Congressman Ortiz forces Navy to award $12 million contract to minority firm (Only two bids)

Corpus Christi Caller Times ^ | June 9, 2002 | TARA COPP

[Paleo Conservative]

How Ortiz influenced a Navy contract

A Hispanic, woman-owned company got two years of help from Ortiz - other firms didn't get a chance

BY TARA COPP
Scripps Howard News Service

June 9, 2002

		Outsider's struggle: Mary Lupe Arana says minorities need federal work to break Corpus Christi's tight-knit construction network. Read her story>>

WASHINGTON - The Navy buckled to pressure by U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz in March and awarded a $12 million contract to a Corpus Christi minority-owned company, despite internal Navy recommendations against the award, according to documents obtained by the Caller-Times.

On its face, Ortiz was just doing his job: When the Navy found it should not limit a construction contract at Naval Station Ingleside in a way that STC Constructors Inc. - a local minority-run firm supported by Ortiz - would be likelier to win it, the congressman stepped in.

As a long-time advocate for minority business, Ortiz used his 20 years of congressional clout to threaten the Navy with potentially embarrassing hearings if it did not re-designate the project. He suggested the Navy’s funding was on the line, and he called in his highest cards to play, including getting the Secretary of the Navy personally involved.

One conflict is this: More companies than just STC wanted a fair shot at the lucrative, $12 million project. Over the last year, other minority-run companies have contacted the Caller-Times to say that the competition was unfair and that Ortiz improperly pushed for just STC. And officials at local Anglo-run companies have said they were frustrated that they were left out of the process altogether.

Navy officials initially wanted to open up the competition to all companies, because they believed there weren’t enough minority-owned businesses to provide adequate competition to get the best price and quality.

But after pressure from Ortiz, Capt. Rich Cellon, commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Charleston, S.C., opposed his staff’s findings and limited the competition to minority-run firms in the South Texas and Houston areas. That decision led to only two final bids being made on the project, with STC eventually winning the multimillion-dollar job.

Ortiz’s role in the awarding of the Ingleside contract has left Navy contracting officer Larry Fisk, who was in charge of the Ingleside decision, with questions about the independence of his job. Fisk, a civilian employee based in Charleston who reports to Cellon, evaluates companies’ bids for work at Naval Station Ingleside, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and Naval Air Station Kingsville and makes sure the work goes to the most qualified companies at the best price possible for the Navy.

Wade Sprees/Special
to the Caller-Times

Larry Fisk, a civilian Navy contracting officer in charge of a $12 million contract at Ingleside, says he was interfered with when making his decision on the project. He says that competition for the contract was limited after Congressman Solomon Ortiz applied pressure to his boss, Capt. Rich Cellon. Fisk says, ‘I wanted it to be unrestricted competition.’

"I am supposed to have the necessary autonomy to make the decision," Fisk said. "I vehemently complained to my leadership

that I was being micromanaged to the point of being unethical." The congressman is angry that anyone in the Navy would suggest he’s misusing his power.

"I’d like to hear from these Navy people to come and tell me that," Ortiz said. "And I’ll be waiting for them. You’re not me. You’re not the congressman. If this is the case, nobody from the Navy has had the courtesy to come and talk to me about what they are saying. And I resent that very much. Tell them I am waiting for them to come talk to me, from the Secretary of the Navy to anybody in the Navy. Tell them to come talk to me."

From STC’s point of view, the Navy was against giving such a big project to a small minority company, regardless of STC’s merit. The Navy had to be pushed and wouldn’t even consider STC in the beginning. STC is grateful for Ortiz’s help. The company received the contract on March 11.

"Concerning Ortiz, I don’t think he threatened, I think he used some of his influence to get people to talk to the right people," said Ralph Durden, partner with STC owner Mary Lupe Arana. "I can assure you, Lupe and I showing up at Charleston and saying, ‘Hey guys, would y’all consider doing this?’ We’d have gotten kicked out of their office."

Money-making contracts

Top 10 small businesses 1990-2000

Click to enlarge

The project is a two-building mine warfare training facility planned for Naval Station Ingleside that will include a library, classrooms and an auditorium. Groundbreaking is expected in July.

After getting calls from local businesses about the Ingleside contract, the Caller-Times filed several Freedom of Information requests with the Navy and the Small Business Administration to analyze the decision-making process surrounding the award. The paper also obtained every federal contract - almost 4,000 in all - awarded to a small business in Corpus Christi from 1990 to 2000.

The goal: To find out who was profiting from military and other federal contracts. The newspaper found:

• The federal government awarded $462 million worth of work to Corpus Christi small businesses from 1990 to 2000.
• $114.6 million of that work, or 24 .7 percent, was reserved solely for minority-run companies. The government’s national goal for minority reserved contracts is 5 percent.
  
• $99 million of the reserved, minority-only work in Corpus Christi was awarded to 10 companies.
  
• STC was the second-biggest recipient of all minority-reserved work in Corpus Christi during that decade. Speedy Food Service was the No. 1 recipient, negotiating more than $50 million worth of food service contracts during those 10 years. STC ranked first among businesses that received minority-reserved work at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Naval Air Station Kingsville and Naval Station Ingleside.
  

Next (Continued on the Caller-Times website)

[Paleo Conservative]

This is a very long article that ran in my local paper yesterday. Only the first page of the article is posted here. No one else has posted this story yet, so I am posting it.

My Congressman has abused his power in order to get a contract awarded to a favored constiuent. Only two contractors submitted bids for this project after the Congressman interfered. Many minority owned construction firms are also upset that they were excluded from consideration. Congressman Ortiz apparently thinks that the equal protection clause does not apply to everyone, only to minorities.

Please freep this comment page at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Also freep Congressman Ortiz. He has a particularly ugly web page.

[WIMom]

I don't feel like contributing today. ~~~ Wait until you see "Unable to locate server"
I don't have money. ~~~ Help with the fundraiser. Bump the threads, ping your FRiends.
There's plenty of time to donate. ~~~ Bill collectors don't see it that way.
I don't know where to contribute. ~~~ Credit card, mail: FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794 , Paypal: JimRob@psnw.com
I've got too many other things to do first. ~~~ Don't we all?
I can't contribute much, what's five dollars. ~~~ If everyone contributed one dollar a month, we'd never have a fundraiser again.
The dog ate my credit card. ~~~ Shoot the dog.
Just let me finish freeping. ~~~ BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Don't wait until it's too late. Do it today. Do it now! Before they bring out the cheerleaders! Free Republic is funded solely by us. It's up to us to keep it running. Do your part, contribute if you can. Bump the fundraising threads. Help keep this place alive!

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

He has a particularly ugly web page.

Seems appropriate for a RAT. Any idea what an "Entertainment Internship" exactly entails?

[DH]

Ah!  The smell of corruption in the air.

Welcome everyone to Texico.  Graft and corruption has become an imported benefit from our neighbors from the south.  It's simply a way of life------get used to it.

Here (in South Texas) everything is based upon your last name, your relations or what you can offer "under the table."  Soon, this will be exported from Texico to your home state too.

Why do you think that the word "ILLEGAL" is not part of their culture?

[concerned about politics]

I guess we know who's running this country. Nobody.

[Poohbah]

Welcome everyone to Texico. Graft and corruption has become an imported benefit from our neighbors from the south. It's simply a way of life------get used to it.

Here (in South Texas) everything is based upon your last name, your relations or what you can offer "under the table." Soon, this will be exported from Texico to your home state too.

Why do you think that the word "ILLEGAL" is not part of their culture?

Are you trying to seriously argue that there was absolutely no corruption or graft in Texas prior to the illegal aliens being here?

[DH]

Graft and corruption has always been around.  Not until recently (30 years to today) has it become rampant!  You simply have to live down here to understand it and to see what it has done to our culture and society.

[Poohbah]

Graft and corruption has always been around. Not until recently (30 years to today) has it become rampant! You simply have to live down here to understand it and to see what it has done to our culture and society.

Yeah, back nearly 40 years ago, when the lily-white Johnson family owned big chunks of Avondale Shipbuilding, Brown & Root, and Bell Textron, and those outfits just HAPPENED to get big Vietnam contracts without competitive bids, things were just a WHOLE lot cleaner, right?

[Paleo Conservative]

Seems appropriate for a RAT. Any idea what an "Entertainment Internship" exactly entails?

I don't know. You'll have to ask someone on his staff. He would have a difficult time telling you himself; he dropped out of school in the 8th grade, and he barely speaks English. When he runs for reelection, his ads always have a narrator speak for him. He rarely ever appears in public forums or TV interviews where he would have to talk. In the almost 20 years he has been in Washington, I have yet to see him on C-SPAN.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I guess you never heard of Lyndon B. Johnson? I know its quite natural to assume a guy named Johnson is an illegal alien, but...