Judge Says CDOT Threatened Chair Of Dispute Resolution Board & Taxpayers Will Pay
DENVER (CBS4) - A Denver District Court judge finds the Colorado Department of Transportation engaged in deception and intimidation in a case that could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The lawsuit centered on a dispute with Hamon Infrastructure.
The Colorado-based company sued CDOT for breach of contract, saying it tried to influence the chair of a board that handles dispute resolution.
The judge agreed saying CDOT "was threatening... one of the three persons charged with resolving (the dispute)" if that person didn't rule in CDOT's favor.
Skip Smith, Hamon's attorney, says he has the emails to prove it.
"This occurred over a period of several years, and there were several employees in positions of responsibility that were a part of it."
Smith helped created the Dispute Resolution Board nearly 15 years ago, but he says, CDOT has changed the rules in recent years to its benefit. Still, he says, the board found in Hamon's favor three times, and each time, he says, CDOT refused to abide by the ruling. Hamon finally sued.
"The entire dispute process can take well over a year, so it's time and money to both the contractor and taxpayers."
Sen. Ray Scott says Hamon's case isn't isolated.
"There's multiple contractors all over state of Colorado dealing with this process as we speak. Some are close to going out of business."
Scott has been sounding an alarm for years, saying CDOT is also deceptive in its budgeting.
"A $10 million project on a road. That project doesn't get $10 million. It gets 27% less than that, and that 27% goes to CDOT operations."
He's introduced bills to require more transparency in the budget and an outside review of the dispute resolution process.
"All it says is go out and get a third party, not someone on the inside, and review the entire process from front to back, and let's clean it up and make it fair to both sides."
Democratic leadership in the Senate sent the bills to the so-called kill committee, where they died on a party-line vote.
A jury will decide monetary damages for Hamon Infrastructure. Smith says they could run as high as a million dollars, just to cover what Hamon spent to prepare for dispute resolution hearings that the judge says "were compromised before they began."
Scott says CDOT's reputation is damaged as well.
"I'm actually trying to help them clean up problems, but if you can't admit you have a problem, you can't fix it."
Democrats also killed two other bills by Scott that would have made the Transportation Commission an elected body instead of an appointed one and would have addressed how CDOT awards contracts. As CBS4 has reported, CDOT is giving most of its big contracts to two out-of-state contractors.
A CDOT spokesperson said they don't comment on pending legislation or litigation. A state audit of the agency is underway. Scott is hoping that will prompt change.
