Updated: 1:17 P.M.
The Fenty administration has handed out construction management contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for parks and recreation projects without obtaining legislative approval, and D.C. Council members are crying foul.
A partnership between Banneker Ventures LLC and Regan Associates has become the go-to manager for the Parks and Recreation Department, handling construction contracts worth some $72 million, public records show.
“We are concerned that the transfer of procurement authority may circumvent District procurement laws and is significantly less transparent,” members Kwame Brown, D-at large, Harry Thomas, D-Ward 5, Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3 and Marion Barry, D-Ward 8 wrote to Fenty on Thursday.
» Bald Eagle Recreation Center: $5.3 million, awarded Sept. 21
» Barry Farm Recreation Center: $15 million, awarded Sept. 21
» Chevy Chase Recreation Center: $3.3 million, awarded Sept. 21
» Fort Stanton Recreation Center: $12 million, awarded Sept. 21
» Rosedale Recreation Center: $16 million, awarded Sept. 21
The four council members have scheduled a joint-oversight hearing on the contracts for Oct. 30. Brown chairs the economic development committee, Thomas the parks and recreation committee, Cheh the government operations committee and Barry the housing committee.
Doxie McCoy, Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s spokeswoman, said the Gray is simply “concerned about this practice and looks forward to the information generated from the roundtable.”
The contracts were awarded through the city’s Housing Authority, even though they focus on parks projects. City law requires that the council approve contracts worth more than $1 million, but none of the Banneker-Regan contracts were vetted publicly.
Banneker has ties to Fenty friend and former fraternity brother Sinclair Skinner, sources said. The company is owned and operated by Omar Karim, a Bethesda lawyer and longtime friend and business associate of Skinner.
Skinner founded his own company, Liberty Industries LLC, shortly after Fenty took office. Karim has been Skinner’s main client through Banneker and a company calling itself the Liberty Law Group for at least a year, according to sources close to the matter.
Karim hung up the phone when asked for comment Thursday morning. Skinner couldn’t be reached for comment. Nor could A. Scott Bolden, Skinner’s attorney.
Attorney General Peter Nickles didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Skinner has been involved in other recent disputes between Fenty and the city council.
He was the person who engineered the donation of a D.C. firetruck and ambulance to a Caribbean resort town, according to Vladimir Cespedes, the mayor of Sosua in the Dominican Republic, and others.
Skinner’s relationship with owners of a would-be lottery vendor was a chief reason council members cited when they voted against the vendor’s contract last year.
Earlier this year, the city paid for a Kappa Alpha Psi party organized by Skinner, though the fraternity reimbursed taxpayers once the arrangement went public.
[email protected] and [email protected]
