A Costa Mesa company has complained of potential nepotism in the awarding of an inspection contract to a company owned by the father of a Los Alamitos Unified School official, yet officials are confident they made the right choice by selecting a firm with a long history of performance with the system.
The allegations of potential nepotism were originally raised in an article by Scott Schwebke in the October 4 edition of the Orange County Register.
In the article, Youssef G. Sobhi, the president of T.Y.R. Inc., one of the companies not selected, said the board’s decision in August “smacked of favoritism,” because the son of the winning company’s president works for the school system.
According to system records, TYR issued a bid of $949,840 to provide inspections for the construction of a new science, technology, engineering and math classroom building, funded by the passage of the $97 million Measure G.
Following an analysis by an appointed selection committee, however, the board awarded the contract to Knowland Construction Services, of Rancho Pales Verdes, who bid $970,900. Christopher Knowland, president of the company, is the father of Los Alamitos school district Facilities Director C.J. Knowland, Jr.
Supt. Andrew Pulver said although Knowland is a relatively new school district employee, he was in no way involved in the contract selection process and that the board sought two legal opinions before awarding the bid to the company.
“They (Knowland Construction) have worked really well with the system for many years,” said Pulver, adding that the company had been “a great partner” for inspections for as long as 15 years.
C.J. Knowland, Jr. was hired as Facilities Manager less than a year ago.
“We took extra steps to explain the board the history of our relationship with Knowland Construction at the meeting,” Pulver told the Event-News Enterprise, “and we made sure (with multiple legal opinions) that the entire board understood everything before the vote.”
Pulver said the Los Al Unified system employs the Merit System for vendor acquisition, which, by its very definition, “eliminates nepotism.” He said all of the bidders underwent written and verbal diligence by objective panelists, some of whom outside the system who “rated” all of the potential bidders for the inspection contract.
Bottom line, Pulver said the price for all of the contract’s bidders were exactly the same, $85 per hour for inspections so the board had every right to select a company with prior performance with the system.
Sobhi, according to the article, claimed that T.Y.R.’s only contract with the system soured after Knowland became Facilities manager. Pulver said there were “issues” associated with the work performed by T.Y.R. but declined to say more without a formal public records request.
“This is a $50 million construction project and we are very comfortable with our decision,” said Pulver said. Before the vote in August, he said the board moved forward only after getting multiple legal opinions, “all of which said the same thing.”
In fact, Terry Tao, one of the attorneys who wrote one of the legal opinions for the district, said the LAUSD “disagrees with (Sobhi’s) characterizations and statements,” regarding potential nepotism.
“Allegations concerning conflict of interest concerning Mr. Knowland are not well received,” the district’s attorney said in a letter quoted by the article.
