Friday, February 02, 2007
Plain Dealer
At first, it looked like a simple turf war between two labor unions fighting over a lucrative piece of the most expensive construction project in Cleveland history.
The electricians union argued it should do the underground electrical work for the $500 million runway expansion at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The laborers union argued the work was simply ditch-digging, which was their domain.
But as an electricians union official investigated the $130 million contract awarded to Anthony Allega Cement Contractors six years ago, he discovered something disturbing: Chem Ty Environmental Inc., the company hired by Allega to do the electrical work, had a bogus office address in a Cleveland housing project.
That discovery, some council members argue today, should have prevented a monumental scam: front companies getting paid for doing no work at Hopkins.
Instead, some council members say today, then-Mayor Michael R. White and his Cabinet ignored the red flags. And then-Council President Mike Polensek, White's bitterest rival, rammed through legislation that allowed the scam to occur.
The unlikely - and perhaps unwitting - alliance between White and Polensek still puzzles people involved in the fight. But the result is unmistakable, said Walter O'Malley, an official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 38.
"This was a scam," O'Malley said last week. "We knew it from day one. We knew damn well that Chem Ty was not doing a thing."O'Malley said he repeatedly warned members of White's Cabinet that Chem Ty Environmental Inc. was not a legitimate company and was not qualified to work at the airport.
White and then-airport Director Reuben Sheperd ignored O'Malley's warnings about irregularities in Allega's bid, O'Malley said.
Allega's bid was much lower than all of the others he was the only one calculating it using laborers' pay instead of electricians', who make about $10 more an hour, O'Malley said.
Council passed a law in March 2001 sponsored by Councilman Michael Dolan that would have forced Allega to calculate the bid using higher wages paid to certified electricians. But just seven weeks later, council did an about-face and rushed through legislation sponsored by Polensek repealing the law. The repeal passed 16-0.
Dolan said O'Malley's findings immediately disturbed him. At a hearing to discuss the contract in early 2001, Dolan said he held up a Polaroid photo of the building listed as Chem Ty's office to show then-airport Director Sheperd.
"It was clearly nobody's office," Dolan said in an interview. "For anyone to say, 'Oh, we didn't know that,' that simply cannot be possible."
The administration awarded the contract to Allega soon after the hearing, in February 2001.
In March, Dolan introduced legislation requiring the runway project to use a licensed, registered electrical contractor that paid electrician-union wages. Its passage would mean the Allega bid, which used Chem Ty as a subcontractor, would have to be thrown out. Council passed the law, 20-0.
Shortly after the vote, Dolan said he saw John Allega in a meeting in Council President Polensek's office. Less than two months later, Polensek introduced his legislation to repeal Dolan's.
Former Mayor Mike White, reached at home last week, said he knows nothing about Chem Ty. "Don't know 'em, don't know anything about 'em, don't have anything to say," White said. More...
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By the time this investigation is done, you can expect Mike White to be indicted.
The basics of construction management and awarding of contracts were completely disregarded in awarding of this contract. After contracts are awarded, there are many safety measures in place to minimize these abuses, which were also ignored.
The very simple fact that Allega's minority sub contractor's address was an abandoned house should have been enough to throw out his bid.
Henry Guzman, ran the Office of Equal Opportunity, which oversaw minority participation in the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport expansion and other city projects. Governor Ted Strickland recently named him as our states public safety director.
It is astounding that elected officials could have ignored and allowed the obvious to continue for so long. The abuses on the runway contract will go down as one of the biggest frauds perpetrated on the residents of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland.
What is alarming about this is that the sewer district (run by the county) wants to raise rates, Mayor Jackson wants more control of water lines and to raise rates, not to mention his visions of grandeur on his neighborhood projects, waste in the building dept., uncollected parking fees, convention center tax, etc...
The same city and county elected officials who have allowed these abuses want more money for their pet projects and visions for the city / county. We need to speak up and these officials need to be held accountable. The waste and questionable practices have to stop immediately.
Cleveland & Cuyahoga County has been run by democrats for the last 15-20 years or so. When some of the elected democrats were asked why Cleveland and Cuyahoga County is so bad off, the response usually was "Well, the state is run by republicans and they are to blame."
Now that Columbus has been "shaken up" a little bit in the last election, it is time to start doing some "shaking up" around Cuyahoga County and Cleveland.
KING
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