Halifax Paving FOI
.Follow the Money Dirt ….
Good morning Robin,.
Theresa sent over some documents from my Public Information Request regarding Bid B05-04 with Halifax Paving. She says more are to follow, but thank you for what has been delivered so far.
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You may have already noticed the fairly detailed requirements for measurement and verification of amounts of fill removed from the site as well as the very specific schedule for Halifax to make payments to the City contained in B05-04. Page one of Section 00500 reads:
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A deposit shall be made representing 5% of the contract amount. It shall be held as retainage by the City. The retainage will be released concurrent with contract completion..Not later than the fifteenth (15th) day of each calendar month, the Contractor will make a partial payment to the City on the basis of a duly certified and approved estimate by the Engineer of material acquired during the preceding calendar month under this Contract..Upon completion of the entire purchase of fill material, the Engineer shall make a final inspection and certify such completion to the Owner.
Sections 00300, 01025, and 01300 specify start and completion dates and provide more details on measurement and payment and other specifics of the agreement. Certainly this information in the original contract should make tracking the payments as well as the actual movement of fill material much easier since the Engineer (presumably QLH) and the Contractor (Halifax) were both required to keep records.
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(The documents that Theresa sent me were lacking Addendum No 2 to Bid B05-04, so if you could check on that I would appreciate it.)
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With this type of detailed information available I have every confidence that we can track down the “missing” million dollars and the two lakes full of fill dirt.
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Best,
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Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
Just trying to give the City as much help as I can, so sent the following to Margaret Roberts, City Attorney.
Ever helpful,
Mike Gardner
Dear Margaret,
I recently received from the City of Port Orange a copy of the October 6, 2009 Settlement and Modification Agreement between Halifax Paving and the City. Prior to this agreement the City had paid Saboungi Construction Co over $109,000.00, in large part because Halifax Paving was late in delivering fill dirt, and delivered substandard fill dirt, to the Coraci Sports Park. Halifax was to reimburse the City for $100,000.00 of its costs and the specifics of that reimbursement are spelled out in the October 6th Agreement. Some of those specifics follow:
2. Settlement Amount. The Settlement Amount shall be paid as follows:
a. $40,000.00 payment to City’s counsel’s trust account to be released upon the City’s approval and execution of this Release and Modification Agreement; and
b. $60,000.00 in the form of a credit for future services from Halifax under the Contract, which Contract is hereby incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this Agreement. The value of services rendered shall be as currently stated in the parties’ Contract.
I’m not sure if “City’s counsel’s trust account” refers to an account that you maintain as City Attorney or if it refers to one maintained by an outside attorney who represented the City on this matter, but it should make tracing of the $40,000.00 an easy matter. Everyone knows that improprieties in an attorney’s escrow accounts can have terrible consequences for their careers, so attorneys are very meticulous about their records.
Please consider this a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act for proof of payment into City’s counsel’s trust account of $40,000.00 from Halifax Paving and its subsequent release to the City. Since proof that Halifax Paving did in fact “work off” the remaining $60,000.00 of their debt is probably something that you can not provide, I have requested that information elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-527-1959
manddgardner@cfl.rr.com
Good Mike. Thank you for pursing all this. It is interesting and very important. I look forward to see what the ultimate conclusion is in inquiries.
Mike, Keep up the good work, there will be much more facilitative direction to come that will augment your due diligence in connecting the dots.
Looks like Fraudster found a thesaurus. Big words for such a small man.
It’s always the ethical insiders that start the ball rolling when they can’t stand the lies anymore. It’s truly a shame you guys with backbone have to remain anonymous or face having your careers and lives ruined.
Thanks for all you do.
Mike
Mike,
Here is another link I found that talks about the dirt. It shows quite a bit of information and some of the players in the companies handling the project. I hope this may be of some help to you in finding records of payment that match up. I know this is an item of interest This talks about phase 2 back in 2006.
https://www.port-orange.org/documents/meetings/regular/2006-02-07/00759_5534.pdf?item=6.pdf
Thanks for understanding Mike. Those of us with a backbone appreciate you following up on the leads that have been given. They certainly have not been unfounded but factual. It is our hope someday that Administration will operate fairly and transparently. Then we can work together with them without being blacklisted. It is very frustrating to see them avoid and mislead and make bad decisions. They have good talent at their disposal but refuse to allow it in to their inner circle. I fear that this behavior may be due to something bigger underlying and they are sure that those of us with a backbone would reveal it so that we can sleep at night. Thanks again for all that you do.
Hypocrisy from the Port Orange Dais.
Last week the city attorney was interrupting speakers at the council meeting telling them to stay on subject and the Mayor just sat there. A few weeks early the Mayor was all over councilman Bastion when he tried to speak out of turn. When and why did the city attorney become co-chairman for the council meetings? If she had some legal concern about the speakers subject she should be passing them on through the meetings chairman (Mayor) The only time i recall her interrupting speakers during meetings was when the subject was involving Halifax Paving – why is she so touchy about Halifax paving ?
It is the Mayor’s common practice to yell at speakers that do not appear to be his friends “hurry up” and “lets go it’s getting late” before they had any reasonable change to get to the microphone. He also starts the countdown 3-minute clock long before they do get to the microphone. Now fast forward to the last council meeting and Susan Stewart Griffith (a team player?) she rambled on and on with some senseless babble and not a peep out of the city attorney or the Mayor and she was allowed to continue past the 3-minute mark.
Is that hypocrisy or is that hypocrisy.