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:

May 7, 2013 Election Day in the City of Morristown

The polls are open from 8 am - 8 pm.

If you are unsure where your voting precinct is located, the Election Commission (586-7169) can help.

If you missed getting by to see the sign with Kay Senter's "accomplishments" on City Council during the past 20 years, it has been moved now, but it can still be seen here.

Moving Morristown Forward (MMF)--which lists John Stroud and George Haggard as members--has been pushing hard for the team of Senter, Garrett, and Chesney.

Stroud is listed as secretary to the Industrial Board of the City of Morristown.  The first time I saw him was at a city council meeting in 2011 where he worked himself into a frenzy as he accused the Mayor of being a "dictator." 

Haggard, in addition to being the main contributor to Moving Morristown Forward, doubles as Chesney's campaign treasurer.

Chesney has VERY carefully avoided dealing with the fact that he was just elected to the School Board nine months ago and now he has decided he wants ANOTHER ELECTED OFFICE as a City Councilman.

Chesney wasn't the first choice of Tim and David Wild, but he was willing to step in and run when the Wilds' first pick--Dr. Sid Boyd--backed out.

Garrett worked with the water department at Morristown Utilities for four decades before his election to council in 2009.  In 2011 and 2012, Garrett voted against 21 people nominated to the MUC Board by the Mayor and then supported the "McGuffin Law" that changed the MUC appointment process without letting the people vote on the changes.

For $250, Garrett, Senter, LeBel, Bivens, and Jinks could have let the people have a voice and a vote in 2012 on the controversial MUC issue, but they all said "NO." 

October 3, 2012 Millennium Bids Opened

Bids for the Millennium Square Project were opened this afternoon. Three bids were submitted.

The apparent low bidder was Jenkins & Styles of Knoxville with a base bid of $1,753,964. Other bidders were Denark Construction at $1,769,900 and Merit Construction at $1,770,025.

This was the third time that the project has been bid. The first time, Messer Construction was the low bidder. It was bid a second time and Southern Constructors was the only bid. Both times all bids were rejected as being too high. Click here and here for prior posts on the Millennium project.

Although the plans were not significantly changed from the second bid to today's bid, Southern Constructors did not submit a third bid although they were in attendance at the pre-bid conference. Click here for the pre-bid conference video and links to separate posts on the Millennium project.

 

 

Architect Dan Brewer of Brewer, Ingram & Fuller (BIF) opened the bids with the assistance of Lisa Hoskins of BIF.

 

Tim Wild, one of the Millennium Square Partners, attended as did Tony Cox, City Administrator, and Todd Morgan, the City's designated  manager of the Millennium project.

 

Whether the low bid or any bid is accepted will likely depend on whether the Millennium Square Partners with control of the project (David & Tim Wild, Hiram Jones, Tom Jones, James & Myra Craine) are willing to foot the project costs not covered by a taxpayer-funded TDOT Transportation Enhancement grant of approximately $1,200,000.

 

 

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).]

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 6, 2010 Some Attendees at the Millennium Square Project Pre-Bid Meeting

Tim Wild (Millennium Square Partner and principal in Wild Building Contractors); James Craine (Millennium Square Partner and principal in the auditing firm Craine, Thompson & Jones that performs the City of Morristown annual audit). For a previous post listing all attendees who signed in, click here.

Clint Harrison (foreground) Engineer and City of Morristown consultant for sewer for Millennium Square project. 

Lisa Hoskins (Brewer, Ingram & Fuller, Architects) and Todd Morgan (Program Director, City of Morristown Community Development Corporation). Ed Hale (Hale Construction) is also pictured in the background looking at Millennium plans.

December 3, 2010 Millennium Project To Bid on December 14, 2010

Several months ago, the City of Morristown sought and got approval to transfer around $890,000 of former Morristown College grant money to a downtown project owned by Millennium Square partnership.

The partners in Millennium Square as of August 2010 are D&T Partners (Tim Wild, David Wild); C&J Partners (James Craine, Mira Jones Craine, Hiram Jones, Tom Jones); Sidney Boyd; and Bill Young.

Millennium Square Partners will get the $890,000+ in grant funds to build a shell for their retail building on West Main Street next to their Millennium Square Building.

What does the City get?  Some rooftop parking in downtown Morristown.  Yep. The roof of the retail shell will have 22 parking spaces that will be available for public parking for 25 years. 

A pre-bid construction meeting was held this past Tuesday at the City Center for prospective bidders.  Construction bids will be received on December 14, 2010.

Because of the economic situation and the depressed construction industry, many contractors were present  at the pre-bid meeting.  Messer Construction, Merit Construction, Southern Constructors, Inland Construction, Burwil Construction, Wild Building Contractors, Hale Construction, Joseph Construction, D&S Builders, and Trent Excavating. 

Wild Building Contractors? Yes, David and Tim Wild, who are partners in Millennium Square, are apparently planning to bid on the newest City/Millennium Square project.

Who else was present? James Craine. Craine, like David and Tim Wild, is a Millennium partner and is also a principal in the City's auditing firm Craine, Thompson & Jones.

So David and Tim Wild (Wild Building Contractors) will be bidding for the construction contract on a project where they benefit as the end owners (Millennium Square Partnership) of the finished retail shell.

Craine, Thompson & Jones, as the City's auditing firm, will audit the spending of the approimately $890,000 in grant money that benefits James & Mira Craine, Hiram Jones, and Tom Jones as end owners (Millennium Square Partnership) of the finished retail shell.

Sweet. The City gives the Wilds, Craines, and Joneses $890,000 of grant money to pay for construction of a downtown retail building for the Wilds, Craines, & Joneses. In return, the City gets some some rooftop parking for 25 years.

Oh, the City points out that it's all "grant money" and that the Millennium partners will graciously pay the city's 10% local grant match in order to get the other 90% free. That's nice. And that's a great deal for Millennium partners.

Did anyone else get offered this great deal? Did the City give any other local business people a chance to submit a proposal for building themselves a brand new store by paying just 10% and getting 90% "free"? No.

September 6, 2010 The State Comptroller Requests Explanations from the City and the City Auditors about Violations of State Law and Problems with 2009 Audit

The above letter to the Mayor and City Council from the State Comptroller's Office was one item briefly discussed at the Council's August 2010 "retreat" in Johnson City. Audits and cozy auditors and conflicts of interest.

I have maintained for a long time that the City of Morristown should get a fresh set of auditing eyes to perform its annual audits. This 5-page letter (click each page to enlarge, read, or print out) from the State Comptroller's Office provides more proof that new eyes are needed. In addition, the GFOA reommends that auditors be changed periodically as a "best practice."

In the 2009 City audit, the Comptroller points out that certain figures don't match up. Lowland Wastewater debt was taken on for 25 years without approval from the Comptroller's Division of State and Local Finance. MUS loans to the telecom fibernet system were also apparently not approved in advance by the Division of State and Local Finance.

Lots of problems with reporting requirements and reported amounts that don't agree. Improper categories. Grant reporting is questioned.

Notes to the financial statements did not include or had incomplete disclosures. And on and on.

There may be explanations for some of the questioned items and some may be the result of mistakes. But there is no doubt that the auditors knew or should have known that "loans" from one fund to another required city council AND state approval. There is no doubt that the auditors knew in recent years that the City was in poor financial shape but failed to call specific attention to this.

Apparently, the auditors thought that if the City could figure it out, OK.  And if the City didn't bother to look at the audits (which is what happened) or couldn't figure it out, then the auditors could say "No, I didn't point out that you were broke or making illegal loans/transfers, but it was in the audit." Sort of like your doctor giving you a blood test and handing you the results to figure out for yourself--even though he knows that you have a specific disease that needs immediate treatment.

Besides the quality and accuracy of the 2009 audit and the failure of the local auditors to disclose the illegal loans and transfers and switching of money, one has to consider the coziness of the auditors (Craine, Thompson & Jones) with the entity (City of Morristown) that they are auditing.

The auditors are local businessmen who have failed repeatedly in recent audits to report that the City was violating state law in swapping/loaning money from fund to fund without a vote from City Council and without obtaining the required approval of the Comptroller's Division of State and Local Finance. The state is pointing out numerous problems by just looking at the 2009 audit. There is no telling what a true detailed examination of the city's books for the year 2009 (Former City Adm. Jim Crumley's last full year) would show or what a thorough look at prior audits would show.

The current auditors (Craine, Thompson & Jones) have been the city's sole auditing firm for about three decades. The local auditors claim that they perform an "independent" audit of the City. However, the fact that the auditors are local business people who have very strong social and economic ties to the same organizations, clubs, churches, sports groups, business groups (Chamber and Industrial Board), and schools as do the individuals (City Administrator, Mayor, City  Council) who represent the City of Morristown creates an  obvious "independence" problem. It may be an "independent" audit from the auditors' technical  perspective, but ethically and in a world of common sense, it's not "independent."  The auditors are aware of "independence" questions, and but they have atempted to explain away their involvement and knowledge of illegal loans/transfers between funds, putting all blame on Crumley AFTER Crumley was fired. Click here to see a copy of the auditor's e-mail message sent to Interim Administrator Lynn Wampler many months AFTER Crumley was fired.

It's not bad that the auditors belong to the same groups and organizations as do Morristown city officials. However, true auditing "independence" is questionable when strong social and economic ties exist between auditor and auditee and when the auditors have already been shown to have failed to call attention to violations of state law by the City and dire financial problems in City government.

Another new "independence" problem has arisen recently because members of the auditing firm apparently have about a 1/3 interest in an entity (Millennium Square Partners) that is receiving $890,000 from the City through a grant. Who/what auditor is going to bite the hand that is feeding it $890,000? Who/what auditor is going to point out the poor financial status of the City or violations of state law by the very people (City officials) who have just given you $890,000? In next year's City audit (FY 2011), the auditors will be auditing their own $890,000 grant!

This potential conflict of the auditors as recipient of an $890,000 grant was discussed briefly when the City was voting on whether to hire new auditors or renew its audit contract with Craine, Thompson & Jones. One of the local auditors who was present at that meeting, Tom Jones, told the City Council that there was no conflict and that the auditors only had a very small interest in Millennium Square Partnership.  Apparently, however, members of the auditing firm have as large an interest as anyone else (David and Tim Wild) in the Millennium Partnership and have a larger interest than the other two remaining members of the Millennium Partnership--Dr. Sidney Boyd and William (Bill) Young).

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of a "small interest" is and it all depends on the meaning/ interpretation of true auditor "independence."

The City needs fresh eyes looking at its financial reports. The current auditors have contributed directly or indirectly to continual violations of state law by their failure to report violations and by their willingness to let these violations slide by.  The City needs to follow accounting best practices, hire outside auditors, and then rotate auditors at least every five years.