D.C. booting security firm, citing poor performance
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
August 6, 2009
Hawk One troubles» November 2008: D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee chastises Hawk One school guards "just sitting in chairs."
» March 2008: School officer Ronald Bell arrested after a traffic stop uncovers pot and 75 vials of a "white, rocklike substance."
» July 2005: Hawk One guard Xavier Brooks arrested on suspicion of a pair of armed robberies in Georgetown.
A private security firm with lucrative deals to guard both D.C. government buildings and the public schools has lost at least one of its contracts with the District and looks to be out entirely.
Mayor Adrian Fenty is moving to replace Hawk One Security four years after it took over the citywide security services contract.
Georgia-based U.S. Security Associates Inc. and D.C.-based Security Assurance Management have been awarded one-year contracts totaling $22.1 million to provide security in facilities leased and owned by the District. And while D.C. has yet to name a new school security firm, The Examiner has learned Hawk One is out of there too.
The company has fared poorly since winning the job in 2005, District officials say.
Employees in government buildings are poorly supervised, inadequately trained and armed, and ineffective at checking people, city officials say. In the schools, Hawk One personnel have struggled to contain violence and have a history of fraternizing with students.
"Their performance was just not up to standards,Ó one city leader said. "They did themselves in.Ó
Bobby Eddins, U.S. Security's vice president of the mid-Atlantic region, said some of the 200 Hawk One employees manning posts at government buildings will keep their jobs, as mandated by a collective bargaining agreement. But Hawk One's failings, Eddins said, was "one of the reasons why everybody will be retrained to our standards.Ó
"My instinct has always been if there's problems and there's others that can compete, let's go with the better deal,Ó said Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who has oversight of the Office of Property Management.
Hawk One management was unavailable for comment. The firm, with its partner G4i Channel Inc., is protesting the award for citywide security services. Hawk One's bid was roughly $7 million higher than U.S. Security.
"Hawk One's proposal reflects the minimum pricing under which an offeror could reasonably hope to perform the contract, which Hawk One understands as the incumbent contractor providing security services to the District's public schools and government buildings,Ó the company states in its protest, filed July 22 with the city's Contract Appeals Board.
U.S. Security has subcontracted with D.C.-based Watkins Security Services to fulfill its minority contracting requirement. It may be sweet revenge for Watkins: The firm unsuccessfully protested the school security award to Hawk One in 2005.
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