| | | Rosedale lies in wait as council worries over park contracts | | November 18, 2009 |  | | | Staff Writer | | A $4.2 million contract to manage construction of 19 park and recreation facilities is "void," the top lawyer for the city's chief financial officer testified last week at a D.C. Council roundtable.
And case law indicates that the city will not owe Banneker Ventures any money for work already done, acting general counsel Stephen Lyons told D.C. Council members investigating the murky contracting controversy.
He acknowledged that other city lawyers, including Attorney General Peter Nickles, dispute that conclusion.
"But our position is, it's not a valid contract," Lyons said. Because it did not come to the council for approval, "the parties should have understood the contract is void," he said.
"So the work must stop?" asked Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans.
"If contracts are void, the money should be returned," Lyons said.
Banneker Ventures, a small four-year-old company chosen as project manager for the various parks projects, has become the focus of council scrutiny in part because its owner, Omar Karim, is a close friend and fraternity brother of Mayor Adrian Fenty.
But the $86 million in contracts that Banneker was to supervise have also raised questions because of charges that they were funneled through the D.C. Housing Authority in an effort to avoid council review. The council by law reviews all contracts more than $1 million, but council members were out of the loop when Banneker was chosen, and again when it helped choose general contractors for the individual jobs.
Among the projects caught up in the fight is the $16 million Rosedale Community Center in Ward 6, where the mayor and Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells held a groundbreaking in October. Rosedale, which was set to receive a brand-new 22,000-square-foot structure and a 4,000-square-foot library, is the most expensive project on the list.
Northeast Capitol Hill (ANC 6A) advisory neighborhood commissioner Gladys Mack, whose single-member district includes Rosedale, said construction workers began setting up equipment at the 17th and Gales streets site shortly after the groundbreaking, but that work stopped immediately after the allegations about park contracts were made.
“Mayor Fenty hit the building so it’s unsafe to build around the building at all,” Mack said, referring to the groundbreaking where Fenty operated the crane to make the first gash in the old building. “We’re in limbo and it’s unfair for this community to be in this type of situation. … They’re playing politics.”
Council members, in the midst of a four-committee investigation into the contracts, are clearly worried they will be blamed for any delay in park construction projects.
"The council has budgeted money for these projects, and we will see they get done. But if they're done wrong, it always costs more," said Ward 3 member Mary Cheh.
"If there's a cloud on one of these contracts, there's a cloud on all of them," said at-large member Michael Brown. He suggested that the parks and recreation contracts simply be rescinded, then awarded to the second-place bidders. "Then we don't have to start from scratch," he said.
General contractors for all the projects have been selected, but the contracts have not yet been signed. Officials are now promising to submit for council review projects that cost more than $1 million. In the meantime, chief financial officer Natwar Gandhi has said he will freeze transfer of any more parks funds to the housing authority.
At the roundtable, the third in a series this fall, deputy mayor for planning and economic development Valerie Santos defended the channeling of contracts — from the Department of Parks and Recreation through her office to a subsidiary of the housing authority. She said it was "the cheapest, fastest and most efficient path to deliver first-rate community and recreation facilities." She said the housing authority has "streamlined contracting authority and construction expertise" to speed up long-stalled projects.
Santos said all the contracts were competitively bid, and that Banneker's payment was in line with industry standards. And she pleaded with the council not to hold up funding.
"Cancellation and starting over would have a dramatic impact. It could easily take another year if we started from complete scratch," she said.
But Santos herself came under fire for not producing two aides from her office who were asked to testify Monday, both of whom were deeply involved in the routing of the parks contracts.
Both development director David Jannerone and project manager Jacquelyn Glover will be subpoenaed to testify at a later date, and to answer questions about Glover's alleged ties to Banneker. Ward 5 member Harry Thomas said Glover's resume appears as part of Banneker's bid package.
"I was told it was a mistake," Santos replied, saying Glover never worked for Banneker. Later, Santos added, "They made her a job offer, which she turned down."
Asked if her office played a direct role in the awarding of the Banneker contract, Santos said, "Someone from our office was on the selection committee. It was indeed Jackie Glover."
Another Fenty administration witness appeared under subpoena. Interim Department of Parks and Recreation director Ximena Hartsock, whose nomination to head the agency was rejected by the council, said it is "established practice" for her department to partner with other city agencies to get work done.
Hartsock said the department has 85 active capital projects, and officials decided before her tenure to transfer some projects to the deputy mayor for economic development to ensure "successful and timely completion."
A date has not yet been set for the next roundtable, when Jannerone and Glover will be subpoenaed to testify. Thomas, chair of the council's Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, said he also wants former parks director Clark Ray to testify. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
| |
|
