June 4, 2013 Bid Results for the Fourth Downtown Millennium Bid Opening

The Downtown Millennium Square Parking Garage pre-bid meeting was held on May 2, 2013.

Several potential bidders, including at least two local contractors, showed up.

Only two contractors actually bid on May 22.

Southern Constructors (Knoxville) bid $1,524,620.00
Merit Construction (Knoxville) bid $1,625,754.43

A TDOT Transportation Enhancement grant will provide most of the funding to build the Millennium parking garage on the property of the Millennium Square Partners (MSP).  MSP has to make up the difference between the grant funding and the cost of construction.

The Millennium Square Partners are James and Mira Craine, David and Tim Wild, Hiram Jones, Tom Jones, Sid Boyd, and Bill Young. 

While the City, TDOT, MSP, and architects Brewer, Ingram & Fuller appear to be having plenty of discussions about this fourth bidding, there are few public comments and few/no reports in the "news"paper at this time.

Here is the pre-bid video:

October 18, 2012 Another Millennium Mulligan: Project Bids To Be Rejected (Third Time) With More Do-over Designs and Bids To Come

At Tuesday's council meeting, City Administrator Tony Cox informed council that the Millennium Square project bids of October 3rd were high and that "it's going to be our recommendation" (third time) that we reject all bids and consider another re-design.

Cox did not say who made the recommendation for rejection nor to whom the recommendation goes for approval.

He didn't ask council to vote to recommend rejection, nor did he ask for comments from council.

For the Millennium group and the City, it's three mulligans and counting with a plan for yet another round of do-over designs and do-over bids.

Later in the meeting during council comments, Councilmember Gene Brooks pointed out that during the third Millennium bid opening on October 3, an unsealed bid had been opened.

Brooks said that a bid protest involving the opening of the unsealed bid was filed right after the bid opening but never reported to council and never reported by the "news"paper.

City Attorney Dick Jessee confirmed for Brooks that he had been informed about an unsealed bid being opened and that it would be his opinion that the unsealed bid would have to be disqualified. 

Councilmember Bob Garrett commented that it is the responsibility of the bidder to see that his bid is submitted in a sealed envelope--which is true but which ignores the responsibility of the person or entity handling the bid opening to ensure that all bid requirements are followed.

Councilmember Brooks added that Morristown didn't need to get a reputation for being unfair in the conduct of bidding.

Councilmember Chris Bivens said that the opening of an unsealed bid didn't matter since after the bid opening, it was decided by someone to reject all bids.

Tony Cox was at the bid opening but made no comments during this discussion. Todd Morgan is the City's designated representative for oversight of the Millennium project and was also at the bid opening. 

 

The bid that was allegedly unsealed was that of the low bidder Jenkins and Stiles,  the second bid opened on October 3. The bid opening video is here. 



September 18, 2012 (Another) Millennium Pre-Bid Conference

There was a pre-bid conference for the Millennium Square project on Wednesday, September 12, at the City Center.

Dan Brewer with Brewer, Ingram, and Fuller (BIF) was present. Lisa Hoskins with BIF presided over the meeting and took questions from contractors.

The Millennium project has been plagued by conflicts of interest, postponed bids, changes to plans,
re-bids, changes to specifications, and on and on it goes.

The initial grant money for a greenway project for Morristown College and surrounding area ended up years later going to the Millennium group to build a retail office shell for the Millennium group on Millennium property. To get the grant money (about $1.2 Million) for their project, the Millennium partners (Tim Wild and David Wild, Sidney Boyd, Hiram Jones and Tom Jones, James and Mira Craine, and Bill Young) leased a rooftop parking deck on the top of their retail office shell to the City as a "greenway" trailhead for 25 years and then the lease ends.

The rooftop public parking consists of about 22 spaces. Of those 22 spaces, two are to be handicapped and two are to be true restricted "greenway" parking.  The rest of the parking is just general first-come, first-served public parking that can and probably will be used primarily to benefit the Millennium group, owners of the adjacent Millennium Square Building.

When the project started, the Wild brothers--who are partners in the Millennium group--were planning on "competitively" bidding as general contractors on the project.

TDOT was told of some of the connections between the Wilds and the Millennium group, but TDOT was not told by the City or by the architects that the Wilds were assisting the architects as estimating consultants---a fact the City knew or should have asked about when the architect submitted an architectural proposal TO THE CITY that listed Wild as a proposed "consultant" for project estimating.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) stopped the first planned bidding in late 2010 after Councilman Gene Brooks sent letters and provided documentation to TDOT regarding conflicts of interest and the Wilds apparent involvement as a consultant to the architect.

TDOT let the City (Todd Morgan), the architect (BIF), and the Wilds (through their attorney) present their positions.  TDOT then confirmed that conflicts existed and disqualified Wild from bidding at any point. [Several contractors also complained and refused to bid when they became aware of the conflicts.]

The project was first bid in spring 2011 and all bids were over-budget.

The project was bid a second time and there was one bidder. The one bid was over-budget.

The project is to be bid for a third time on October 3, 2012. No longer do bidders have to be TDOT pre-qualified.

Click here, here, here, here here, here, and here for background.

June 1, 2012 Charging Councilmembers for City Government Documents

At Morristown City Council's May 1 meeting, a resolution was passed that allows some City  officials to charge other City officials (City Councilmembers) for City Government documents.

Tony Cox describes the resolution, but he never says who is behind it or what prompted it. Cox doesn't explain the "need" to charge elected City Councilmembers for "non-routine"(?) City government documents.

Only Gene Brooks and Mayor Thomas commented on the resolution. Brooks and Thomas later cast the only votes against the resolution.

August 21, 2011 Gene Brooks Exposes Bob Moore's Millennium Square Reporting. Brooks Prevented an Illegal Bidding that Could Have Cost the City $1.3+ Million

Since taking office in May 2009, Morristown Councilmember Gene Brooks has endured constant attacks from local "news"paper reporter Bob Moore. On Tuesday, August 16, Brooks apparently had had enough and decided to set the record straight on at least one matter-the Downtown Millennium Square project.

[In a nutshell, the Millennium project is where the City took Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) grant funds of roughly $1.3+ Million that had been intended for street, lighting, and drainage improvements around the Morristown College area with a greenways trailhead and parking at Kyle Park and moved that money to the downtown Millennium Square Partners group for the construction of a privately-owned retail shell and storefront. To get TDOT to go along with this, the City/Millennium group decided that the roof of the retail space would be called a "greenways trailhead" and have 22 or 23 parking spaces leased to the City. Click on the label Millennium Square at right for past blog posts on this topic.]

Brooks was responding to a July "news"paper article where Bob Moore allowed David Wild, one of the principals in Wild Building Contractors and a partner in the Millennium group, to attack Brooks and all the others who saw illegalities and violations of federal law in the Millennium deal.

Moore quotes David Wild as saying: "If it had not been for the unwarranted involvement of two or three individuals, this project would have already been finished...."

Translation: "I hate those people who raised valid legal questions about our nifty sweetheart deal. Councilmembers who try to protect City grant funds and make sure that everything is done legally don't have any right to do that." 

David Wild was reacting--not too kindly--to the fact that Brooks had pointed out the core conflicts of interest in the Wild/ Millennium Square/Brewer, Ingram & Fuller connections to TDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

David and Tim Wild wanted to wear Millennium Square Partners hats to get the $1.3 Million taxpayer-funded TDOT grant to build their MainStreet retail storefront/rooftop "trailhead' parking. Then David and Tim Wild wanted to put on their Wild Building Contractors hats to submit a bid and collect all the money for building their own Main Street storefront/rooftop "trailhead" parking.

Brooks got the big guns riled up. Brooks was attacked and made out to be the bad guy who was messing everything up. Todd Morgan with the City wrote to TDOT. Dan Brewer with the project architects Brewer, Ingram & Fuller wrote a letter to Todd that also went to TDOT.  Knoxville attorney Robert Noell with Woolf-McClane represented Wild Building Contractors and tried to refute Brooks' allegations in a lengthy letter to TDOT, claiming that there were no conflicts.

After all the dust had settled, TDOT found that Brooks's core allegations of conflicts of interest were, in fact, correct. TDOT disqualified Wild Building Contractors (David and Tim Wild) from bidding on the Millennium Square Partners (David and Tim Wild and others) Downtown project.  

In the video (above) Gene refers to Bob Moore's July 2011 article where Moore stated--falsely--that Wild had submitted the low bid on the project. MOORE:  "Wild Building Contractors submitted the low bid earlier this year, approximately $600,000 less than the second-place bidder."

Brooks points out in the video that Bob either made this up or was given false information. Wild never submitted the low bid on the project.  Wild never submitted a bid at all because Brooks was able to prevent them from illegally bidding on the project.

Brooks's remarks end by making the public and the other councilmembers aware that had Wild been allowed to submit a bid and, by chance, had Wild gotten the contract, then TDOT could have made the City pay back ALL the grant funds that had been received for allowing an illegal bid and award.

In the City's current financial mess, the City could not have absorbed a $1.3 Million dollar hit for improperly handling grant funds.

Gene Brooks was not only right, but he showed great courage in standing up to months and months of  criticism by very powerful people in order to ensure that an illegal bid was not submitted and that the City did not end up having to pay back $1.3 Million dollars of grant money.

1. The "news"paper has yet to correct Bob's front-page error on the Millennium project. [Usually, the paper runs a correction on Page 2 after incorrect statements have been made and pointed out.]

2. The "news"paper has yet to report anything about Gene Brooks's statement at the council meeting about Moore's biased--and even false--reporting on the Millennium deal.

3. The "news"paper has yet to report that Brooks's actions not only stopped an illegal bidding but saved the City $1.3 Million +.

So what did Moore do after Brooks's statement? After the meeting, Bob Moore headed straight for  Brooks. Moore did not say that he would check the article again for accuracy and correct any errors. Moore did not mention his incessant attacks on Brooks over the past 2+ years.  Moore did not apologize to Brooks for the reporting error.

Instead, Moore first asked who Brooks's lawyer is---because Brooks had said he would be glad to meet Moore to discuss Millennium but that Brooks would bring his lawyer to this meeting. Then  Moore started asking Brooks about the Hearts of Christ Ministry which Brooks supports and with which Brooks's wife and sister-in-law are involved.

February 24, 2011 Millennium Project Bid Postponed To April 5, 2011

Bidding on the Downtown Millennium Project has been postponed to April 5, 2011.

Click here, here, and here, for background on the many conflicts within this project.

This all started with awards to the City of $1,200,000 of federal grant money for historic preservation and well as improvement and development of the Morristown College site.  Click here.

Four and one-half years later, historic preservation and improvements to Morristown College were left behind.

The City transferred the entire $1,200,000 of federal grant money to the Millennium Partners for improvements to their Main Street property--including "approximately" 22 rooftop parking spaces (atop the private retail shells below) that make the project eligible for grant funds since the City is going to consider this as parking for a "greenways trailhead."  

The lease for the parking deck allows the City, if it desires, to designate two of the parking spaces for  "greenway purposes" and two for handicapped parking. The remaining 18 or so spaces are just standard downtown public parking.

The Millennium Partners include the City auditors (Hiram Jones, son Tom Jones, daughter Mira Craine, and son-in-law James Craine) as J&C Partners; Morristown businessmen/contractors (David Wild and Tim Wild) as D&T Partners; and Dr. Sid Boyd. Businessman Bill Young may still be a partner. 

This is not the first time that the City has transferred grant funds to the Millennium Partners. 

When the first Millennium building was built downtown about 9-10 years ago, the City amended a 1988 UDAG (Urban Development Action Grant) grant in order to give the Millennium group $105,816 of unused funds from that grant. 

[The first Millennium building contains the offices of the City's auditors Craine, Thompson & Jones; of Wild Building Contractors, Inc.; and of Community National Bank).]

February 22, 2011 How Did Morristown College Grant Money End Up With the Millennium Group?

Just how did $1.2 Million in federal grant dollars get moved from needed work at and around Morristown College to the downtown Millennium Partners retail shell space/rooftop parking project?  [This is a follow-up from yesterday's post on conflicts of interest in the Millennium grant process.]

In 2005-2006, federal grant funds of $1,200,000 were received and were to be matched with local funds in a public-private partnership at Morristown College. The goal was preservation of the many historic buildings on the College property along with construction of a Community Center and pools, etc.

Ironically, Todd Morgan, who has been pushing the Millennium project, nominated Morristown College for inclusion in East Tennessee's Endangered Heritage just weeks before Morgan put a plan before the City Council to move the Morristown College grant funds to benefit the Millennium group.

Click here for a post on Morgan's nomination of Morristown College for inclusion on a list of endangered historic buildings and here for a picture of the Laura Yard Hill Administration Building and the full News-Sentinel story.

When the public-private partnership fell through, Mayor Barile signed a contract with TDOT in 2007 changing the scope of the Morristown College grant to construction of a greenway connector trail into the Morristown College site and a trailhead at the Fred Kyle Park with parking spaces.

The new scope also included a perimeter walking path around the College site and 2-1/2 miles of sidewalks with street lights and curbs on parts of Branner Street, Blair Street, Buffalo Trail, Carriger Street, Panorama Drive, E. 6th North, James Street/Daisy Street, Terrace View, and Morristown Cemetery Trail. Drainage problems would also be addressed.

The purpose of revising the plans for Morristown College, as stated by Mayor Barile in her letter to TDOT in 2007, was: "[T]o increase the safety and well-being of the people that live in this area."

After signing the 2007 contract with TDOT,  the City sat on the grant and did nothing. Why? The City was broke and couldn't come up with the local match to access the $1,200,000 of federal funds. Former City Administrator Jim Crumley was hiding a financial mess, and the Mayor and Council either didn't know why the grant work was not starting or did know but were concerned that it all reflected badly on the City, Mayor, and Council.  The Morristown College site continued to deteriorate. 

Mayor Barile, who signed the 2007 grant contract for Morristown College and spoke of the health and safety of area residents, didn't have a clue. According to the Mayor, she didn't know until early 2010 that the City was broke. Click here for the day the Mayor and Council woke up to the financial nightmare that she and the Council have presided over.

Instead of taking care of the city's finances and using the grant funds for the preservation and improvement of the Morristown College site, Mayor Barile and Council spent time and money stamping brick designs on roadways, placing islands in the middle of East First North (that have now been removed), and wailing about "light pollution." 

Morristown College was slowly falling apart. And the City's answer to the deterioration was to take the $1,200,000 of federal grant money that could have been used to preserve and improve the Morristown College site and transfer all that money to the downtown Millennium Square Partnership group, composed of local businessmen and the City's auditors.

Some of the most beautiful buildings at Morristown College have now burned. The historic area continues to deteriorate.  Residents of the area have asked for help as property values decrease and concerns for safety increase. They may get the City to mow the area and do some clean-up.

But the money that was available for the Morristown College area from as far back as 2005 was transferred to downtown businessmen (Millennium Partners) for a project where the City ends up with a 25-year lease for 22 rooftop parking spaces, a bike rack, a stairway, and a sign designating the rooftop parking as a greenways "trailhead."

$1,200,000 for safety, historical preservation, parking, sidewalks, lights, and curbs, OR 22 rooftop parking spaces? The City chose 22 rooftop parking spaces.

January 26, 2011 Millennium Square Bidding Postponed to March 8, 2011

Another bidding postponement for the Millennium Square project has been announced. The new bid date is March 8, 2011. 

The City of Morristown received grant funds for Morristown College in 2005. The City transferred Morristown College grant funds to the Millennium Square Partnership group in early 2010. 

Millennium Partners include four members of the City's auditing firm (Hiram Jones, Tom Jones, James Craine, and Mira Craine); two members of a local construction company (David & Tim Wild); and two other individuals (Dr. Sid Boyd and Bill Young).

[Due to recent business and personal financial difficulties, it is not certain that Bill Young is still a Millennium partner]

Click here, here, here, here and here for background info on the connections.

It is a complicated situation with 2005 grant funds of anywhere from $890,000 up to $1,500,000 being shifted around and finally ending up in the hands of the Millennium partners.

Throughout the saga, Millennium Partners David and Tim Wild have worn several different "hats."  They wear Millennium "owner hats." They wear Wild Building Contractors "construction hats." They wear "local match hats" as they chip in 10% of grant costs in order to get the other 90% paid for by taxpayer grant money. They apparently also wear "consultant hats" and "estimating hats."

During initial consideration of the project in early 2010,  David Wild, wearing his Wild Building Contractor hat, and Tim Wild, wearing his D&T Rental hat, wrote letters to the Tennessee Department of Transporation  (TDOT) endorsing the transfer of Morristown College grant money to the Millennium Square partners.

By some strange coincidence, both David and Tim failed to add a disclaimer to their letters acknowledging that they were among the Millennium partners who would benefit from the grant transfer that they glowingly endorsed.

Hiram Jones, wearing his C(raine) & J(ones) hat, also wrote a letter to TDOT in early 2010 endorsing the transfer of Morristown College grant money to Millennium Square partners.

Like the Wilds, Jones failed to add a disclaimer to his letter acknowledging that he was among the Millennium partners who would benefit from the grant transfer that he glowingly endorsed.

With the grant transfer, the Millennium group is going to chip in 10% of grant costs in order to get 90% of grant costs paid by federal/state taxpayer grant money. This nine-fold return on investment is just not enough for the Millennium group. 

Millennium partners David and Tim Wild not only want their Millennium property improved largely at taxpayer expense, but they also want the taxpayer grant money that will be paid for these improvements to be paid to them while they do the work wearing their "Wild Building Contractors hat."

December 29, 2010 Millennium Bidding Postponed Again

The Millennium Square Project Bidding has been postponed again. The new bid date is tentatively February 1, 2011. Click here, here, and here for recent posts.

The original bid date was December 14, 2010.  However, on December 10, 2010, TDOT cancelled that bid date based on questions raised by contractors and information provided to TDOT by Councilman Gene Brooks about conflicts of interest and other contract-related issues. These issues still have to be addressed.

At about the same time, the architectural firm Brewer, Ingram & Fuller set a new bid date of 1/4/11.

Now, the Architects have set yet another new bid date of February 1, 2011, ostensibly at the request of the City of Morristown in order to work out contract-related items with TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation) and "others."

The conflicts and webs of relationships in this project are about as extensive as they can be. The Millennium Square owners are Tim and David Wild, James and Mira Craine, Tom Jones, Hiram Jones, Sid Boyd, and Bill Young. 

In addition, the Craines and the Joneses are principals in the city's auditing firm Craine, Thompson & Jones. The Wilds are also principals in Wild Building Contractors. Millennium Square Partners/Craine Thompson & Jones/Wild Building Contractors are tightly knit.

Now the Craines and Joneses and Wilds not only want the city's ($890,000-$1,200,000) grant money for improvements to their Millennium property, they also want the Wilds to be able to take off their Millennium Owner hat and put on their Wild Building Contractors hat and bid to perform the actual construction work. 

[Originally Millennium Partners/Wild Building Contractors wanted Wild to be "given" the contract for the construction work without any bidding. The plan was to have Wild designated as a "sole source" provider for the  construction  work. That plan didn't go very far, however, because construction work of this kind is NOT any type of specialty work that only Wild can do.

Had the attempt to pursue a "sole source" designation  for Wild been successful, it was designed to enable the City to "select" Wild as contractor without any competitive bidding and keep the project and all the grant money in the Millennium Partners' hands.]

Apparently getting lots of free improvements of  $890,000+ or - to their property and access to public parking that the Millennium employees could use is not enough for the Craines, Joneses, and Wilds.

December 10, 2010 Downtown Millennium (Un)Square Deal

The Downtown Millennium (Un)Square Grant Deal will be coming under tighter and more intense scrutiny in the coming days.

Long ago, I posted about the obvious and multiple conflicts of interest in this set-up. Recent posts are  here and here.  As more people are becoming aware of the conflicts, hard questions are being asked and those involved and those who approved this (un)square deal are being asked to explain what's going on.

With the bid date of 12/14/10 fast approaching, the bidding may be postponed for completion of certain work by the Architect or his consultants. Since there are many other reasons to postpone the bidding and look closely at this deal, a postponement for any reason is a positive sign.

Stay tuned. Others are picking up on the conflicts and irregularities in the Millennium (Un)Square Deal.