Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993 TAG: 9311090156
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In a preliminary report released Monday, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that Chesapeake-based Armada/Hoffler Corp. received "special attention" from the then-head of the state's General Services Department.
The company was cut from a list of bidders for the multimillion-dollar project and then restored to it.
"It also appears that the actual decision to restore Armada/Hoffler . . . to the list as [a] qualified candidate was appropriate," the report added.
Armada/Hoffler - whose chairman, Daniel A. Hoffler, is a friend and former campaign treasurer of Gov. Douglas Wilder - eventually won the $15.6 million contract for "Phase 2" of the renovation.
The project is at least $9 million over budget and six months behind schedule. Dozens of workers were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos fibers during the work.
Last month, Wilder fired the head of the General Services Department, Raymond Patterson, and ordered an investigation. The commission's independent probe is to be concluded in December.
Among other preliminary findings:
While Armada/Hoffler received "prompt, extensive and high-level attention" from Patterson when it was cut from the bidder's list, another company, also cut and eventually restored, was not given similar treatment.
A Salem firm, HDH Associates, which was awarded the "Phase 1" contract to survey the building for asbestos, acknowledged that what it learned from the work gave it an advantage in competing for - and winning - the later asbestos design contract for $455,270.
The company got an additional $114,865 because of later, unscheduled changes in the project. Joe Hale, president of HDH in Salem, did not respond to a request for comment.
State Secretary of Administration Ruby Martin, who oversees General Services, may be called to task in the final report for her "response to General Services' problems over time."
According to the commission, Martin said she first learned from September newspaper articles about an asbestos emergency that occurred in the downtown building in March.
"This lack of awareness or response to the problem appears to be similar to the lack of action that was taken on critical reports about [General Services] procurement practices dating from 1990," the study said.
Martin was out of the country and unavailable for comment Monday. Wilder's press secretary did not respond to a request for comment.
Hoffler, who in September insisted to reporters that his ties to the governor had nothing to do with his firm's getting the renovation work, said Monday that he has "nothing to hide."
"I don't think I got any special treatment," he said. "Anyone in government should have handled the case promptly if they knew they were keeping a qualified company from bidding."
Armada/Hoffler was reinstated on the bidder's list after Hoffler had lunch with Patterson. He provided new references, which were discussed during the luncheon.
After the meeting, the commission found, Patterson told the building committee to restore Armada/Hoffler to the bidder's list.
North Carolina-based Tiber-Thompkins also was excluded from the list initially, but an individual two levels below Patterson was assigned to handle that company's complaint. Tiber-Thompkins' new references weren't checked until Armada-Hoffler had been restored to the list, according to the study, though the company was placed on the list in time to bid on the project.
"If they weren't pre-qualified [for the list] and felt they should have been, they should have handled it in the way they felt appropriate," Hoffler said of Tiber-Thompkins.
"I don't want it to seem like we lobbied officials for special favors. That was never the case," Hoffler said.
The commission concluded that the state should finish work on the building given its investment in the project - about $43 million. The agency also called for better organization and communication within the General Services Department.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.