AG’s Office investigates Scottsdale school district
District also conducting its own probe into hiring of outside contractors
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating the Scottsdale Unified School District’s hiring of outside contractors at the same time the district conducts its own review. An initial report from the district’s investigation into contracts related to renovations found the district did not break the law.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating the Scottsdale Unified School District’s hiring of outside contractors at the same time the district conducts its own review.
An initial report from the district’s internal investigation into contracts related to school renovations found the district did not break the law in hiring Hunt & Caraway Architects, although the district may have overpaid the firm and run afoul in other areas.
Susan Segal, an attorney the district contracted in late November to handle the review, delivered her findings to the school board on Dec. 19.
“I did not find any violations of the law in the procurement of the services of Hunt & Caraway,” Segal told the board. “However, there are subsequent events that developed that are concerning.”
Her concerns include:
❚ The amounts Hunt & Caraway billed the school district.
❚ Hunt & Caraway’s failure to disclose a felony conviction of its thenprincipal architect, president and coowner Brian Robichaux.
❚ The assumption that Robichaux was a registered architect, which he is not.
❚ Not having a registered architect on the district selection committee when it chose a construction manager for some projects.
Segal is expected to return to the board in January to recommend any legal action the district might take.
She also will provide her findings in another procurement-related probe, this one into the district’s use of Professional Group Public Consulting (PGPC). The consulting firm’s Arizona Corporation Commission filing lists Laura Smith, the district’s chief financial officer, as PGPC’s president and director. Smith has filed a conflict-of-interest disclosure form with the district listing her other position.
The district launched its investigation into procurement concerns after residents complained for months about a lack of transparency in the district’s bidding and billing practices, with many of the complaints stemming from the rebuild of Hopi Elementary School.
“The management of tax dollars on behalf of children is a profound responsibility that the leadership of Scottsdale Unified School District does
“It doesn’t remove the cloud that hangs over the district.” Dan Drake Parent whose children attended Hopi Elementary
not take lightly,” the district said in a statement released Dec. 19. “That review is now complete, and the findings confirm that SUSD followed all legal procurement procedures in the selection of architects for school construction and planning.”
Dan Drake, whose children attended Hopi Elementary, said Segal’s report shed light on the procurement of Hunt & Caraway and confirmed concerns about Robichaux. “It doesn’t remove the cloud that hangs over the district,” he said.
Drake said he still has concerns about Superintendent Denise Birdwell’s hires, including Smith and Louis Hartwell, who is overseeing some of the $229 million in bond spending that voters approved in 2016.
Selection OK, but billing questionable
Many residents raised concerns about how the district hired Hunt & Caraway, noting the firm was doing work for the district before being selected in a 2016 bidding process. The superintendent had called upon Hunt & Caraway to analyze past facility master plans as the district prepared to take a bond request to voters.
Segal clarified that work was done under a 2013 bid process, as well as a 2016 bid. She said the procurement was properly handled by 1 Government Procurement Alliance, a Phoenix-based non-profit cooperative. Scottsdale and some 200 other Arizona school districts use 1GPA and similar agencies to procure outside vendors.
Segal noted the Tempe Elementary School District currently is using Hunt & Caraway for projects through the same 1GPA procurement process.
Nearly 30 architectural firms responded to the 1GPA solicitation in 2016. 1GPA ranked the bids and selected five firms that its member schools could use. Hunt & Caraway scored third among the five selected firms. Scottsdale opted to go with Hunt & Caraway and another of the firms.
Although Segal uncovered no problem with using Hunt & Caraway for services, she questioned how the firm billed the district.
“There is evidence that the district has been overbilled by Hunt & Caraway in a significant amount, although the exact amount is still to be determined,” she said.
Hunt & Caraway billed the district at 7 percent of construction costs on at least three projects, rather than the 6 percent negotiated in the 1GPA contract, she said.
Segal placed the blame largely on Hunt & Caraway, but the report noted that district employees should have caught the overbilling. She suggested that 1GPA provide member school districts with up-to-date fee schedules for the vendors it procures. “Perhaps this did occur,” but the Scottsdale district had no record of it, the report said.
The district, in its prepared statement, said it would contract with an auditor “to ensure there has been no overpayment or, if there has been overpayment, what the next legal steps may be.”
Felony conviction not reported
The district’s handling of the architect selection caused Drake and other residents to dig deeper into Hunt & Caraway, which had been dissolved by the state, and into one of its leaders, Robichaux, who had been convicted of a felony years before that potentially could have disqualified him from involvement in a school contract.
Court records obtained by The Arizona Republic show that Robichaux was convicted of felony theft in 1998 after charging $125,653 to the Arizona Department of Transportation for a project that never was built. Robichaux was ordered to pay restitution to ADOT, but no satisfaction of judgment has been recorded.
In June 2015, Hunt & Caraway was dissolved by the state for failure to file an annual report, according to Arizona Corporation Commission documents. The firm was reinstated after filing the report Feb. 9, 2016.
Segal said she found no record that the state had prohibited Robichaux from operating in Arizona because of the felony conviction.
Segal said the state procurement code that school districts follow does not require a company to reveal if a principal has been convicted of a felony, but she said it’s a good idea for those procuring services to ask. And 1GPA did ask in its 2013 solicitation, she said. “Hunt & Caraway said ‘no,’ which at the time of course was untrue because Brian Robichaux, its president who had a 50 percent ownership in the company at the time, had been convicted of a Class 2 felony in Arizona in 1998,” Segal said.
Tamara Caraway, who is now president of Hunt & Caraway, signed off on the company’s response to 1GPA’s solicitation for architecture services in 2013. Caraway said she did not learn of his felony conviction until this October, Segal’s report said.
Caraway did not respond to The Republic’s request for comment.
Segal questioned Robichaux about his conviction and described his response as “remarkably cavalier.” Her report said Robichaux described it as more of a contractual dispute than a criminal matter.
“He seemed to reflect no remorse for committing a crime other than that the State decided to prosecute him for it,” Segal wrote in the report.
An AG’s office investigative report from 1998 made similar remarks. “The defendant’s excuses and projection of blame make him a risk to reoffend if it suits him and furthers his interest.”
Robichaux declined comment when reached by The Republic.
“There is evidence that the district has been overbilled by Hunt & Caraway in a significant amount.” Susan Segal Attorney contracted by Scottsdale Unified School District
“Scottsdale Unified School District did not know about this 20-year-old conviction. As soon as it came to light, Mr. Robichaux stepped down from his position with HCA,” the district said in its statement.
Segal said that state law was “clearly violated” when the district chose a construction manager for projects without a registered architect on its selection committee.
The district had contracted with PGPC, the consulting firm that also is under review by Segal, to oversee the selection committee.
Another contractor told Segal that while she assumed Robichaux was a registered architect, it was PGPC’s job to confirm it, according to the report.
The question is whether Robichaux represented himself as a registered architect.
The law does not require the principal in an architecture firm be a registered architect but he cannot represent that he is one, Segal said. “On at least two occasions — and I suspect more occasions — Mr. Robichaux represented that he was an architect to persons related to the district, which could cause any layperson to believe he was a registered architect,” she said.
Segal said she would report the situation to the Arizona Board of Technical Registration, which handles licenses and certificates for architects and other professions.
Although she is not involved, Gust Rosenfeld, the law firm where Segal works, also serves as the district’s bond counsel in connection with the sale of bonds for the renovation work.