A city contractor -- Castle Construction Corp. of Markham -- pulled a bait-and-switch on the construction of the firehouse, according to the lawsuit and other records. Castle promised city officials it would subcontract all of the masonry work on the job to a minority-owned company, for $1.5 million.

Instead, records show Castle hired a white-owned masonry company -- for $550,000 less.

Then, after most of the work was finished, Castle fired the white-owned subcontractor, LCS Construction of Downers Grove.

LCS president Kenneth Littwin Sr. is now suing Castle, saying the company has refused to pay more than $775,000 it owes for labor and materials.

Beside raising questions about city monitoring of contractors, the suit could also lead Mayor Daley's Public Building Commission to seek monetary damages from Castle for failing to live up to its commitment to give minority-owned companies 23 percent of the work on the Rogers Park fire station.

"We're troubled by the circumstances that appear before us right now,'' said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the building commission. "There are sufficient irregularities [that] we intend to look closely at the measures we have in place to make sure that the expectations we have of the general contractor and the use of minority subcontractors are met.''

Castle faces similar allegations involving work for the CTA, which fired the company last October, according to a CTA spokeswoman. Castle owes money to subcontractors it used to build two CTA equipment-washing facilities, including $216,000 to Littwin's company, according to its lawsuit filed by the Roth Law Group.

John Eannace, an attorney representing Castle president Robert Blum of New Lenox, declined to comment.

Castle and Blum could also be facing other legal problems. A federal grand jury recently subpoenaed three Illinois state agencies, seeking records on any contracts Castle and Blum got under ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blum is a friend and business associate of former top Blagojevich adviser and campaign fund-raiser Christopher Kelly.

The firehouse deal dates to March 13, 2007. That's when the Chicago Public Building Commission awarded Castle two contracts -- $10 million to build the fire station and another $21 million to build a new 7th District police station in Englewood.

Castle committed to hiring George Anthony Garth Masonry, a minority-owned company, to work on both projects. Castle said it would pay Garth $1.5 million for the fire station and $3.8 million for the police station.

But Garth Masonry, faced with "financial difficulties,'' couldn't handle both projects, according to court records in the Littwin case. So Castle hired Littwin's company to do masonry work on the fire station that began in September 2007, records show.

Castle should have first gotten permission from the Public Building Commission before replacing Garth's company, according to a report last August by Trinal Inc., a minority-owned company the commission uses to monitor minority- and woman-owned business enterprise participation on city jobs.

"Castle never notified the PBC of any difficulties meeting its M/WBE commitments,'' the Trinal report says.

"There was no documentation provided to explain or support Castle's contention that it was impossible for G.A.G. Masonry to perform on the project. Additionally, there was no documentation provided to explain or support the 'numerous deficiencies' that led to terminating LCS Construction and the supposed re-engagement of G.A.G. Masonry as a replacement'' on the fire station project.

Castle maintains that Garth's company was always involved in the firehouse project, providing "quality control services and other construction management services'' while Littwin's workers laid the bricks, according to a letter Blum's son Anthony sent Littwin after Littwin's company was fired in November 2007 -- after nearly all of the masonry work was done.

Garth's attorney Jeff Corso said Garth was surprised to learn that Castle had hired someone else to do the masonry work on the fire station. "Castle had LCS do some of the work, and we complained about that,'' Corso said. "We went in and said, 'We're supposed to be on the job.'"

Littwin sees himself as having been "caught in the middle."

"And I'm still trying to collect my money,'' he said.