IRVINE – A lack of a realistic, detailed budget was among the factors that doomed the Great Park project as it was originally envisioned, auditors and attorneys told the Irvine City Council on Tuesday.

Once slated to be completed by 2011 at a cost of $401 million, as of 2013, more than $250 million had been spent to develop 88 acres of the 1,347-acre former El Toro Marine base. That number has since increased to $260 million.

“The park got off to the wrong start right from the beginning,” said Christopher Money, a partner with Hagen, Streiff, Newton & Oshiro, Accountants, on Tuesday. The firm was hired by the council in June 2013 to find out where that money went.

RELATED: Click here to view Aleshire & Wynder’s audit

Law firm Aleshire & Wynder and a retired judge were brought in last year to assist the company in its investigation.

The team found that $95 million was spent on operations and administration; about $94 million for “soft costs,” such as design fees; and $61.8 million on “hard costs,” such as construction and engineering.

Depositions of more than 23 people and a review of the park’s finances didn’t reveal any criminal activity, but the firms said personal connections between former Councilman Larry Agran and some of the contractors and consultants on the project have raised the appearance of impropriety.

The council voted 3-1, with Councilwoman Beth Krom opposed, to direct the special counsel for the audit to develop a memo detailing what entities, if any, are liable for breach of contract, malpractice or making false claims.

That memo will be discussed by the council in a future closed session, as is typical with matters involving litigation.

Money said that the trouble with the Great Park project began when competitors for the design and construction contract were not given budget constraints, so “they designed without any cost in mind.”

No clear budget was provided even after the decision was made to select the Great Park Design Studio — a new firm formed by landscape architect Ken Smith, project management company Gafcon, Inc. and others to take on the project, Money said.

“The Master Plan was killed not by the recession or the loss of the redevelopment funding, it was killed by its own hubris, the failure to engage in a honest dialogue about how it could be funded, and failure to keep the consultants operating within any sort of affordable budget,” Aleshire & Wynder’s report said.

Some contractors were likely overpaid, the reports stated, calling into question what services were received in exchange.

Smith might have done no work on the project during some of the months he was receiving $10,000 monthly, HSNO stated. He was paid that fee from November 2009 to June 2012.

Public relations firm Forde & Mollrich was paid $50,000 per month at one point, and $100,000 per month at another. Aleshire & Wynder said it found “no clear evidence” justifying the variable fees.

Agran, then-chairman of the Great Park board, recommended the Design Studio hire George Urch, did public affairs for the project under Gafcon. An agreement between Design Studio member Gafcon to remodel the Laguna Beach home of Stu Mollrich, vice president of Forde & Mollrich, should have been revealed as a potential conflict of interest, the report stated.

More than $4 million paid to Design Studio would have been held “pending an investigation had these conflicts been fully disclosed,” Aleshire & Wynder reported.

The audit process was overseen by a two-member subcommittee, council members Jeff Lalloway and Christina Shea. Shea said the reports proved her suspicions of cronyism and mismanagement. Lalloway was absent Tuesday.

Initially costing $240,000, spending on the audit has risen to nearly $1.34 million.

Agran has accused Shea and Lalloway of directing the process for political purposes, an assertion they have denied.

Investigators blamed the extensions on uncooperative participants and said Gafcon and Forde & Mollrich delayed the process with “excessive objections.”

Krom, an ally of Agran’s, accused today’s council members of playing Monday morning quarterback.

“We were living in real time,” she said. “We had a threat of an airport. … We stopped that airport. Of course, once people don’t have a threat, they forget about those things.”

The military base was once slated to become an international airport until voters approved a ballot measure to change the zoning of the area so an airport couldn’t be built.

Krom slammed investigators for giving the council less than 24 hours to read through the reports, which with exhibits totaled nearly 300 pages.

Some companies targeted by the audit refuted the findings.

In a statement Tuesday, Gafcon labeled the reports a “feeble and failed attempt to validate the city’s previous claims.”

On the company’s behalf, legislators in its home county, San Diego, have requested an audit of the subcommittee’s performance by the state Joint Legislative Audit Committee. The committee is to hold a hearing next month on whether to pursue the legislators’ request.

Mollrich called the reports biased and said they contained “many misleading allegations.” After analyzing the report, the firm plans to release a “point-by-point rebuttal” of the allegations, Mollrich said.

Mollrich in his letter also noted that HSNO did not follow the auditing guidelines set out by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, but rather the organization’s guidelines for consulting services.

A complaint filed last year against HSNO by Gafcon with the State Accountancy Board remains an open investigation, the agency said this week.

The council also voted to seek a court order to compel Agran to say whether any Great Park contractors helped out with his political campaigns, information he refused to give during his March 13 deposition, saying he was not legally obliged to do so.

Taylor, with Aleshire & Wynder, said that information would help “fill in gaps” in the audit report.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com