By Nick Buglione
According to Paul Leo, an organizer from the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters, the Brooklyn-based Trataros Construction Inc. won the bidding for the public project on June 18 this year.
Trataros, a multi-million-dollar, national company, has been cited in the past for sub-par work, occupational-safety violations and bribery, union officials said.
East Meadow School District charges, however, refute the charges, stating that both their attorney and construction manager, Park East Construction, researched Trataros thoroughly and found no legal grounds for them to be disqualified from the contract. Several calls to Trataros' Brooklyn headquarters were not returned.
Leon Campo, the district's assistant superintendent for finance and administration, emphasized that state law requires only the lowest responsible bidder be awarded work on public projects, such as the one at Woodland Middle School. Since Trataros bid the lowest, the district was required to hire the firm.
Leo, however, maintains that the company might be the lowest bidder, but is far from responsible and should be taken off the job immediately.
The work
Although no price was listed, the Dodge Report said the work on Woodland Middle School would include a "two-story classroom addition, cafeteria renovations and various interior alterations."
Published on a regular basis by McGraw Hill, the Dodge Report is a list of all public and private jobs going on in different areas that includes details of the work and the contractors assigned.
The East Meadow School District's central administration is in the middle of moving out of its facilities in East Meadow High School, so Campo was unable to readily access the records further illustrating the scope and cost of the work. He did characterize the project as "substantial."
"There's quite a bit of work to be done," he said, and it's already under way. As recently as July 29, construction trucks were observed working inside a fenced-off area on Woodland Middle School grounds.
Troubled past
Records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was set up under the auspices of the Department of Labor in 1971 to prevent work-related injuries, indicate Trataros has been fined $328,955 for 174 violations since 1990.
"If I was a driver and I got 174 tickets in the last 10 years, would that make me a good driver?" said Martin Szabunio, a union organizer with the New York District Council of Carpenters.
Back in August 1999, OSHA issued a press release citing Trataros for three repeat violations, carrying a total proposed penalty of $14,800, for their work on the federal post office and court house in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The violations included failure to provide fall protection on the roof, failure to properly brace scaffolds and failure to inform laborers about hazardous substances in the workplace. According to OSHA officials, the company had been previously penalized for these infractions on three separate occasions in 1997.
Szabunio, district council colleague Dan Walcott and Leo have led the campaign against Trataros being awarded work within the East Meadow School District, circulating fliers and notifying local residents of the company's previous safety infractions.
"It was our concern for the students and East Meadow schools to give them a heads up, and that's why we got involved," said Walcott, was once a student at Barnum Woods Elementary School in East Meadow.
Aside from the company's OSHA violations, Trataros Construction was mired in a bribery scandal four years ago, according to court documents.
Nicos Trataros, founder and former CEO of the construction firm, pleaded guilty in 1998 to attempting to bribe a postal official in order to secure a hefty contract for the construction of a post office in the Bronx.
Following his conviction, Trataros was forced to resign from the company, pay a $75,000 fine and serve eight months in prison with three years supervised release.
What's more, Trataros' work at other schools in the metropolitan area has been publicly criticized in numerous media reports, especially the company's construction of Public School 24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
After building the 837-seat school, which opened in September 1997, Trataros had to return in 2000 to replace the entire facade because bricks were loose.
"This is just after opening. We're talking about a brand-new project," Szabunio said. "This is public money that can be used for better books or computers."
A New York City School Construction Authority report stated that there were "numerous deficiencies in the erection of the facade." It also found, among other problems, that the mortar bedding of the bricks was "fair to poor."
Dan McCormack, a spokesman for the New York City School Construction Authority, told the Herald that Trataros is no longer eligible to bid for any future projects on New York City schools.
"The right phrasing is they're ineligible to bid," McCormack said, adding that the mandate is, for all intents and purposes, permanent. "They have agreed not to bid, so it seems that it is definite."
District, community respond
East Meadow School District officials are well aware of the allegations brought forth by the union regarding Trataros, and they said they investigated each claim with care.
Yet, despite their investigation, they found no legal reason not to hire them, Campo said, reminding that they are required to award the contract to the lowest bidder.
"There are very few tangible reasons to disqualify a company. They have to do more than be in a dispute with a union," Campo said. "Unless there is an allegation of fraud that's true or if we called a reference and found out that they didn't complete a job, [then we have to hire them]."
He also noted that district officials were aware of the OSHA violations, but regarded them as "par for the course" when dealing with a company as large as Trataros -- which was listed in the top 40 of the New York Construction News' top contractors in tri-state revenues in 2002.
It's not uncommon for the larger construction firms that undertake projects all over the country to accumulate such penalties, Campo said.
"When we looked at the nature of the violations, we found that they weren't so substantial," he added, meaning that they did not deem them as serious infractions.
Although the New York City School Construction Authority stated the contrary, Campo said the school district's attorney found that Trataros, while at one time was not eligible to bid for projects on New York City schools, is now allowed to again.
Union officials say they have gone out of their way to contact the East Meadow School District administration in an attempt to sway their decision to hire Trataros, largely to no avail.
"I personally tried to get in touch with the superintendent of East Meadow schools three times," Walcott said, but never talked to him.
Leo, who went down to the district, met with Joseph Barbera, director of school facilities and operations, on June 18. "Barbera had stated their legal counsel had looked into it, and they were still going to hire [Trataros]," Leo said.
Barbera, when contacted, said he was not authorized to comment on the matter. "I am not authorized or designated as a contact person for the media."
In a letter to Leo, dated March 8, Barbera assured him that the district diligently researches all construction firms before giving contracts.
"We make every effort, with the assistance of our architect and construction manager, to ensure that all construction contacts are awarded to the most-qualified and lowest responsible bidder," Barbera wrote in the letter.
Still, local civic leaders and parents were alarmed to learn that Trataros would be working on a local school.
"I don't feel comfortable with that," said one parent who has children who attend Woodland Middle School and asked not to be identified further. "If they are irresponsible, they shouldn't be hired. I'm sure the people of East Meadow would like to put safety first."
East Meadow Civic and Community Service Association President Robert Zafonte agreed. "How can a company like that be doing work in East Meadow?" he said. "They should've been disqualified. It's horrendous."
