City schools ignore roofer’s track record

The company Columbus City Schools gave $1.25 million in roofing work to without competitive bidding just settled a multimilliondollar lawsuit with the state over defective school roofs and paid the federal

government $61 million in 2013 for failing to provide taxpayers with required discounts.

About a month ago, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission and Waverly Schools settled a lawsuit with the company, Beachwood-based Tremco, related to materials used on a four-school project in the Pike County district. Tremco agreed to pay Waverly schools $3.78 million and replace or repair the defective, leaking roofs that it had installed, according to the settlement.

“While the material did not meet the contract specifications, most importantly the material was not compliant with the Ohio Building Code,” according to an explanation by the State Controlling Board in December. The material “was not fire rated or uplift tested for the purposes of wind resistance ... requiring that the schools be closed if wind speeds are expected to reach 60 miles an hour.”

In 2013, Tremco paid the federal government $60.9 million to settle a false-claims lawsuit dealing with roofs it installed at federal facilities, the Justice Department said at the time. Tremco failed to provide discounts it gave other customers, which was against the rules, and allegedly marketed expensive materials to federal agencies without disclosing that the same materials were sold at a lower cost under other names.

The case came about through a whistleblower, former Tremco Vice President Gregory Rudolph, who collected almost $11 million of the payout for revealing the scheme.

Tremco was “trying to cheat the American taxpayer out of a fair deal,” the Justice Department said said in 2013. “Companies that knowingly skirt the rules for

securing government business undermine the integrity of the procurement process and create an unfair advantage against companies that are playing by the rules. We are committed to ensuring a level playing field and protecting taxpayer dollars.”

Columbus school officials were aware of the lawsuits against Tremco and, after discussing them with the company, felt comfortable the firm would deliver quality work, district spokesman Scott Varner said.

The method Columbus City Schools used to bypass bidding on the work awarded Tremco — and millions of dollars in other recent construction work involving roofs, a new running track and heating and ventilating systems — is called “cooperative purchasing.” It is under attack nationally by groups representing contractors, material suppliers, architects and engineers as being anti-competitive, potentially inflating prices on public projects.

The district invited Tremco to do two school roofing projects this year from a cooperative purchasing service, in which public agencies pool resources in order to maximize purchasing power and drive down prices. Part of the deal was that Tremco had to work with a Local Economically Disadvantaged Enterprise, or LEAD, which the Columbus Board of Education has said should get 20 percent of all district contracts.

OhioMBE, a business publication that caters to small and minority-owned businesses, reported in December that the district had failed to meet that 20 percent goal for four straight years. The district began holding meetings this year with minority vendors, who pressured it to change the system to send more business their way.

A month ago, Tremco agreed to work with J & G Demolition,

based in De Graff, about 50 miles northwest of Columbus in Logan County, on Dominion Middle School’s roof. J & G owner Juanita Weeks is a registered LEAD with the district. The two companies teamed up on another unbid roofing project earlier this year. Weeks said she employs about a dozen fulltime workers, most of whom live in Columbus, making her a local business under the district’s definition.

“National cooperative purchasing contracts are competitively bid in advance rather than on a project-by-project basis,” Tremco said in a written statement. “Among the advantages to the customer is that a competitive price is established and remains fixed for the duration of the contract,” and that the firm assumes “all the cost and risk in delivering the established contract prices for the highest quality products and services.

“We stand by our results in the states where our roofing systems have been purchased through the cooperative process.”

Some aren’t comfortable with the process.

“Years ago, it was illegal to bid like this,” said Gary Mays, president of Mays Consulting in Delaware, an engineering firm that has done roofing work in more than 140 Ohio school districts. “I’m sure there are a lot of high-paid lobbyists involved that are really pushing this type of thing. It’s really hurting small suppliers, architects, engineers and contractors.”

Tremco will replace the Dominion Middle School roof for about $15.20 a square foot with a 20-year warranty.

Flat-roof remove-andreplace jobs typically cost between $8 and $12 per square foot but can run higher or lower based on the building, Mays said.