Lawsuit: Bassick project discriminates against Floridians
BRIDGEPORT — A Florida engineering company claims the city is discriminating against Florida workers in the construction of the new Bassick High School.
Diversified Technology Consultants Inc, which has offices in Sarasota, Fla., has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city of Bridgeport seeking to block city officials from barring the company from working on the $115 million project to be built on the campus of the University of Bridgeport.
The lawsuit, initially filed in a Florida court, was recently transferred to U.S. District Court here. It seeks an injunction barring the city from removing DTC from the project and unspecified money damages.
“The city is seeking to illegally discriminate against the only minority owned business listed on this contract,” the lawsuit states. “Here the city is discriminating against DTC because it is located in Florida and its workers are residing in Florida.”
“I can state unequivocally that seldom have I seen a city violate the rights of so many people at once: immigrants, minorities, persons with disabilities, residents of 49 other states, as well as its very own statutes protecting the rights of those same people,” said DTC’s lawyer, Stephen Burch. “My client has served its government clients well for over 40 years. Watching the American dream get killed is painful to witness.”
“We deny the allegations in the lawsuit and intend to vigorously defend against it,” said Deputy Bridgeport City Attorney John Bohannon Jr.
In 2018, Stamford architectural firm Perkins Eastman was selected by the city for the design of a new high school. As part of Perkins’ proposal to the city, Perkins listed DTC as the consultant/subcontractor for the following categories: structural engineering, civil engineering and mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineering. DTC was to be paid $800,000 for its part in the construction of the school, according to court papers.
The lawsuit states the city was aware at the time it selected Perkins for the contract that two of DTC’s offices are in Florida and that Florida engineers and workers would be the ones doing the work. The city then entered into a formal agreement with Perkins, the suit states.
But on Oct. 29, 2020, the city’s project manager informed Perkins in an email that the city no longer wished to use DTC for the structural or MEP engineering portions of the contract. The reason given for the change in the email was that the city no longer wished to use the Florida workers for these tasks. As a result, Perkins canceled its contract with DTC for the work, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit contends that while the stated basis for removing DTC from the project is that the city wants subcontractors who are in the state so that the workers can work closely together, in fact all engineering workers are working remotely and via telephone/computer as a result of the pandemic.
“No workers are working closely and a worker in Florida can perform the job just as well as a worker in Connecticut. This stated reason was nothing more than a pretext. In reality, the real reason for this change was to discriminate against a minority-owned business in Florida,” the lawsuit states.
It continues that the city’s actions in discriminating against a minority owned business violate the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution.