Take Fluor Off Convention Center Job, Council Urges

In the first test of the city’s broadened anti-apartheid policy, the Los Angeles City Council today strongly advocated that the giant Fluor Corp. be stripped of its tentative selection as manager of the Convention Center’s $310-million expansion because of the firm’s business ties to South Africa.

The council’s 11-0 vote, though technically only an advisory procedure, is nonetheless seen as paving the way for the quasi-independent Convention Center commission to reverse its initial selection of Fluor.

Sandra Gordon, the commission president, has said she expects the commission to heed the will of the council and Mayor Tom Bradley, who also believes that awarding the formal contract to Fluor would violate the city’s anti-apartheid stance. The commission could take up the matter as early as Thursday.

The dispute over the Fluor contract marks the first major test of an ordinance, adopted July 2, that bans city purchases with firms doing business in racially segregated South Africa. The Irvine-based Fluor Corp. did about $40 million in business in South Africa last year.

The council vote came over the objections of James Zilli, Fluor’s general manager for construction, who argued that the city’s anti-apartheid policy had not been passed when Fluor was tentatively awarded the contract. Fluor thus should not be held to its standards, he said.

“We’re not asking for a special favor,” Zilli said. “There’s something that doesn’t make sense to me.”

But council members said Fluor’s continuing presence in South Africa made awarding the contract impossible.