Judge upholds firing of schools contractor

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

A Clark County School Board order to disqualify a local drywall contractor from bidding on school construction projects is legal, a District Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge Valorie Vega quashed the effort by Jetstream Construction to overturn the School Board decision and threw out a temporary restraining order that allowed the company to bid on school projects.

The board disqualified the company after a settlement between the company and six Hispanic workers, who had alleged that the firm's officers required them to pay kickbacks to continue working on school projects. The Sept. 13 decision came after months of lobbying by the local Carpenters Union and the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice.

Keith Gregory, Jetstream attorney, said he likely will appeal the decision.

"This is not over by a long shot," Gregory said.

Gregory said the School Board acted without any finding of wrongdoing by Jetstream. The settlement between the company and the six workers, who received $6,200, specified that the company admitted no wrongdoing.

The court ruling "sends a very dangerous precedent," Gregory said. "There's no protection for a contractor. If you get somebody who comes in and provides a lot of inflammatory material and the board buys it, then you're out. Period."

The case against Jetstream is politically motivated hearsay, he said. The union and the Interfaith Council, a pro-labor advocacy group, advanced the charges against Jetstream, a nonunion shop that works extensively on government-funded projects throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

Bill Hoffman, attorney for the School Board, couldn't be reached for comment. He has promised to vigorously defend the board's decision in any legal venue.

Mike Slater, Interfaith Council executive director, agreed that the case sets an important precedent. Attorneys working with the Interfaith Council joined the School Board's lawyers at the hearing. "This is everything we've been arguing," Slater said. "Local governments can now shut down bad contractors based on their own judgment rather than wait on other regulatory agencies."

He said Nevada law that requires public bids on government projects does not also require that the bids be open to all contractors.

"The public bidding system is there to protect the public, not the contractor," Slater said.

Slater said Vega's ruling will make it easier to push other government agencies to disqualify Jetstream or other companies from public construction work.

The Interfaith Council also is pressing the Metro Police Department to look into the allegations of kickbacks.

A Sept. 21 memo to Undersheriff Richard Winget said 10 people, all Hispanic, are willing to testify that company officers John Field and John Dombronski required the workers to pay them $200 to $280 a week to keep their jobs from 1997 to 1999.

Sgt. Chris Darcy, a Metro spokesman, said the department has received the information provided by the Interfaith Council and "encourages any victims to come forward."