In the March 13, 2014 edition of the Arizona Republic there is a story by Paul Giblin and Craig Harris entitled Contract violated Glendale Policies. Here is the link: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2014/03/13/contract-violated-glendale-policies/6359209/ .
It reports that former City Attorney Craig Tindall may have used his influence to award a no-bid contract for the city’s external audit to a friend, Jose de Jesus Rivera of the firm of Haralson, Miller, Pitt, Feldman and McAnally. Apparently Tindall was close enough and comfortable enough to Rivera to send an email on his city computer soliciting tax exempt tuition funding for his son.
Typically contracts over $50,000 are required by city policy to go out to bid as a Request for Proposal (RFP). As a professional services contract that requirement may not have been necessary but there remains a question of undue influence. Surely for a contract of this dollar amount, while not required to go to bid, it may have been prudent to do so. Members of the Glendale City Council seem to be shrugging their shoulders while kicking the can down the road and alluding to “that’s the way it has always been done.” They don’t want any part of this latest debacle.
By the end of the external audit the cost would be over half a million dollars, ten times the amount required for an RFP. Rivera thought there would be an RFP and asked Tindall via email about its timing and release. Instead Tindall submitted a memo to then Interim City Manager Horatio Skeete recommending the use of Rivera and his law firm. Skeete wanted to put the contract out for bid and to issue an RFP but for reasons unknown that did not occur. The result of the external audit was to place blame on Skeete and to completely exonerate Tindall. Could it have been that Rivera, as Tindall’s friend, was well aware of the bad blood between Tindall and Skeete? As friends it appears plausible they may have discussed it. Did that knowledge play any role in the final outcome of the external audit? It seems to be worth your consideration and your decision.
Was the external audit result payback to Skeete by Tindall for having lost his bid to become Interim City Manager? It there a connection between Tindall’s failed attempt to become Interim City Manager and the audit conclusions? You will have to decide. It was a bloody battle for the position of Interim City Manager. Tindall’s supporters on city staff lobbied me and I assume, the rest of council, disparaging Skeete. No such effort occurred on the part of Skeete or any supporters he had. During this period Tindall apparently stalled contracts and other documents on his desk seemingly in an effort to further bloody Skeete’s nose. Council was evenly split between the two candidates and it was Alvarez who broke the tie in favor of Skeete. It appears that Tindall wanted the position far more than he was willing to admit publicly and was disappointed that he did not prevail.
The Republic story goes on to say that Tindall is under on-going investigation by the state Attorney General’s regarding the issuance of this no-bid contract. He is also under an on-going investigation by the state bar as a result of a complaint filed by former Councilmember Phil Lieberman regarding a presumed conflict of interest. Lieberman’s complaint alleges Tindall was employed by the city while he also was general counsel to IceArizona, successful bidders on the Jobing.com Arena management contract, constituting a conflict of interest. I do remember a conversation had with Tindall during the period of the Jamison bid for the arena management contract and his assertion that he was talking to other “serious” bidders ready to come forward if the Jamison bid failed. Was Anthony LeBlanc, of IceArizona, one of those “serious” bidders? How much information about the Jamison bid was shared with these “serious” bidders? Skeete alleged to me, and presumably other councilmembers, that Tindall appeared to be holding up negotiations as the Jamison contracts sat on his desk for inordinately long periods of time. When Skeete was queried as to his awareness of the most recent Jamison contract amendments, his response was that Tindall still had them and he had not seen them. Were these actions by Tindall more payback to Skeete or even worse, was it an attempt to railroad the Jamison bid in favor of these other “serious” bidders? I don’t know and don’t know if we will ever find out. All we know is that there are connections – between Tindall and Rivera; Tindall and Skeete; and Tindall and “serious” bidders for the arena management contract. What part these connections played in the outcomes is yet to be discovered.
© Joyce Clark, 2014
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You really need to be better with your facts.
Your implication “Was Anthony LeBlanc, of IceArizona, one of those ‘serious’ bidders?” is the best example of a poor memory.
Anthony LeBlanc certainly had significant information about the Jamison bid. If you check your facts and memory, you will discover Anthony LeBlanc was sitting with Greg Jamison in the front row of the Council chambers when you voted to approve the deal for Jamison. Why? Because he was a partner in the deal.
I am well aware of the fact that LeBlanc was a member of Jamison’s group. Shortly after, they parted company and LeBlanc was not part of Jamison’s final bid group. LeBlanc was at that time forming his own group and was no longer privy to Jamison’s actions.
Hey “Art,”
George Costanza of Seinfield fame used the nom de plume of “Art Vandelay” when he didn’t have the courage or fortitude to use his real name. Afraid to let the world know who you really are? I will not entertain any more commentary from you under the circumstances.
Hey “Art,”
George Costanza of Seinfield fame used the nom de plume, “Art Vandelay” when he didn’t have the courage or fortitude to use his real name. Afraid to let the world know who you really are???
Joyce i agree with you lots of monkey business, from what I know Mr. Skeete and the others were railroad and did not stand a chance. This is unfortunate because from what I saw during the time Mr. Skeete was interim City Manager he started to make some bold changes to the way things were being done in Glendale. He facilitated a very difficult discussion with the council about the state of the city’s finances and presented a high level plan as to what needed to be done. He was bold enough to say to the city council that the $15m contract to manage the arena was a bad idea and one that the city could not afford, Mr. Bowers also agree with him on that analysis . At best according to your analysis in the previous posting the amount he was proposing that the city pay to manage the arena is about what the city would collect this year from the new management at the arena.
I would have like to see what that plan would have looked like in details. So far this new group of managers seems to be avoiding thus discussion only wanting the city council to continue the tax increase as the only solution to our problems. Oh according to my friends at city hall the other solution is to outsource som of the essential services as if that will truly save the city money. I hope before the city council fall for that trick they would do some resource and find out what are the true facts about outsourcing.
The one thing I can say about Skeete is that he made the best deal he could re: IceAz and when bluntly asked as the one who knew the finances in and out if he could personally support the deal he said he could not. He then got chewed up as a hypocrite by some Coyote fans for making a deal then coming out against it, as if he was supposed to ,ignore his principles, lie, and support the deal just because he couldn’t make it any better then he did.
Joyce, regarding the lack of the audit going to bid, it is clear there is no legal requirement. The AZ Central article states that the “contract violated glendale policies”. While no ordinance was violated, anf the authors of the article never state any ordinance or law was broken, does Glenale have a policy that says any contract over $50,000 should be considered for a bid just to be safe? Or is there just a common thought that a bid be considered as a matter of course? Is Giblin and Harris referring to a policy or otherwise something tanglible when they say a policy was violated? Thanks.
Giblin did respond via a tweet backing up his story. Sorry, I didn’t save the tweet. While there is no ordinance or law mandating such action. In an effort to be above board and transparent the contract should have gone to bid. Tindall’s friend, Rivera, who got the work, expected an RFP and Skeete wanted one.
Giblin is splitting hairs when it comes to the accusation that the audit contract violates city “policy.” You’ve even stated that professional services contracts aren’t bound by the $50K limit, so it boils down to how do you classify the work done by Rivera’s firm?? Were they performing a personal service for the then City Attorney Tindall or not??
I fully agree that in light of the operation of the city manager’s office under Ed Beasley’s watch this should have been sent to open bid. But for the purposes of defining whether or not city policies were violated, Giblin (and his co-author) are making some very liberal interpretations here of Glendale policies and is interjecting his/their own editorializing in the article in addition to just sticking to reporting the facts.
This isn’t anything new for the Arizona Republic. A few years ago another AZR reporter went on a similar campaign against a friend of mine who was serving on the city council for the City of Surprise.