Jonetta Rose Barras: Calling security
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Examiner Columnist
August 17, 2009
True story: The head of the park rangers at the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation received a frantic late-night telephone call from a Hawk One female security guard protecting and patrolling the swimming pool near Francis School. She was having trouble.
Call 911 or protective services, the ranger advised. She didn't want to bring in the police and insisted he come.
When he arrived, he found her on the floor. The chair she was sitting in had collapsed under her. Her weight prevented her from getting up without assistance.
That story is legend and provides a glimpse into why Mayor Adrian M. Fenty decided to terminate Hawk One's contract as the city's prime security firm.
Many of Hawk One's guards, not unlike the one stationed at that swimming pool, were physically out of shape for the demands of their jobs. They also were poorly trained and under-performed, government sources told me.
Earlier this month, The Examiner's Michael Neibauer reported that in 2008, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee chastised Hawk One guards for "just sitting in chairs." That same year, one of the company's guards, stopped by police for a traffic violation, was found with marijuana and 75 vials of a "white, rocklike substance."
"The government doesn't have clean hands in all of this," countered A. Scott Bolden, Hawk One's attorney and the managing partner of Reed Smith.
He accused the District of not paying the company on time and not providing equipment as agreed in its contract. Further, he said infighting among agencies, notably between the police department and DCPS, hampered his client's effectiveness.
"You can change contractors, but until the District does a better job, [it's] going to have some of the same issues and the same problems," Bolden predicted. Hawk One has filed a complaint with the city's Contract Appeals Board.
Bolden may be partially right. Nothing is likely to change, although two new firms are being hired.
By law the new contractors will be required to retain Hawk One workers, said Briant Coleman, a spokesman for the city's chief procurement officer. They also must adhere to previously negotiated union agreements; Hawk One workers will receive their current salaries and benefits.
Watch out! That broken-chair guard could be coming to a government building, school or swimming pool near you. And, she'll collect your money.
"Hawk One employees have first right of refusal, but they also have to meet and pass training requirements of the new vendor," Coleman said. "Workers shouldn't be out a job just because the District didn't negotiate" an agreement with an existing contractor.
Yes they should. Managers can't be the only ones held accountable for the quality of services.
District officials should push to change the law or secure a waiver from the federal government. Such policies sustain and nurture mediocrity. What's more, by saddling new vendors with problematic personnel and pre-established costs, taxpayers don't get the maximum bang for their bucks.
That's a lose-lose situation.
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW's "D.C. Politics with Jonetta," can be reached at Rosebook1@aol.com
