FTR and the Pierce Brahmas share victory at the new Pierce Stadium opened ahead of schedule for the last game of the season
Almost like magic, the skies cleared Saturday evening November 12th, just prior to the 7:00 pm kick off of the Pierce Brahmas football game, their first in the new Pierce Stadium project. “The sweet smell of victory was shared by all” said FTR Vice President John Saliba who was on hand to deliver the winning “hand off” to College President Dr. Kathleen Burke-Kelly, Athletic Director Bob Lyons and Communications Representative Barb Dery. And true to form, the Brahmas went on to victory as they trounced LA Valley College, 47-17, a moment of shared victory for Brahama fans and FTR International.
The player’s sparkly clean uniforms were maintained throughout the game due to the state-of-the-art synthetic playing fields’ exceptional water drainage capability. Strong rains had proceeded the Saturday game which could have been the Brahmas first “mud bowl” had natural turf been installed.
The multi-million dollar design/build renovation and improvement project was a collaboration of FTR International and architect Leo A Daly. In order to meet game time, FTR employed several fast track techniques during construction enabling key components of the project to be completed ahead of schedule – giving Pierce that old fashionhome field advantage. The team’s performance exhilarated fans and gave rise to the power of place on this special night. If last Saturday’s game was any indication, the Pierce teams that use the stadium have a very bright future. FTR is pleased to have played its part in building on this next piece of the successful campaign for excellence in facility design and construction for years to come.
Does an LACCD “Kangaroo Court” substitute the American justice system in a legitimate court of law?
In response to the Los Angeles Community College District’s Press Release issued on October 18, 2011, FTR International Inc. categorically denies each and every allegation.
First, it should be known that a lawsuit is currently pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court between FTR and LACCD concerning two of the three issues mentioned in the press release. FTR is confident that our legal system will properly adjudicate these matters and is content to wait until the evidence is presented to a State of California Superior Court judge.
In an apparent effort to supersede the Court, The LACCD Board has initiated its own “court”, comprised of members selected solely by the District. With all due respect to Board President Miguel Santiago, who stated in the District’s aforementioned press release: “. . . our Board of Trustees must reserve judgment until the matter is properly before us after the hearings later this year . . . “, FTR believes that this process would be anything but fair, equitable or unbiased. Furthermore, we believe that these proceedings circumvent the proper legal process.
On October 19th, 2011, the Los Angeles Times significantly mischaracterized the issues regarding the Los Angeles Valley College Allied Health and Science Center project. While we understand a newspaper’s need to advance such a controversial story, we believe that no fair evaluation of alleged job defects related to FTR’s work on this project was made.
For example, it was stated that students and faculty arrived at the building in August of 2008 with “missing exit signs and fire extinguishers and hanging light fixtures that were not securely attached to buildings.” In truth, the job reached “substantial completion” in September 2, 2008, and students did not actually occupy the building until later that month, only after the Fire Department had approved the structure’s fire safety and issued a Certificate of Occupancy. Contrary to the Times’ article, FTR’s work was officially completed and signed-off before the District brought in a multitude of its own contractors to perform additional work worth several millions of dollars that was outside of FTR’s contract. We believe that defects from this additional work is what caused the conditions observed by the users as described in the article. None of these contractors were even mentioned by the Board or invited to participate in the LACCD “court” hearing.
LACCD’s proposed “hearing”, scheduled for December 2011, purports to rule on the very issues that are pending against it in the Los Angeles Superior Court. This action, in our opinion, would perpetuate damaging acts of misrepresentation. Instead of a “media trial”, FTR believes that these issues should continue to be heard and decisions rendered through legitimate court proceedings, with fair and truthful presentation of all the facts and evidence, before an actual superior court judge.
FTR was the original whistleblower, exposing corruption dating back to 2006 in the District’s inspection department. Despite the fact that FTR submitted substantial evidence of this, the LACCD Board appears to be proceeding with a “blame the messenger” approach in order to satisfy legitimate public concerns over misuse of taxpayer funds, without regard to the severe harm that these actions are inflicting upon our Company.
We believe that the Board’s apparent obfuscation of the internal mismanagement of its BuildLACCD Bond Program as exposed by the Los Angeles Times is, nevertheless, not a valid reason to malign FTR’s reputation and the good work that FTR has performed on behalf of the taxpayers of the City of Los Angeles for many years. Should the LACCD Board execute its apparent intent to terminate FTR’s contracts, significant and incalculable damage will be made to this Company, its staff, subcontractors and vendors, both in the present and in the future. Therefore, FTR intends to vigorously defend its work and reputation as an award-winning contractor that has successfully completed many iconic projects throughout Southern California since 1984.
We believe that when the existing disputes are thoroughly reviewed by a duly appointed judge in the Superior Court of the State of California, the current false charges against FTR will be found baseless and unsubstantiated. Despite the Board’s advancement of a political agenda in response to the Times’ repeated allegations, we are confident that justice will prevail and that FTR will be fully vindicated.
Ventura County Superior Court judge orders Rio School District to pay FTR $5.5 million
State of California Judge William Q. Liebmann of the Ventura County Superior Court has awarded FTR International Inc. nearly $5.5 million in contract claims against the Rio School District. This payment compensates FTR for the extra work it performed, disruption-induced delays, unpaid contract balance, penalties, and interest on the Rio Del Norte School project, which was successfully completed by the contractor 10 years ago. Moreover, the court ruled in FTR’s favor, dismissing the false claims that were alleged by the Rio School District in retaliation to FTR’s claims. FTR will recover all lawsuit costs, including attorney’s fees, which will be determined by Judge Liebmann within the next 60 days. FTR is pleased to finally be vindicated of this injustice after a decade of one of the lengthiest trials in Ventura County history.
Tags Rio Del Norte School, Rio School District, Ventura County lawsuit, Ventura County Superior Court
FTR a Bronze Sponsor at the AAa/e Awards Banquet
FTR International Inc. was a Bronze Level Sponsor at the 34th Annual Asian American Architects and Engineers Awards Banquet on October 6, 2011. The Gala, which was held at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, paid special tribute to United States Congresswoman Judy Chu, and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, USC School of Architecture Dean Quingyun Ma, and the late Bill Yang, AAa/e founding member. FTR was honored to host, at its table, former Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Lydia Kennard, Port of Long Beach Program Director Doug Sereno, Michael Keenan of the Port of Los Angeles, USC Professor Jim Fawcett, Warren Romberger of SRA, UGL Services Managing Principal David Kluth, and Karen Compton, principal of A3K Consulting.
FTR is the apparent low-bidder of the East Los Angeles College Science and Math Complex
FTR International Inc. was the apparent low-bidder of the Math and Science Complex at East Los Angeles College, which is part of the Los Angeles Community College District’s $6 billion Sustainable Building Program. This project features a new 3-story building for Life Sciences, Chemistry and Math, in two academic wings connected by a glass-walled circulation core. The project also includes two renovated buildings for Physics and Earth Sciences surrounding a landscaped plaza.
FTR honored by the County of Los Angeles
This month FTR International Inc. received a beautiful hand-painted commendation certificate from Don Knabe, Supervisor of Los Angeles County’s Fourth District “In recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all citizens of Los Angeles County.” This followed FTR’s recent successful completion of the Port of Los Angeles Police Headquarters project which lies in Supervisor Knabe’s district.
FTR receives Official LEED Gold Certificate for POLA Project
FTR International Inc. is proud to have received the official LEED GOLD Certificate from the United States Green Building Council for the $47 million Port of Los Angeles Police Headquarters project.
This signature facility adds to FTR’s growing portfolio of LEED projects and underscores our current ENR Magazine (ENR) ranking as the Number 5 Green Builder in Southern California.
Additional sustainable projects currently underway include multi-million dollar LEED Silver, Gold, and multiple Platinum facilities for public agencies throughout Southern California.
FTR is the apparent low-bidder of the LAX Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Walks System Upgrades project
FTR International Inc. was the apparent low-bidder of the Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Walks System Upgrades project, which will modify existing building structures, escalator control rooms, and elevator equipment rooms to accommodate replacement of the elevators, escalators, and moving walks in the terminal buildings.
Tags Elevators, Escalators, LAX, Los Angeles International Airport, Moving Walks System Upgrades
City of Irvine Infrastructure Project Awarded To FTR International Inc.
The City of Irvine announced recently the contract award of an engineering and infrastructure project to FTR International Inc. The project includes the widening and expansion of Jamboree and Interstate 5 Freeway at the City of Irvine area. The project will improve traffic flow by providing four through lanes in each direction and will facilitate improved access to the north and south bound I-5. The successful delivery of such a prominent project will add to the firm’s expanding expertise in infrastructure.
FTR Awarded Another Contract for the “Adams Street Bridge” Infrastructure Project
The recent contract awarded to FTR International Inc. to perform general contracting services is for the construction of a Adams Street Bridge, a four lane linear bridge including all other street improvements for the City of La Quinta.
The “Adams Street Bridge” is located over the Coachella Valley water channel and is composed of a four span post-tensioned concrete structure over cast-in-place concrete piles.
