EDUCATION

AG's Office: Scottsdale schools violated procurement law

Yihyun Jeong
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Attorney General's Office case against Hunt & Caraway Architects and its former principal architect Brian Robichaux continues.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office alleges the Scottsdale Unified School District, an architecture firm hired by the district and its former principal architect violated state procurement laws in selecting construction companies for two school projects, according to a civil complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Thursday. 

The AG's Office seeks to stop construction at Hohokam and Cheyenne elementary schools and rebid the contracts, which were awarded last April to Core Construction and Chasse Building team respectively.

The move comes a day after the Scottsdale school board placed Superintendent Denise Birdwell on paid leave for the “best interest of the district.”

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The state Attorney General's Office confirmed two investigations into the district's hiring of outside contractors in December. An Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Mia Garcia said on Thursday that the criminal investigation is ongoing. The district launched its own review in November.

"We filed this lawsuit to protect students, parents, and taxpayers from improper bidding of contracts. Our lawsuit asks a court to immediately put a stop to these unlawful acts," AG's Office spokeswoman Mia Garcia said in a statement. 

Residents of the district, which educates some 24,000 students in 30 schools, have been sounding alarms about procurement, conflicts of interest and other concerns for the better part of a year.

A district spokesman declined comment on Thursday, saying "the district does not comment on pending litigation."

AG alleges two violations

The AG's Office alleges Brian Robichaux, former principal architect with Hunt & Caraway Architects, unlawfully influenced the outcome of the bid process to hire construction companies at Hohokam and Cheyenne schools.

The complaint says Robichaux called at least one member of the selection committee ahead of an April 25 meeting to review proposals and encouraged them to rank the construction companies in a certain way rather than by the factors outlined in the bid process as state law requires.

“One or more members of the (committee) engaged in improper behavior in violation of the Arizona Administrative Code … including the actions of SUSD’s principal architect Mr. Robichaux," the AG's complaint says.

During the meeting, an hour was allotted to consider each proposal, but one of the committee members finished their review in about 15 minutes despite the length of the proposals, the complaint said.

Every member gave the highest scores to Core Construction for the Hohokam project and Chassee for the Cheyenne project vote, the complaint states. 

The complaint says that some committee members believed they could not award projects to McCarthy Building Companies, one of the bidders, because the district's former superintendent works for the company. Rather than disqualify McCarthy due to a conflict of interest, the committee ranked the firm lower, according to the complaint.

The AG's second complaint refers to Robichaux's service on the committee, "ostensibly as the statutorily required registered architect," that selected a construction manager for work at Hohokam Elementary.

State law requires a selection committee procuring construction services to include at least one person who is a registered architect or engineer.

Robichaux was not a registered architect in Arizona at the time of the procurement, so the contracts should be voided, the complaint says.

"Defendants knew or should have known that the acts, practices, and the conduct described in this Complaint were unlawful," the complaint says.

The committee was facilitated by Professional Group Public Consulting, another firm hired by the district that raised concerns about a conflict of interest involving the district's former chief financial officer. Committee members at the April meeting included Robichaux, Mark Rafferty, AJ Alvarez and district employees Dennis Roehler, Steve Nance and Louis Hartwell. 

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Hunt & Caraway's involvement in district

District leaders had selected Hunt & Caraway Architects in April 2016 to lead construction projects that followed voters' approval of a $229 million bond issue that fall. 

The district “specifically desired the services” of Robichaux, the firm’s then-president, co-owner and lead architect, due to this past experience working with the district’s administrators, the complaint says.

Robichaux resigned from his position in November. The Republic previously reported that Robichaux was convicted of felony theft charge involving an Arizona Department of Transportation contract almost 20 years ago, with no record of full restitution being made.

What will happen with school construction projects?

The AG’s Office seeks to halt construction projects at Hohokam and Cheyenne, void the contracts with the vendors and ensure that all money received from the district be repaid by the construction companies. 

Cheyenne’s $7.6 million  project, including classrooms, gym, front office and a drop-off lane, was unanimously approved by the board in January 2017. Much of the work already has been completed. 

Hohokam Elementary School was placed on hold last month. 

A district spokeswoman on Thursday said the construction work continues on schedule. 

Garcia, the AG's Office spokeswoman, said the district reached out with concerns over how stopping construction would impact a graduation ceremony planned inside Cheyenne's new gym. She said the AG's Office "agreed to work with the district on that specific issue" but still seeks to halt overall construction at both schools. 

The AG's Office also seeks for the defendants to pay the state for the costs of investigation and prosecution.

Scottsdale resident Dan Drake, who is among those raising concerns, said he was excited to see steps taken "to fix wrongs." 

“The board should have done something about this when issues with Robichaux first came up November,” Drake said. “They’ve been sitting on their butts. That’s not what the governing board is supposed to do. They had the power to do something early on and to stop the construction then.”

“All the money that has been spent since then, has been wasted money and our board did it. This is a shame,” he said.

Cheyenne Elementary School, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, has never had a gym or science labs on campus. 

“When we finally got a promise of those assets the community was thrilled,” said Mike Norton, a parent whose kids attend the school near Cactus Road and 87th Avenue. 

“The construction is nearly complete. The pain this community is going to feel is going to be tangible. Real emotions, real hurt is going to be felt at every level from the teachers, the parents to the kids,” he said.

Norton described the Cheyenne community as close-knit and one that has a legacy for bringing back families and having former students as teachers.

“This is one more example of the pain and damage afflicted by the corruption of district leadership. (The board) refused to these issues early own. Instead, the Attorney General had to step in to rectify the corruption,” he said.

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