Hazel Crest School District 152 1/2
Authorities examining transactions involving board president and indicted businessman
Hazel Crest School District 152
Authorities in February sought information about the district’s financial transactions with Tower Contracting LLC, whose president, Michael Jarigese, was indicted last year in connection with a scheme to defraud the city of Markham, according to a grand jury subpoena the Daily Southtown obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The subpoena, issued Feb. 12, directs the district to turn over all contracts and records of payments made to Tower, school board President Dean Barnett and Barnett’s landscaping business, which has done work for Tower, from 2010 to the present. The document also requests “all background records including applications for employment, personnel files, credit checks, background investigations, etc.”
District 152
The district, which enrolls about 1,000 students from Markham, Hazel Crest and East Hazel Crest, has not done business with Barnett’s landscaping company, she said.
Tower’s principal, Anthony Blum, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear what federal investigators are looking for in the district’s records.
In January, as part of a deal reached with federal prosecutors, former Markham Mayor David Webb pleaded guilty for his role in what prosecutors allege was a $300,000 bribery scheme to defraud the south suburb and its residents for his own benefit.
Beginning in about 2008, Webb solicited bribes and kickbacks from certain contractors, including Tower and Alsterda Cartage and Construction, in exchange for steering public work their way, according to his plea agreement.
Jarigese and Alsterda’s owner, Thomas Summers, were indicted along with Webb in November but have pleaded not guilty.
Both companies worked on the construction of District 152
The district chose Tower as the project manager after interviewing three construction management companies for the job, and Tower subsequently selected Alsterda as a subcontractor for site utilities, meeting minutes show.
The district initially entered into a $9.9 million contract with Tower to build both schools but ended up paying the company a little over $10.6 million due to multiple change orders, records show.
Annual financial statements the district filed with the state board of education show that the district paid Tower $12,496,821 between 2013 and 2017 — or nearly $2 million more than the contract for construction of the schools specified — but it wasn’t immediately clear what accounted for the discrepancy or what other work Tower might have done for the district.
Minutes from that period provide only a limited summary of the board’s discussions but do not reflect that Barnett ever acknowledged his company had previously done business with Tower.
On Nov. 8, 2012, he voted to approve the district’s contract with Tower, and on May 22, 2013, he voted to approve a number of Tower’s recommended subcontractors, minutes show.
Barnett, however, abstained from a vote on the bid package for general trades work, which included landscaping, although it’s not clear why. Documents provided by the village show Tower proposed to subcontract landscaping for the project to “Landscape Svcs, Anderson,” after the board rejected its first general trades bid recommendation.
Harrison-Williams said she became aware at some point that Barnett had done work for Tower in the past.
She said his ties to Tower did not affect the board’s decision to hire the company, which she said was the lowest responsible bidder.
When the Daily Southtown submitted a public records request asking for school construction proposals received by the district, officials turned over only Tower’s proposal, which cites working with Barnett’s company on construction of Markham’s 70,000-square-foot senior center.
Barnett’s work on Markham’s senior center, which is named after Webb, is one of multiple jobs his company did for the city.
Records show that between 2001 and 2015, Barnett and his company, Barnett Landscape Contractors, donated a combined $11,925 to Webb’s campaign and received at least $401,776 in city business.
Federal authorities subpoenaed the city of Markham in January for its payments to Barnett and his company but have not charged him with a crime.
The board president, whose eligibility to serve is being challenged in court due to a prior felony conviction, released a statement earlier this month saying that he was cooperating with the federal inquiry.
Barnett said in his statement that his landscaping company had never done work for the district, but he did not address his relationship with Tower.
“My involvement with the school district is on a volunteer elected basis,” he said. “I am proud of the work that I do on behalf of children, and I remain excited about the great works that are occurring daily in the Hazel Crest School District.”
Barnett previously told the Southtown that he had not engaged in any “funny business,” — i.e., offering Webb bribes — to get work in Markham.
“At no point has our company ever been involved in any form of wrongdoing as it relates to contributions versus works that were awarded to our company,” he said earlier this month. “All work that we were awarded, we gave proposals, we did the work. That was it.”
Webb’s daughter, Lakeya Webb, serves with Barnett on the District 152
Board minutes show she missed most of the crucial meetings in 2012 and 2013 when new school construction was discussed, including the meetings where the board hired Tower and approved Tower’s recommended subcontractors.
She has not been implicated in any of the bribery allegations leveled at her father.
Howard Metz, an attorney for the school district, said he’d been working with prosecutors to narrow down their original request and provide them the documents they desire.
Thus far, the district has turned over 58 pages of meeting minutes from 2012 to 2015 that detail the board’s public discussions and votes on matters related to Tower and the construction of its schools, records show.
Metz said he expected the board would turn over additional documents to prosecutors in the near future.
“We’re being fully cooperative with the U.S. attorney, and they’re being accommodating by letting us go through with it,” he said.
