
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210537
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

WILDER GROUP SUES PRINTER OVER BILLING

Gov. Douglas Wilder's inaugural committee has sued a Richmond company that billed the group $192,300 to print invitations for the governor's Jan. 13 swearing-in ceremony.

The committee, which filed the suit Wednesday in Richmond Circuit Court, said its action followed several attempts to negotiate a lower price with Joyce Office Products Centers. Joyce denied that claim, saying there had been no recent negotiations.

"I think this either will stimulate the discussions or cause it to be settled by the court," Robert J. Grey Jr., the committee's lawyer, said of the suit. "I think at this point we're at an impasse."

Joyce's bill was $42,000 more than the state budgeted for the entire swearing-in ceremony. The state has paid Joyce about $43,793, roughly $148,500 short of what the company said it is owed.

Joyce president Larry Faulkner said he has talked with state government officials since the dispute became public three weeks ago, but has been unable to speak with the inaugural committee, which is a private group.

"I've called, and they've been avoiding us like the plague," Faulkner said. "If they lose, they'll also pay the lawyers' fees."

The committee planned the public swearing-in, an event traditionally paid for by state taxpayers.

In the lawsuit, the committee maintains it was told by a Joyce representative there would not be "a substantial price difference" between Wilder's invitations and those prepared by the company four years earlier for the inauguration of then-Gov. Gerald Baliles. The state paid about $50,000 for Baliles' invitations.

The company has said Baliles ordered far fewer than Wilder and used a much simpler, cheaper design.

The lawsuit says Joyce did not tell the committee until it submitted its bill what the charge was likely to be or that it would be substantially greater than the price for the Baliles invitations.

Faulkner said Wilder's staff never asked for the price of the invitations. In addition to the larger number ordered, a larger paper was used and a more complicated, multicolored image of the state seal was requested, driving up the costs, the company said.

by CNB