Surprise Switch on El Toro Reuse Study Hikes Cost : Land use: County will tap park and road funds to pay new consultant, dropping firm with link to defunct planning agency.

Financially strapped Orange County will use $500,000 intended for roads, parks and flood control to help pay $2.7 million to a new consultant for a reuse study of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The selection of P&D; Consultants of Orange surprised local and federal officials. The previous consultants, who were paid $900,000 for the first phase of the study, had offered to do the follow-up phase for $1.5 million, or a total of $2.4 million for both phases.

County officials said the previous consultants, led by Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc. of Santa Ana, were not retained because P&D; was more qualified. Rosenow Spevacek worked with the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the original planning agency for the Marine base.

However, Orange County withdrew from the authority in January, and the Board of Supervisors was later recognized by the U.S. Defense Department as the official planning agency for the Marine base.

Last week, U.S. officials said the county is in line to receive $1.2 million in federal grants--$1 million from the Pentagon and $200,000 left over from Federal Aviation Administration funds previously given to the county--for the reuse phase of the study. Federal officials said it will be up to the county to raise the extra money needed to pay the new consultants.

Tom Mathews, director of planning at the County Environmental Management Agency, said the use of $500,000 earmarked for capital projects at parks, beaches and for roads and flood control “is reasonable.” He said the money will be used “only to study issues of transportation, flood control, parks, trails and open space as they relate to the reuse of El Toro.”

Courtney Wiercioch, spokeswoman for John Wayne Airport, said the rest of the money--$1 million--for the P&D; contract will come from airport revenue.

Orange County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, formerly the airport director, said federal regulations required the county to go through a selection process for the reuse phase and to hire the bidder considered best qualified by the county staff, even if it meant paying a higher fee.

A county review found P&D; to be the most qualified, and recommended the firm to the Board of Supervisors, Mittermeier said. A third firm, Landrum and Brown, also bid for the contract.

The staff recommendation conflicts with information that was given to firms on the selection process for the Phase 2 contract.

On June 13, 1995, Mathews’ office issued a two-page response to six questions commonly submitted by consultants interested in bidding for the Phase 2 contract. The last question asked whether the “county staff will make a specific recommendation” to the supervisors on the most qualified applicant. The response from Mathews’ office was that “no staff recommendation will be made in regard to selection of one firm over another.”

A little more than a month later, on July 19, Deputy County Counsel Richard D. Oviedo sent a memo to Mittermeier and EMA Director Michael M. Ruane, who is Mathews’ boss, saying that FAA and Defense Department regulations required the county to award the contract to the most qualified applicant--meaning that the county staff had to decide which was the most qualified.

Oviedo’s interpretation of Defense Department regulations was disputed by Pentagon spokeswoman Beverly Baker, who said Friday that “there is nothing in the regulations that says the community has to pick the lowest bid on a contract, or the most qualified bidder.”

“It’s up to the community to pick the criteria it wants to use when selecting a consultant. They can choose [whomever] they want. But we’re also very clear about how much we can give a community for a reuse study. We give only what we think the project is worth.”

FAA spokesman Hank Verbais confirmed that the agency generally requires the county to pick the most qualified consultant when using FAA funds, but said the county is also allowed to use another firm “if they can get the same work for a better price.”

Mittermeier said that Rosenow Spevacek’s “work was very good” on the first phase. However, she said that the county was looking for a “firm that can produce the best research and best results” for the reuse phase and the consensus was that P&D; could do the best job.

Dan Miller, executive director of the defunct authority and principal consultant at Rosenow Spevacek, said Friday that the county did not go through the same selection process for Phase 1 of the study, when his firm was hired.

“I don’t understand how they just now learned about the federal regulations,” Miller said. “We also used both [Pentagon] and FAA funds for the first phase, but went through a different selection process.”

Wiercioch said the county got around the FAA regulation during Phase 1 because the top two aviation consultants “were so close in qualifications that there was not a definitive preference for either firm.”

“They were tied, and we left it up to the [Board of Supervisors] to pick one,” Wiercioch said.

Rosenow Spevacek did the foundation work for the study on redeveloping El Toro, but in the end county staff members decided the group was less qualified than P&D.; P&D; President John Kinley said his firm has been an airport consultant for 45 years and has done work at more than 500 airports worldwide.

Miller said he was surprised by the county’s decision to award the contract to P&D.;

“We were always under budget and on time,” Miller said. “Every indication was that everyone was very pleased with our work.”