Thread: RI-State ending most TriState, Falcon cleaning contracts

State ending most TriState, Falcon cleaning contracts
5:15 PM Thu, Jul 24, 2008 | Permalink
Andrea Panciera Email
By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House bureau

PROVIDENCE - The Carcieri administration notified the owners of TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance this afternoon that their contracts to clean almost four dozen state buildings are being terminated as of 11:55 p.m. tomorrow night.

The two companies surfaced as the employers of the 31 court employees who were arrested by immigration officials last week at state courthouses as they were leaving their work shifts.

While the status of those court contracts remains uncertain, Department of Administration Director Jerome Williams said he decided to terminate another 45 or so contracts with the companies after an internal review in which he found the companies had been reporting many fewer employees to the Department of Labor & Training than they had told the state they had available to perform the cleaning contracts.

TriState told the state it had 100 or so employees and state labor officials, it had about a half-dozen.

"The way I am interpreting that is (that) they are telling us one thing and reporting something else,'' Williams said.

Williams said the president of Falcon acknowledged his company was not in all cases completing the so-called "I-9 process'' that all employers are required by federal law to perform to determine whether all their employees are eligible to work in this country.

That Falcon was not obtaining the necessary information to complete this federal employer requirement "causes me grave concern,'' Williams said. He said he asked TriState to produce the same documentation; up until this point, he had not received all of the documents requested.

Governor Carcieri said in a statement about the move, "This should send a clear message to all companies who are doing business with the state. We will not tolerate non-compliance of state and federal laws and we will not tolerate companies who violate the terms of their contract."

Williams said the administration has put all state agencies on notice that they are responsible for the "cleanliness'' of their buildings while the state does an "emergency procurement'' to bring in replacements, by Aug. 12, for up to 90 days, while going back out to bid for new multi-year cleaning contracts.

When reached after the governor's announcement, David A. Civetti, vice president of Tri-State Enterprises, said, "Yeah, it's all news to me...This is the first I'm hearing of that.''

Civetti said he and the company's president, Anthony E. DeSimone Jr. were planning to meet with their lawyer, Thomas DeSimone, Anthony's brother, last evening and might have more to say tomorrow.


TriState Enterprises is located at 1270 Mineral Spring Ave. in North Providence. Anthony E. DeSimone Jr. is president and chief executive, and David A. Civetti is vice president. DeSimone is the brother of state Rep. John DeSimone, D-Providence, a one-time candidate for House speaker who, as a lawyer, at one point represented Providence teachers.

The listed address of Falcon Maintenance Co. LLC is 160 Winsor Ave. in Johnston. The company's 2007 annual report lists Vincent D'Elia Jr. as a contact and George M. Capello as the registered agent.

Between them, the two companies currently have at least 48 contracts across state government, including the main state office building on Smith Hill, the attorney general's office, two state Division of Motor Vehicles offices, the Board of Elections, the North Main Street Armory, the state's command readiness facility and the state's emergency telecommunications system, E-911.

In the year that ended June 30, the court system paid TriState a total of $493,325 and Falcon $261,643. The state paid TriState an additional $732,891 and Falcon $579,456 under the non-court cleaning contracts, according to DOA director Williams.

The investigation that led to the courthouse raid was sparked by a freakish event: A courthouse clerk notified the Capitol Police after coming to work at the J. Joseph Garrahy Complex and seeing a paper reproduction of some sort of identification on the floor next to a copy machine.

Last Thursday, Carcieri announced that he had ordered an "internal" review of the dozens of contracts the state has with two janitorial companies whose workers were arrested in the immigration raid, and he said he would not tolerate "this type of illegal activity by unscrupulous employers."

At the time, his office said: "A contract can be terminated if a company is found in violation of federal law or if they are not in compliance with the terms of the contract.''

To date, no criminal charges had been filed against the owners of the two companies or against any of the 31 suspected illegal immigrants working for them, although the workers all face administrative charges of being in this country illegally.

But Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the state police have advised the governor's office that there is an "on-going investigation'' by the U.S. attorney's office that focuses not only on employees of the companies, but also the two companies.

This afternoon, court spokesman Craig Berke issued this statement: "The Judiciary learned today of the Department of Administration's plan to cancel contracts with Tri-State Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance. The Judiciary has been conducting its own examination of the cleaning contracts with those two companies. The review is ongoing and no decision has been made. The contracts remain in effect.''

In a related development, a spokesman for the Fall River, Mass,. Police Department said police there were "remiss'' in not notifying federal immigration officials when they first learned that one of the TriState cleaning women was involved in a credit card scam that targeted employees the University of Rhode Island Alumni Center where they worked. A police report said one of the two women was asked "if she was illegal in this country. She stated 'yes.' "

Earlier today, a Fall River police spokesman said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been notified.

http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/new ... ng-mo.html

illegal aliens with access to court house records!

Email from the R.I. Governor's Office:

From: Governor Donald L. Carcieri <e-news@gov.state.ri.us>
To: buzzm1
Subject: DOA Terminates Cleaning Contracts
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 2:39 pm


DOA TERMINATES CONTRACTS
WITH FALCON MAINTENANCE AND TRI-STATE ENTERPRISES

The Department of Administration announced that all the Executive Office state contracts with Falcon Maintenance and Tri-State Enterprises will be terminated, effective 11:59 PM, July 25, 2008.

Commenting on the action, Governor Carcieri stated, "This should send a clear message to all companies who are doing business with the State. We will not tolerate non-compliance with state and federal laws and we will not tolerate companies who violate the terms of their contract."

Following last week's operation, where 31 individuals employed by Falcon and Tri-State were detained by the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office for allegedly violating federal immigration laws, the Department of Administration immediately conducted an internal review of the current contracts between the State of Rhode Island and the two companies to ensure compliance with all state and federal laws, and that contract service levels were being met.

Among the findings of the DOA review, it was discovered that:
federal regulations for collecting I-9 Forms and supporting documents (to establish authorization to work in the USA) were not followed
DOA requests for documents went unfulfilled

participation in E-Verify could not be substantiated

The Department of Administration has initiated an emergency procurement process for janitorial services for those buildings previously serviced by Falcon and Tri-State, with new contracts expected to be in place by August 12, 2008, for a term of 90 days, allowing the Department to conduct a full bid process for services.

The Carcieri administration notified the owners of TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance this afternoon that their contracts to clean almost four dozen state buildings are being terminated as of 11:55 p.m. tomorrow night.

It's quite telling where we are in this country regarding illegal invaders when we have to resort to thanking those elected officials who choose to obey the law and do what's right for this country. But, this is one of those cases.

So thank you Governor Donald L. Carcieri for obeying the law and doing what's proper once you became aware the cleaning vendors you awarded contracts to were violating the law and screwing America and its citizens by utilizing illegal invader labor...