Report Details Contractor Corruption at Cleveland Hopkins

Jan. 15, 2007
A just released copy of a 2005 probe by the mayor'office found that minority contractors were paid by a concrete contractor for doing little or no work on $500 million expansion project.

Ricardo Teamor, a minority contractor who has admitted to the FBI that he collected tens of thousands of dollars for doing little work during Cleveland's $500 million airport expansion project, walked into contractor John Allega's office in 2002 with a proposal: Hand over more cash on the airport job.

But Allega, who had the main contract for the expansion and hired Teamor's company as a minority subcontractor, balked. The talk grew heated, and Teamor threatened to kill Allega and his family, Allega told police after the meeting.

The description of the meeting comes from lawyers who investigated allegations that Allega paid minority contractors, including Teamor's company, for work they didn't do on the big airport job.

The lawyers, hired by Cleveland, found evidence to support the allegations, according to a 2005 report released Friday.

"The nature and circumstances of the abuses that appear to have occurred on the project suggest that there is a wider level of abuse" in the city's minority contractor programs, the 13-page report says.

The investigation, by Hahn Loeser & Parks, was ordered by then-Mayor Jane Campbell after Teamor told the FBI he was paid for doing no work. After Frank Jackson was elected mayor, he promised to release the report as soon as he took office in January 2005. But after he was sworn in, he reneged on his promise, refusing to release the report until Friday, despite repeated requests by The Plain Dealer.

Craig Owen White, a partner with Hahn Loeser & Parks, reported that a "significant" amount of the work attributed to Teamor's company was actually performed by Allega's company, Anthony Allega Cement Contractors Inc.

White also found evidence that another of Allega's minority subcontractors, Chem-Ty Environmental, "did very little of the work attributed to it under its subcontract."

Allega overstated the work done by a third minority subcontractor, Bradley Construction, the report said. "The level of its actual participation was disproportionately small compared to that which was credited to its subcontract," White wrote.

As a result of "these special arrangements," White concluded, the total value of work credited to minority contractors was "materially higher" than the work subcontractors actually performed.

The law firm could not locate Chem-Ty. Neither Allega nor officials for Bradley Construction could be reached Friday for comment.

White said the investigation was inconclusive as to whether any crime was committed, but the report recommended that the city consider suing or fining the contractors.

He reported that the city law governing the participation of minority and female companies on city projects was so "poorly conceived and drafted" that it was easily circumvented. The report also found that the participation of legitimate minority contractors on city projects is "compromised on a routine basis."

After receiving the report, Jackson launched his own investigation. But administration spokeswoman Maureen Harper declined Friday to release the findings of that probe.

"The investigation is complete and we are moving forward with our findings and will take appropriate action," according to a statement released by Harper.

Teamor, a onetime associate of former Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, was sentenced in 2005 to four months in prison and four months of house arrest. He could not be reached Friday at his Aurora home.

He paid bribes to former Cleveland Councilman Joe Jones, who was forced to resign in 2005 after pleading guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced last week to six months of house arrest.

As part of his plea deal, Teamor told prosecutors about widespread corruption during the airport expansion when White was mayor.

He said he allowed his construction company to be used as a front company to help contractors get around a city program requiring that some work be subcontracted to companies owned by minorities.

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