Foreman to Request Grand Jury Probe of Airport Overruns

The foreman of the Orange County Grand Jury said Wednesday that he will ask the 19-member panel to launch an investigation of cost overruns plaguing the $310-million John Wayne Airport expansion project, the largest public-works project in Orange County history.

James O. Lindberg, grand jury foreman, said he does not think that the panel should focus on what happened during the bidding process on the airport expansion project because “the newspapers have already been doing a good job” on that issue, even though it remains unresolved.

“I look at the scope of our efforts as being what impact these problems will have in the future,” Lindberg said. He said he is referring to the “consequences” of cost-cutting and budget problems on air travelers and county taxpayers.

“As the watchdogs of this county, we are very concerned as to what’s going on out there,” Lindberg said. “We have a responsibility, I think, to look into it.”

Lindberg said he believes that his fellow jurors will concur and will decide today to employ the services of Arthur Young, a Santa Ana consulting firm, for the civil investigation.

The firm is already under contract to the grand jury to evaluate the performance of county agencies and programs.

Last month, county officials acknowledged that more than $10 million in cost reductions were being sought because the lowest construction bid on the new passenger terminal was $18 million more than the $40.8 million budgeted by the county.

Since then, a dispute has arisen over whether the county is being overcharged for construction of the new passenger terminal through inflated construction bids or whether the project architect, Leason Pomeroy, and his cost consultant, Lee Saylor, grossly underestimated construction costs.

Throughout the controversy, airport officials have insisted that the new passenger terminal will open as scheduled on April 1, 1990, and that savings on some parts of the airport project, such as parking garages, can be applied to construction of the terminal.

County airport officials have also disclosed that new Federal Aviation Administration requirements, modifications to the passenger terminal and other changes in the airport expansion project mean that completion of the entire project will cost a total of $310.1 million, an increase of $13.5 million.

But that cost overrun is within projected revenues and does not threaten the project’s or the airport’s financial stability, according to a written report from the airport’s chief financial officer. The report was sent to county supervisors last week.

Wednesday night, the county Airport Commission voted unanimously to accept the revised total. The matter is due before the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for final adoption.

Airport officials Wednesday reaffirmed their belief that construction bids were not deliberately inflated.

But O’Connor Construction Man agement Inc. of Santa Ana, the consultant that blamed the architect for underestimating construction costs, failed to substantiate its claims with enough data and will be asked to answer several key questions before getting paid, assistant airport manager Jan Mittermeier said.

Mittermeier said county airport officials have tentatively rejected the O’Connor report, which she described as a preliminary draft that lacks crucial information. “He makes various assumptions, and he has not supported the conclusions that he had in his report.”

“I think we need answers to several questions,” said Mittermeier, including where the O’Connor firm got the information used to determine that the architect had seriously underestimated both the quantities of materials needed and their cost, and whether O’Connor and the the architect’s consultant were considering the same set of architectural drawings.

Saylor’s claim that construction bids were inflated may find new support if the O’Connor firm cannot substantiate its findings, county officials said.

Airport Commissioner Gary Proctor asked airport staff Wednesday night to provide a copy of the O’Connor report because, he said, he wants to conduct his own evaluation.

Mike Jensen, a cost estimator who helped prepare the O’Connor report, said Wednesday that he had not yet heard from the county and would not comment other than to stand by his findings.