In response to city agencies falling prey to mistakes, oversights and a legal squabble with a software company, the Board of Estimates today coughed up $794,450 to settle four outstanding contracts.

One dispute, involving a prominent road paver, dates back 4½ years. In August 2010, the board approved a multi-million-dollar contract with M. Luis Construction Co. to resurface roads in North and Northeast Baltimore.

The contract was completed in June 2012, but “final review of the construction documents” by the Department of Transportation “revealed the need for additional funding to close out the contract and reimburse the contractor for unpaid quantities,” according to the board’s agenda.

The panel approved DOT’s request to pay the company another $135,971.85 without comment or further explanation by the agency.

One of the biggest recipients of city paving and sidewalk contracts, M. Luis and its co-owners, sisters Cidalia Luis-Akbar and Natalie Luis, are major supporters of the mayor and the two other elected officials who sit on the spending board.

M. Luis gave $3,500 to City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young last year, while Cidalia Luis-Akbar personally purchased $4,000 of tickets (the legal maximum) to a 2013 fundraiser for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

In 2011-12, the company contributed $2,000 each to the mayor and the council president – and additionally gave $1,000 to the board’s third elected official, Joan M. Pratt. All three officials voted in favor of the expenditure today.

The board also awarded an extra $265,477.93 to Machado Construction Co. to settle a roadway contract that had “expired” in September 2012.

Once again, DOT’s post-completion review disclosed that the contractor was not paid for “verified completed work.” Due to an administrative error, the agency said, it did not bring the matter before the board’s attention earlier.

The funds to pay for the error will come from money reserved for neighborhood street paving.

Transposed Numbers

Another mistake the board was asked to rectify today involved numbers flipped around by the Department of General Services. In a request last month for three new Pierce pumper trucks on behalf of the Fire Department, a clerk “inadvertently calculated” the cost of each vehicle at $409,966 instead of the correct price of $490,966.

As a result, the agency requested, and the board approved, an additional $243,000 today for Atlantic Emergency Solutions, the Virginia-based supplier of the new trucks.

Finally, the mayor and her two board appointees, City Solicitor George Nilson and Public Works Director Rudy Chow, approved a $150,000 settlement to get out of a contract to customize budgeting software for the Bureau of the Budget.

The law department reached the settlement with Rockville-based Neubrain LLC to resolve “all outstanding disputes” related to a 2012 contract to install software from BOARD International, a Swiss-based “performance management and business intelligence” company.

According to the law department, the budget office will obtain a license to BOARD software directly “at no additional cost to the city.” Young and Pratt voted against the settlement without explaining their votes.

Elevators and Executive Protection

In other matters, the board unanimously approved $2.6 million to upgrade the elevators at the Abel Wolman Municipal Building; $949,000 to maintain the Police Department’s Field-Based Reporting System; and $1,627 for security protection for Mayor Rawlings-Blake during a trip she made to Sacramento, Calif., in September.