Evaluator stands by housing contract choice

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 11:24 a.m.

An evaluator who graded proposals for the Las Vegas Housing Authority's highly publicized public relations contract said Monday he picked who he thought was best for the job. Sidney Whitlow, the housing authority's director of technical services, struggled to remember why he ranked Tribeca Media higher than more established public relations firms despite the company's lack of experience.

"If I'm not mistaken, going by my memory, the packet (Tribeca) put together was one of the best or the best," Whitlow said. "I'm being perfectly honest, it's hard to remember."

The contract has been controversial because after winning the $84,000 annual deal, Tribeca was asked to share the task and money with Herrera Communications Group, a firm owned by Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who never submitted a proposal. There have been questions over how the bid was awarded and whether the housing authority followed its required process.

As a result of the controversy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has scheduled an audit into the way the housing authority awards contracts. Auditors are due in next week.

Tribeca Media owner Lucie Melchert and Herrera have since withdrawn from the contract.

Whitlow was one of three evaluators who reviewed 10 proposals submitted to the housing authority. The authority's director of operations, Laura McGee, and administrator Brian Sagert did not return phone calls. Whitlow said there was no pressure to choose Tribeca Media over any other bid.

In May, a month after the deadline for proposals passed, housing authority officials informed all 10 companies they had decided not to award the contract. In August, the companies received a fax announcing Tribeca had won the bid.

Melchert said she was as surprised as anyone to learn she won the contract. She was called to a meeting in August by Frederick Brown, executive director of the housing authority, to talk about doing project work.

She said the discussion changed when Brown found out from his contracting office that she had scored highest in the bidding process, and he awarded her the project.

She said she was shocked.

"You walk in thinking you're going to do a project, and you walk out with a contract," she said. "Hindsight being 20-20, I was a brand-new business owner, and here was an anchor client to build around.

"I should have asked more questions. I had stars in my eyes."

She said Brown asked if she would mind if Herrera, who had government consulting experience she didn't have, continued to work on projects for the housing authority. She agreed, saying her understanding was that they were to "work on a parallel basis, not with each other."

Brown did not return a call seeking comment, and Herrera has said he had nothing to do with how the contract came about. Herrera was already on the housing authority's payroll. Brown, a member of Herrera's congressional exploratory committee, had paid Herrera $4,500 a month -- a total of $36,000 between January and September 2001 -- to consult with Brown on media issues. In defending his recommendation that Tribeca share the contract with Herrera, Brown has said Tribeca lacked experience in government affairs -- an area in which Herrera specializes.

Melchert said she was bothered when the housing authority's contracting office told her to put Herrera's work on her contract. Melchert said she wasn't comfortable with that and refused. The housing authority, she says, "never mentioned it again."

Eventually, they worked out an agreement where Herrera worked "in concert" with Melchert, but she says she "never knew I would be splitting anything."

Melchert, who made $3,500 a month under the contract, said she questions the process by which she won the contract.

Now in the process of closing down her business, Melchert said she is "still trying to decide if the evaluation process was honest and legitimate," but she noted she "can't believe they would evaluate and say, 'Here's this really young firm, let's let them win and they can split the contract.' "

But she also said that this issue likely wouldn't have risen with one of the big PR firms that have "the clout and the gumption to say, 'It's not going to work with him on the team.' "

"They would have been even a little more leery," she said. "I thought I was being very cautious not being attached to what Dario was doing."

One of the better known applicants, who asked not to be identified, said he believes the more established firms were overlooked because they would not have been willing to split the contract with Herrera. "It's hard to come to us to say we want you for PR, but we want Dario Herrera to come in and do government affairs because we all have more experience than Dario," the company owner said.

The companies were graded in five areas: experience and performance; quality of the proposed work plan; overall quality of the proposal; cost and the diversity of the proposer. Whitlow awarded Tribeca Media 105 out of a possible 115 points. He ranked the company, which became incorporated in April 2001, highest or equal to other firms in past experience and performance.

Marydean and Associates ranked second, according to Whitlow's scoring.

Melchert said she thought she won because of her experience working with the Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department and with several community development corporations which work with public housing. She also was the lowest bidder.

Marydean Martin, owner of the company and former partner with the late political power broker Jim Joyce, said overall she thought the bidding process was fair.

Martin, however, added that her initial belief that her price was too high was proved wrong when she learned the contract awarded was worth a total of $84,000 -- even though half that amount was eventually earmarked for Herrera.

"I was surprised when all this came up because we certainly had fair treatment, I thought," said Martin, who has been in the public relations business for 25 years. "I don't think anyone else had better ideas than we did."

Paula Yakubik, owner of MassMedia, which ranked in the top three in Sagert's and McGee's evaluations, said that during the process she too believed the procedures to be on the "up and up."

Yakubik said sometimes companies connect with evaluators, sometimes they don't.

"Sometimes it's other little things; somehow Tribeca had a little edge," she said. "It takes so long to do these things you always hope they're fair and right. But there are so many extenuating circumstances, you never know."

Metro Editor Matt Hufman contributed to this story.