Tentative Settlement Reported in Dispute Over Airport Design

County airport officials have reached a tentative settlement with architect Leason Pomeroy Associates in a dispute over the firm’s tardy and overbudget design of the new John Wayne Airport passenger terminal, county government sources said Monday.

The settlement, in which Pomeroy reportedly agreed to forgo any profit on the project, will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for its approval next Tuesday, the county government sources said.

Paul Carey, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, said members of the airport staff visited supervisors and their aides Monday to see whether there were any objections to placing the staff-recommended settlement before the board next Tuesday.

Carey and Deputy County Counsel Dan Didier declined to discuss details of the proposed settlement but acknowledged that “an agenda item” was being prepared by the airport staff for the supervisors. Airport officials did not return The Times’ phone calls.

Nevertheless, county government sources who requested anonymity said that, as part of the recommended settlement, Pomeroy would forgo some payments for his firm’s work and thus will not make any profit on the project.

One source said the settlement calls upon Pomeroy, which was selected by the Board of Supervisors in April, 1987, for the estimated $3.4-million job of designing the building, to forgo $400,000 in payments. Other sources, however, would not confirm or deny that figure.

Officials declined Monday to say what items the proposed settlement covers or whether Pomeroy would pay any fines. The architecture firm, which has not been paid by the county since February, was late in delivering design drawings for the new terminal.

In addition, construction bids for the terminal came in about $17 million higher than the county had expected because Pomeroy and one of its consultants had made numerous errors in estimating the project’s cost, according to an independent analysis. Airport officials have been scrambling to reduce the terminal’s cost by cutting back on amenities, such as marble-covered floors and walls.

Pomeroy, who declined comment on Monday, previously has contended that he submitted working drawings just 1 day after the deadline, according to county officials. But the same officials said the required documents were not furnished to the county until last spring, several months after they were due.

County officials declined Monday to elaborate on the issue of the late drawings, except to acknowledge that Pomeroy’s contract calls for fines of $5,000 for each day of delay.

Last week, The Times disclosed that an $8,000 county-requested analysis of what went wrong with the architect’s cost estimates found that Lee Saylor Inc. of Concord, a consultant hired by Pomeroy, had completely failed to count millions of dollars’ worth of materials. Among the material not counted was 1,000 tons of steel needed for the terminal, according to the analysis prepared by O’Connor Construction Management Inc.

County officials were startled last May when the lowest construction bid for the terminal project came in at $58.9 million, compared to the $42 million budgeted by the county. Airport officials say that because of the cost overrun, they are now working with Pomeroy to bring the construction cost down by at least $10 million.

The new terminal, which is under construction and scheduled to open April 1, 1990, is part of a larger $300-million expansion of the airport. It is the largest single public works project in county history.