A lawsuit filed in January alleges UNM unethically awarded the $60 million Pit renovation project to an Oklahama-based contractor, but the contractor says it is not responsible for UNM’s actions.
The lawsuit, filed by the New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council and The Local Electrical and Iron Workers Union, alleges contracting company Flintco was given the construction management contract for the Pit because of its relationship with UNM President David Schmidly. The complaint accuses Flintco of hiring Schmidly’s son, Brian Schmidly, as the new business development manager in exchange for the contract.
Flintco released a statement Feb. 7 saying the lawsuit is nothing more than a meritless attack on the company.
“This action is clearly frivolous, clearly vexatious or brought primarily for the purpose of harassment,” the statement said.
In the statement, Flintco denied the allegations and said it did not authorize or sanction unlawful actions alleged in the lawsuit.
Flintco Vice President Ken Easley said the Board of Regents determined hiring Brian Schmidly was not a conflict of interest,
“In our first interview, Brian did disclose his relationship with President Schmidly,” Easley said in an e-mail. “However, we didn’t think his family connection should disqualify him. It was up to the board to decide if there was a conflict of interest. They did not. This is documented in the January public minutes of the regents meeting.”
Four UNM officials and one outside architect scored each bidding company to determine which was most qualified to receive the contract. The lawsuit claims all UNM officials’ scores were scratched off and recalculated to reflect Flintco as the winning bidder over Bradbury Stamm and Jaynes Corp. However, Jaynes Corp. scored higher than Flinto and underbid it by $2.2 million, according to the lawsuit.
The score sheets in question were filled out by Athletics Vice President Paul Krebs, then-Facility Management Vice President William Turner, UNM Architect Roger Lujan and Facility Project Officer Miguel Hidalgo. The fifth evaluation sheet did not show signs of recalculations, the lawsuit said.
Attorney John Wertheim, who represents the labor unions filing the suit, said Flintco’s hiring of Schimdly’s son is at the center of the fraud allegations. “I do think the allegations in the complaint speak for themselves and I think they clearly need to get to the bottom of what went on,” Wertheim said. “It is the purpose of the lawsuit to shed light on the contract bidding process in New Mexico and UNM.”
Wertheim said UNM paid at least $2.2 million more than it should have for the Pit renovation, and the lawsuit looks to put that money back in the University’s budget.
“They (Flintco) are the ones that benefited financially. That’s our allegation,” Wertheim said. “We are actually suing on behalf of the University, not against it.”
