappy American newcomer seeking to win the contract by offering a lower price and more local jobs. Sound familiar? It should. The scrappy newcomer was Morrison-Knudsen Corp., the Boise, Ida., company that provoked an uproar in Los Angeles by charging that transit officials were shortchanging American workers by hiring Japanese-owned Sumitomo Corp.

Japan has quietly and indirectly raised with the Bush Administration its concern over Los Angeles County's rejection of a contract with the Sumitomo Corp. to build vehicles for the Metro Green Line, a Japanese government spokesman told The Times on Thursday night. In an interview, Masamichi Hanabusa, the official spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, said that Japanese diplomats have "reminded" the Administration that international trade agreements require the U.S.

"The mayor's asleep," Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky told me. Standing a few feet behind Tom Bradley at Wednesday's Los Angeles County Transportation Commission meeting on the commuter train controversy, it was impossible to see if the councilman was right. But I assumed he was. The mayor often seems to be dozing during long, tedious meetings. Watch him, though. He's like an alligator, eyes closed, waiting to snap up unsuspecting prey.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission's decision to cancel Sumitomo Corp.'s contract on the Metro Green Line has prompted charges of base politics and Japan-bashing. But where absolute values of fairness are concerned, Japan Inc. appears to be getting a taste of its own medicine.

Japan has quietly and indirectly raised with the Bush Administration its concern over Los Angeles County's rejection of a contract with the Sumitomo Corp. to build vehicles for the Metro Green Line, a Japanese government spokesman told The Times on Thursday night. In an interview, Masamichi Hanabusa, the official spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, said that Japanese diplomats have "reminded" the Administration that international trade agreements require the U.S.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Thursday lashed out against local politicians who "fueled dangerous hysteria" against Japanese during the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission's debate over Sumitomo Corp.'s contract to build trains for the Metro Green Line. In a speech before about 100 community leaders from diverse ethnic, religious and civil rights groups, Bradley said "media hungry" politicians "descended to the gutter level of politics with their mindless criticism of Japanese companies."

Now that Los Angeles County transportation officials have canceled their contract with Japanese-based Sumitomo Corp., a new problem has emerged: Only one American firm manufactures rapid transit cars. That firm is Morrison-Knudsen, the Idaho-based company that was the losing bidder on the $122-million contract for the Norwalk-to-El Segundo Green Line. Officials interviewed Thursday said they have no desire to put themselves at the mercy of a single bidder.

When the Bay Area launched its gleaming BART subway system in 1972, the sleek cars that sped along the tracks were made in the United States by Rohr Industries of Chula Vista. A decade later, when Bay Area transit officials went looking for 150 additional cars, Rohr had abandoned the money-losing subway business. Who ended up winning the $228-million contract? Alsthom Atlantique of France.