Friday, August 11, 2023
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley PHOTO: GoLocal
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is raising concerns about the selection of ABM as the new facilities maintenance vendor for the Providence Schools — a contract worth more than $70 million.
A GoLocal investigation has unveiled that ABM has been fined and paid settlements dozens of times across the country for wage fraud and safety issues.
“We continue to hear concerning information about the process and result of the new contract for our school facility vendor. The Providence School Board and District leadership should have done their due diligence to ask the difficult, but necessary, questions on a contract and commitment of this magnitude,” said Smiley in an email to GoLocal.
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“We have just a few short weeks left until we reopen schools, and it’s critical that, as a community, we have confidence in this new vendor and their ability to deliver for our schools,” Smiley added.
ABM Fined or Paid Settlement of Hundreds of Millions for the Violation of Workers
GoLocal reported about dozens of violations of workers by ABM. In 2022, it was reported that ABM paid a $140 million settlement for worker violations in California.
In addition, a report on PBS’ Frontline focused on ABM’s abuse of workers.
Frontline reported:
“ABM says it has one of the most sophisticated worker protection programs in the industry.
But we found more than 40 sexual harassment lawsuits against ABM over the past two decades.
In fact, ABM is one of the few companies to have been sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) multiple times for sexual harassment.
Anna Park was in charge of the biggest EEOC sexual harassment case against ABM. “When the EEOC brought a class case against ABM Industries, I felt it exemplified one of the worst handlings by a company of complaints of harassment,” said Park.”
Park is the Regional Attorney for the Los Angeles District Office of the EEOC. She is one of fifteen regional attorneys tasked with heading the litigation units for the regional district offices.
RI Education Commissioner Infante Green oversees Providence Public Schools. PHOTO: GoLocal
Consultant, a Convicted Felon, Paid $183,000 By Providence School Officials
On Wednesday, GoLocal’s ongoing investigation unveiled that Providence School officials hired a “consultant” to assist in the selection of the new maintenance vendor.
The consultant hired is a man named Mark Heroux, the founder and managing partner of Performance Resource Partners — the firm is located in Holbrook, Massachusetts, in Heroux’s home.
It is unclear why the public agency with nearly two dozen top-paid administrators needed to hire a firm to manage a public bid. A GoLocal report published in December of 2022 found that the top 18 executives in the Providence Public School Department earned on average more than $157,000.
Providence School officials report to the Commissioner of the Department of Education Angélica Infante-Green since the state took over the school system in 2019.
But despite the top-level staffing, Providence Schools hired Heroux, who was convicted of financial crimes tied to maintenance work in a federal building in Boston in the 1990s.
According to Providence School records and confirmed by the agency, the contract for Heroux was for $183,900.
Court documents secured by GoLocal show that Heroux was the facilities manager for Ogden Corporation — the company that had the contract at the O’Neill Federal Building. Heroux created a scheme in which he falsified payroll records and created “ghost” employees.
“The version of events in the Presentence Report, as submitted by AUSA Robert Richardson, depicts Mark Heroux as the initiator and director of this scheme as well as the person who had the final say on all decisions regarding this scheme. The government’s version has Mark Heroux suggesting this scheme to Alice Beamer and making it appear that Mark Heroux had to approve of who would be the so-called ghost employee,” according to court documents.
Heroux illegally collected tens of thousands of dollars before his scheme was uncovered.
The Providence Public School Department, who signed the contract with Heroux, admitted that they were unaware of his prior conviction after repeated requests.
Providence Schools’ spokesperson Jay Wegimont, said in an email to GoLocal, “When selecting a vendor, PPSD reviews the vendor’s qualifications including relevant work experience. In cases where employees of a vendor will have direct, unsupervised contact with students, we require that those employees receive a criminal background checks. We do not conduct background checks for all employees of a vendor outside of these circumstances.”
“PPSD was not aware of the prior conviction,” Wegimont added.
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