Warrant: City employee used fake bids to boost company

NORWALK — Police say William Howard, a Recreation and Parks employee, submitted fake bids for sporting goods equipment for years, alongside lower bids from a business he owns, according to the warrant for his arrest.

The lower bids from Howard’s company, Sonny & Bill’s Sports Center in Norwalk, were then picked over the higher, fake bids from two other companies, according to the document, which was filed in state Superior Court in Stamford. Over the course of five years, Howard’s company was paid $60,085 by the city.

The 70-year-old Norwalk resident was arrested last week and charged with 32 counts of second-degree forgery dating from 2016

through 2020.

The warrant, obtained Tuesday by Hearst Connecticut Media, provides new detail into the specific allegations against Howard.

Howard could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Norwalk detectives became aware of the forgeries after the superintendent of the recreation department contacted police in October last year. The superintendent told the two investigators she had received an invoice from Sonny & Bill’s Sports Center T-shirts and baseball equipment.

The superintendent told police “she saw a conflict with this since Bill Howard is an employee of the city of Norwalk and is a summer camp director,” according to the affidavit contained in the warrant.

Under rules adopted by city common council in 2014, the Recreation and Parks Department is required to solicit at least two quotes for purchases between $1,000 and $4,999. Companies that submit a bid are also not supposed to know the bids from other companies that give a quote.

The superintendent told police the athletic supervisor was supposed to solicit bids, but had told her Howard “had produced the quotes from the other vendors and that this is the process that has been used for years,” the warrant said.

When the superintendent reviewed the invoices for the past five years, she found Howard’s business had submitted 32 bids. In each of them, only one other bid was included, all of them from either Crown Prints in Norwalk or Crown Trophy in New Rochelle, N.Y.

In each case, the bids from Howard’s company came in lower than the competing bid from either of the two other companies, according to the warrant.

Investigators also noticed all of the competing bids appeared to be typed in the same format on a Word document.

When the detectives spoke to the respective owners of Crown Prints and Crown Trophy, both told investigators they had not submitted the bids, and both said they use Quicken Books, a different computer program, for bids. Both owners said they have known Howard for several years, but that he did not work for either company, the warrant stated.

Police attempted to speak to Howard in December, but he later declined to be interviewed by authorities through an attorney.

The attorney named in the warrant, Frank Bevilacqua of the Norwalk firm DePanfilis & Vallerie, did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.

Later that month, police interviewed the Recreation and Parks athletic supervisor about the bids. The athletic director told police he “liked to keep the business local” and would reach out to Howard “who he’s known for over 30 years” when equipment was needed each sports season.

The athletic director told police he would “contact Bill Howard and tell him what he needed and Howard would go and get other bids if needed,” the warrant stated.

When questioned by police, the athletic director said he noticed Howard’s company always came in with the lowest bid.

“He stated that he wanted Bill Howard to have the business so he never said anything about him being the lowest bidder” because the athletic director’s superiors “never brought it up.”

Howard was released on $100,000 bond last week, and is due to appear in court on April 23.