Trails in the Sand by Peter Traceit, the Street Detective
Ol Pete has been gliding through a maze of trails looking for dirt and it would seem that summertime would be a slow time for the tunnels. But Ol Pete is learning that there are plenty things that go bump in the night, especially when those doing the bumping think everyone else is sleeping.
Like most others, Pete has kept his eye on the ball that bounces back and forth on issues related to students and their learning; however, there is another ball that is at play dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars around construction. Pete is learning there is as much or even more money dealing with construction as there is with instruction. These are the buildings that our students sit in. Ol Pete is on the trail and is following the money.
The Detective took a detour and began digging into school board policy around conflict of interest and like most of Broward’s policies, they are not clear. But the lack of clarity with school board policies does not absolve employees of following state statutes that outline conflict of interest. The Detective is sleuthing that there may be an abundance of conflict of interests in these sand trails as it relates to vendor selection and construction projects. Pete is learning that there are those who would recuse themselves from processes but keep their hands just close enough to the pile to keep stirring the sand. Pete is wondering how does one recuse himself from a process because of a conflict of interest, yet recommend a rejection of all bids for the same?
Peter Traceit is learning that the rejection of all bids may need some rejecting. It appears that this process of rejecting all bids perhaps is being used to reverse the award when someone doesn’t like who is getting it. Ol Pete is sleuthing and it ain’t looking good for those going bump in the night.
Detective Traceit went back to review the latest Grand Jury report, and it was riddled with findings dealing with corruption around construction projects. Every Grand Jury finding for Broward Schools has focused on construction corruption, and the Detective predicts there will be another Grand Jury investigation in the near future. It appears to Ol Pete that the corruption around construction processes and projects will be center stage… again and some people will be caught up knowingly and others unknowingly.
The Street Detective was made aware of an interesting analysis that outlines the award of construction projects where individuals consistently rated one company much higher than another during the vendor selection process. It would appear that members of the selection committee, though not all employees of Broward schools, may have been strategic, ensuring particular vendors whose Boards they sit on or vice versa were awarded contracts.
Ol Pete is thinking: while they are not all employees of the school district, don’t school district employees have a responsibility to ensure these sorts of conflicts of interests do not happen?
Peter Traceit was able to examine documents that listed owners, board members and staff for the various companies and the overlap of names would have made it clear to Ray Charles that a conflict of interest was evident between the selection committee members and a particular company that responded to the request for proposal and ultimately won it. How do you rate the proposal of a vendor/company who sits on your Board or vice versa? Is it a coincidence that the ratings on each category was much higher than that of the competing company. Is it a coincidence that the company that won the bid turned around and hired subcontractors affiliated with the company, whose owner evaluated and scored the proposal request, ultimately won.
Did district staff turn a blind eye? Are district staff or former district staff in collusion?
Though non-school board employees may not be required to recuse themselves due to a conflict of interest, the question is whether School Board officials who are aware of these conflicts should exclude or excuse these evaluators from participating in the vendor selection process?
Ol Pete is wondering if it might be possible that these individuals are placed on these selection committees by school board employees who are aware of these conflicts? If so, why? Ol Pete is thinking, “Follow the money.”
Inquiring minds would like to know, and Peter Traceit, the Street Detective, is continuing to dig through construction debris for any remnants you can use.
