Return of Corruption County.
July 10, 2020
The county generously gave Related 27 million taxpayers dollars. Who beside Related made money on this deal?
John Carey PBC Inspector General vs Jeff Himmel Director of Investigations.
John Carey was appointed Inspector General by the PBC Commissioners. I always believed the OIG should be an elected office. How are you going to investigate the people that appointed you to your job making over 200k/year?
I filed a complaint with the OIG concerning City Commissioner Christine Lambert voting in favor of a business her husband was employed by earning the company and her husband many millions of dollars. The OIG turned the complaint over to the PBC COE (Commission on Ethics) another useless entity. (read the previous story below if you missed it previously)
SPECIAL REPORT: Convention hotel probe report was killed despite finding multiple violations, evidence workers shortchanged
But a never-released inspector general investigator’s draft report obtained by The Palm Beach Post documented that the project that generated so much wealth was built by many workers paid well below county and federal minimum wages for as little as $4.92 an hour.
Workers’ criminal backgrounds went unchecked, the report added, dozens of their Social Security numbers were faked and safety training requirements were skipped, violating contracts among the developer, builder, subcontractors and Palm Beach County, which orchestrated the project and contributed $27 million as an incentive to the chosen developer, The Related Cos.
But after an October 2017 falling-out between Palm Beach County Inspector General John A. Carey and his top investigator – largely unrelated to the hotel investigation – Carey fired Director of Investigations Jeff Himmel and never released the information from the draft report.
“We didn’t get a chance to finish because I was forced out,” Himmel said.
Carey never presented – to the county commission, county administrator or the public – conclusions extensively documented by his veteran, federally trained investigators. Two GDS officials who investigators sought to question about that declined to speak to them on advice of lawyers.
Related’s main contractor on the Hilton project was Coastal Construction Co. of Palm Beach Inc., an affiliate of an established statewide, family-run firm founded by Thomas P. Murphy Jr. Murphy’s son Patrick represented Palm Beach County in Congress while the project was in progress. He returned to Coastal as vice president in 2017 after losing a run for U.S. Senate.
Alleging GDS failed to abide by the wage ordinance, the investigators questioned Related’s use of county money to pay nearly $1.9 million “for services that were not rendered in the fashion that was outlined in the contract agreements.” They questioned an additional $6.4 million paid to D&D Quality Constructors Inc., the subcontractor for whom GDS worked.
In six years, four cases result in criminal prosecutions
Carey, who earns $203,000 a year, became Palm Beach County inspector general in June 2014 after serving as inspector general for the Defense Intelligence Agency. A retired Marine Corps Colonel and former Indiana police officer, he joined an office created out of public outrage in 2009 after the convictions of four county commissioners and two West Palm city commissioners earned Palm Beach the moniker “Corruption County.”
Asked about criticism that he shies from higher level cases that might ruffle feathers, Carey said criminal cases are just one measure of an inspector general’s effectiveness.
There are good reasons the hotel investigation went nowhere, Carey said.
“We did not have sufficient, consistent evidence to issue findings here,”
Himmel and his top investigator counter that Carey dropped the ball.
The facts were solid and supported by “boxes and boxes and boxes” of documents, Himmel told The Palm Beach Post. He and his former second-in-command question whether Carey is gun shy when it comes to going after big targets and rattling the chain of command.
“This rigorous investigation was conducted and supervised by three veteran law enforcement officers with a combined experience of almost 90 years. It also involved an experienced contract oversight specialist,” Himmel said.
Carey hired Himmel in 2015, after Himmel spent 31 years in law enforcement, as a special agent for 16 years and assistant special agent in charge for 15, with the U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General’s Office, Division of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations. Throughout his career, he trained federal and state law enforcement officers on construction industry fraud.
The hotel project evidence included many interviews and tens of thousands of pages of documents. Some were obtained voluntarily, some with subpoenas, Himmel said. That evidence was neither stale nor incomplete, he insisted.
“The investigation was done. There were no more records to get.”
Himmel: ‘Preponderance of evidence existed’
“I don’t understand how Carey and Robinson could not determine a preponderance of evidence existed, when the initial draft report of 70-plus pages identified elaborate fraud and contract violations committed by some of the companies hired to work on the Hilton Hotel. The documented violations also included criminal offenses.”
Read PB Post reporter Tony Doris story below
Previous story OIG or COE
https://wpbwatch.com/2020/05/decisions-oig-or-coe/