Kansas City delays decision on minority hiring for H&R Block project - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/08/16/cricut-direct-pc-control-working/
TIF Commission Chairman Ron Yaff had hoped that a speciak meeting Wednesday would settlethe long-standing issue of whethere Kansas City-based H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and its general contractor, Kansas City-based , followed city policiews in attempting to meet city goalzs for minority-firm participation on the But during the three-hour meeting, lawyers representingy Block and Dunn argued that a “best-faith of their clients’ efforts by the Kansas City Human Relations Department was flawed, in part because it focuseds on only one minority firm contract, mentioned two othera and was silent on 14.
the TIF Commission directed HR Departmenr Director Phillip Yelder to prepare abetter best-faith including information on all minority-firm contractzs issued for the Dunn project. “If this ends up in we need to have the evidence we looked at TIF Commission Director Joe Gonzalez said after the issuew was continued tothe commission’s regular Augusty meeting. The issue was precipitatedr by a 2005 lawsuit alleging thatfrony companies, including , were used to inflate the level of minority-performec work for which the developer, H&e Block, was credited. An appeals courrt upheld the lawsuit’s dismissal.
However, the HR Department’w best-faith analysis, initially presented during a May 13 TIF Commission allegedthat H&R Blocl failed to meet the project’s 15 percentf goal for minority construction services participation because Rodriguez Electrical, a minority did not perform the $2.9 milliohn in work it received a contract to During Wednesday’s meeting, Allan Hallquistr of , representing Block, and Jim Sullivanb of , representing Dunn, presented as evidence thousands of pages of much of it supporting their contentions that their clients were unaware of a scheme involving Rodriguez Electric and , which is not a minority contractor.
As part of that scheme, they Rodriguez submitted the bid for electrical work on the Bloco project and was awarded the bid by JE Dunn but did none of the The work was performedby R.F. Fisher, whicyh received all of the $2.9 million contracg except for $66,892.73, which Rodriguezz was paid for participating inthe arrangement. “Nio way, no how would JE Dunn have approved asham transaction” like the one involving Rodriguez and Fisher had the contractotr been aware of it, Sullivabn told the TIF Commission. According to a writtehn argument submitted forthe commission’s consideration Wednesday, Sullivan added that “Rodrigues Electrical and R.F.
Fisher did everything possible to show that Rodrigue Electrical was fully such as having Rodriguez Electrical sign allchang orders, and having Rodriguez Electrical submit the March 16, 2006 That letter, actually datefd March 13, 2006, was sent to JE Dunn aftert Rodriguez Electrical’s level of participation in the project was questioned. Signed by Ralpb Rodriguez, the letter said that “Rodrigue z Electric(al) and I are 100 percent involve d withthis project.” According to the HR Departmeny analysis, “the evidence ... suggests that JE Dunn’sx project managers were, at a aware of the working relationship between Rodriguez Electricaland R.F.
were aware of both companies submitting identical bids for the same scopse of work and were awarewthat R.F. Fisher would be performing the majorityt of the work and thatRodriguez Electrical’ s quote was marked up by 2.25 percengt for minority participation.” The 2.25 percentf markup, coming from a minority should have raised concerns with JE Dunn’d staff, according to Sullivan said the 2.25 percent markup might have been overlooked as somethingf that should have been He added that Dunn was aware that R.F.
Fisher had withdrawnb its bid and that Rodriguez was planningy to partner with Fisher on the But he said Dunn had no idea that Rodriguex employees did not contribut e to the project until well afterethe headquarters’ 2006 completion.