Omaha City Council members continued to wrangle Tuesday over whether to sue the firm that provided the original design for the Missouri River pedestrian bridge.

Council President Dan Welch said reaching a settlement, instead of filing a lawsuit against Figg Bridge Engineers, remains the best option.

"We will keep working on it," he said.

He spoke during a public hearing on an ordinance that calls for hiring a law firm to sue Figg. The council is scheduled to take action on the ordinance March 20.

City Attorney Paul Kratz said Omaha wants to recover most of the $3.5 million it paid to Florida-based Figg. After construction bids came in at more than double the budgeted cost, another company was hired to design the bridge between Omaha and Council Bluffs.

Some council members are concerned that the city could rack up big legal bills suing Figg but still lose in court.

If the city hired Lamson, Dugan and Murray to sue Figg, the city's legal fees would be capped at $250,000. The law firm also would receive 15 percent of any money the city received through a settlement or court decision.

Welch said there would be stronger council support for taking the case to court if the law firm were paid on contingency. That means the firm would get paid only if the city received money from Figg.

Kratz said the firm has indicated that it would agree to those terms.

Kermit Brashear, an attorney representing Figg, said the company is not liable. There was no provision in the original contract requiring the company to provide a design that would produce bids in line with the budget for the project, he said.

Kratz has acknowledged that the contract never specified the targeted construction costs, but the contract did require Figg to estimate the construction cost. Kratz said Figg estimated the cost at about $17 million to $20 million.

Bids on the project, received in 2004, ranged from $44.9 million to more than $50 million.

Brashear said Figg's estimate was reasonable and was based in part on Nebraska Department of Roads cost figures for construction materials.

Unprecedented national spikes in prices for concrete and steel were a main cause of the higher bids, he said.