Left: A rendering of the proposed basketball facility at the St. Elizabeths East Campus. Right: One of the city’s requests for proposal for the project, which will serve the Wizards and Mystics.
The head of the D.C. Department of General Services has resigned and two top staffers are being forced out after a company that has been a key contributor to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s campaigns lost out on two major city construction contracts, sources tell WAMU 88.5.
The sources say the shakeup comes after Fort Myer Construction failed to win city contracts for infrastructure improvements for a new soccer stadium at Buzzard Point and the St. Elizabeths East Campus, the future Southeast D.C. home of the Washington Wizards practice facility and an arena for the Washington Mystics.
City Administrator Rashad Young asked DGS Director Christopher Weaver to fire two staff members involved in the contracting process, according to sources. Weaver declined to dismiss them. On Aug. 12, he resigned. On Aug. 15, the city placed the two staffers on administrative leave.
Christopher Weaver (dgs.dc.gov)
The city administrator says the personnel decisions have nothing to do with Fort Myer Construction. “It is not about an issue of a particular vendor,” Young says. Rather, the move was tied to broad concerns about how contracts are awarded, Young says. “It’s about accountability, democracy and public trust.”
WAMU has spoken with more than a half-dozen people who have direct knowledge of the events and who confirm the resignation and the dismissals. These sources have been granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the personnel moves and because they fear retribution.
At issue is why the city administrator wanted Weaver to remove the two staffers at DGS, which manages D.C.’s public construction projects and oversees billions of dollars in contracts.
Multiple sources tell WAMU that the Bowser administration showed great interest in the contracts that Fort Myer didn’t win. The city forced out the two top-level staffers involved in contract decisions, the sources said.
Weaver confirmed the administration’s interest in a letter he dated Aug. 21: “The contract awards in Buzzard Point Project and the St. Elizabeths East Campus Infrastructure Project generated significant interest from the City Administrator’s Office and the Mayor’s Legal Counsel in DGS’ decision to award these contracts.”
Young says his interest in the contracts was driven by how DGS was picking the winners. DGS had started using a scoring system that reduced the preference for local construction firms when awarding big contracts. In city jargon, local firms are called certified business enterprises, or CBEs. In the old system, CBEs got up to 12 preference points toward a 100-point maximum. In the new system, those 12 points are diluted because the maximum is now 200 points.
“Changing the preference that CBEs have long enjoyed in contracting is a tremendous problem,” Young says. “It is inconsistent with the values of this administration.”
Company protests
Fort Myer Construction — a local infrastructure firm best known for its street-paving work in D.C. — is a CBE. As previous WAMU reports have shown, the company is also a major political backer of Bowser, donating tens of thousands dollars to her campaigns over the past decade through its company, affiliates, employees and family members. Fort Myer also donated more money than anyone else — $20,000 — to Fresh PAC, the now-defunct political action committee set up to aid Bowser.
Fort Myer did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In February, the city opened the bidding to redevelop St. Elizabeths East. Documents show Fort Myer bid $16 million. Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co., one of the nation’s biggest construction firms, bid $6 million.
“ There is absolutely no favoritism. — Rashad Young, D.C. city administrator
In June, DGS awarded the contract to Gilbane. While Gilbane’s offer would save taxpayers roughly $10 million, Fort Myer scored slightly better on a technical evaluation of the bids.
A short time later, Fort Myer filed a protest with the District’s contract appeals board to have the St. Elizabeths contract overturned. Fort Myer says in its protest document that DGS’s new scoring system demonstrates “antipathy” toward local firms by “diluting” the preference given to CBEs.
After Fort Myer’s protest, the city was left with a decision: renegotiate the contract or move forward with Gilbane in a process that allows the city to override the automatic stay triggered by a contract protest.
Sources tell WAMU that Young, the city administrator, directed DGS to hold off on filing the paperwork with Gilbane for almost two months as officials weighed their options.
In July, the city administrator’s office interviewed DGS staff at the Wilson Building about the contract selection process and the reasons the agency picked Gilbane over Fort Myer. The letter from Weaver, the former DGS director, also confirms these meetings.
At the same time, Young’s office asked DGS to amend the St. Elizabeths contract to double the amount of money Gilbane must spend on subcontracts with local firms — which could include Fort Myer. Sources say the change may have been intended to persuade Fort Myer to drop its protest.
In early August, Young reportedly met with Weaver, a retired Navy rear admiral whom Bowser chose to lead DGS a year ago. According to several sources, Young told Weaver the city would proceed with the Gilbane contract.
But they say he also asked Weaver to fire two top-level DGS staffers involved in the selection process: Assistant Director for Contracting and Procurement Yinka Alao and Deputy General Counsel Carlos Sandoval.
Shakeup at DGS
Weaver did not fire the two. He resigned on Aug. 12, citing “personal obligations.” WAMU’s attempts to reach Weaver by phone and text were not successful.
Documents show that on that same day, Alao signed a “Determination and Findings to Proceed” document that essentially overrode the protest and said D.C. would move forward with the Gilbane contract. The letter cited the $10 million price difference between the two bids and noted that because demolition was already under way in the area, any hold-up could delay the new basketball facility as well as a new water tower for Ward 8.
Emails provided to WAMU by the mayor’s office show that at this point, Young endorsed the DGS decision to move ahead with Gilbane.
Three days later, Alao was placed on administrative leave. He is a 10-year employee who had once lead the “integrity and procurement” division for the city’s contracting department.
At the same time, sources say, Sandoval was also placed on administrative leave. He was twice awarded the most prestigious award in the city’s Office of the Attorney General.
In the letter WAMU obtained, former DGS director Weaver calls Sandoval “a conscientious and ethical public servant who followed the law and the proper process in the execution of his duties.”
The city ultimately would not comment on why the employees were dismissed, citing “personnel reasons.” But the administration says the fact that D.C. ended up supporting Gilbane shows it would be wrong to infer that Fort Myer held any sway over city officials.
“There is absolutely no favoritism,” says Young, the city administrator. “My role in this was cemented when this became a problem that had to be solved.”
