Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Lake Avenue reconstruction is delayed again after Erie County lawmakers rejected a bid from Zoladz. Zoladz is accused of misleading the federal government to get military-owned business credits.
"This much needed project, which should have been done years ago by the Poloncarz administration, has now been delayed several more weeks because this administration failed to properly vet the bidders of this project," says Legislator Lynne Dixon. "Two years in a row, the village of Blasdell had to cancel their Memorial Day parade because Lake Ave was in such poor condition. The violations that ultimately disqualified Zoladz construction should have been discovered during the review process by the administration and their bid should have been immediately removed. Instead, this administration tried to award them the contract despite misrepresenting themselves as a service disabled veteran owned business, and despite OSHA violations not being acknowledged on the bid submission. Moving forward, we need to review this process and make necessary changes to ensure these oversights do not occur again."
The New York Foundation for Fair Contracting calls itself a watchdog non-profit established to level the playing field in public works construction for the benefit of taxpayers, responsible contractors, and workers. It says Zoladz also has a troubling safety record. In just the past three years, two Zoladz workers lost their lives on the job. OSHA fined Zoladz over $50,000 for serious violations identified after these workplace deaths in 2016 and 2018. OSHA only considers a violation to be serious "when the workplace hazard could cause an accident or illness that would most likely result in death or serious physical harm."
Zoladz responded with this statement:
Zoladz Construction Co. Inc. is the low bidder by $435,692 on the $3.9 million Lake Avenue Reconstruction Project in Hamburg. A labor- management organization calling itself the "Foundation for Fair Contracting" and styling itself as a "watchdog," publicly criticized Erie County earlier this month for awarding the work to Zoladz, a non-union contractor.A closer look at the "Foundation" via publicly available documents reveals that the trustees of the "Foundation" have strong ties to the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 17, and the entities share the same address and likely share services. The trustees also appear to include at least one apparent operator of a company that directly competes with Zoladz. Finally, the "Foundation" appears to be funded, at least in part, by union-employer contributions from collective-bargaining agreements. It is clear that, even without the "Foundation's" previous history with Zoladz as explained below, it is a motivated competitor of open-shop Zoladz.
Late Wednesday, on the eve of a legislative committee hearing into the "Foundation's" criticism, the Erie County Department of Public Works, which had earlier certified Zoladz as the low bidder and recommended the Legislature approve its bid, said in a letter that even after receiving further information from Zoladz, its bid was flawed and rejected. After receiving the DPW letter late in the day, and disappointed that it would not have an opportunity to appear with regard to the award, Zoladz provided the legislative committee with a letter stating that given DPW's rejection of Zoladz' bid, the hearing rendered moot Zoladz' appearance today. That letter was followed by further emails with county officials in which Zoladz' counsel requested information regarding the topic of the meeting and how its attendance at the meeting could be appropriate given the bid rejection. That question went unanswered.
"Zoladz Construction disagrees strongly with the county's sudden reversal, coming as it does in the wake of governmental pressure from competitors. While we certainly agree with DPW that the settlement at issue in this matter does not result in a negative finding, we vigorously dispute the legal and factual reasons DPW cited as a basis for finding Zoladz' bid incomplete and subject to rejection. We are requesting a hearing to exhaust our administrative remedies, and we remain confident and hopeful that Zoladz will be able to start work soon on this long-promised project that's so critical to the safety and peace of mind of county taxpayers driving in Hamburg," said Jennifer K. Harvey, attorney for Zoladz.
