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Oct 30, 2015 9:19 PM |
Report: Nowakowski had no conflict in downtown Phoenix land deal
Hopefully, this can move on now...
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...deal/74701846/
Quote:
Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski did not violate conflict-of-interest laws while discussing plans to develop a piece of city-owned land downtown, and the bid process was "uncompromised," according to a report from a private law firm.
The city hired the firm, Sanders & Parks, to investigate the deal after a developer accused the councilman of not disclosing a conflict.
However, the firm wrote in its report released Thursday that, for the sake of transparency, Nowakowski should have told a team of competing developers that his employer was also looking into bidding on the land.
Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher commissioned the report and put the sale on hold in early October after The Arizona Republic published a story about the competing developer's claim. Robert Lyles, a partner at Deco Communities, said his team met with Nowakowski about the project in April but the councilman didn't disclose that the non-profit Cesar Chavez Foundation, where he is a top executive, would also be bidding.
"It is our conclusion based on the information available to us at this time that, although Councilman Nowakowski ... could have been more forthcoming in his discussion with Deco to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the RFP process was uncompromised and there were no violations of conflict of interest laws," attorneys for Sanders & Parks wrote in the report.
Nowakowski responded in a statement Thursday afternoon, saying the report shows the claim against him was false. The councilman said he didn’t know the Chavez Foundation would be bidding on the land at the time he met with Deco. He is one of the foundation's executive vice presidents and oversees its network of Spanish-language radio stations.
"It confirms what I have said from the beginning: I was falsely accused of having violated a conflict of interest, and there is no evidence to support the accusations," Nowakowski said in the statement. "The independent counsel did not reach its conclusions lightly; they took weeks to review documents and interview witnesses, and slowly got to the bottom of the allegations."
The Chavez Foundation and its partner, Trammell Crow Co., were named the city's recommended bidder to buy and redevelop the coveted piece of land in August. An executive for Trammell Crow has said they didn't know they were going to bid on the land until about June 10, although they began discussing a potential partnership in March.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, who has called on the county attorney or state attorney to investigate the matter, said the report from Sanders & Parks doesn't fully address his concerns about the deal. He maintains Nowakowski could have violated the state's conflict of interest law.
"I’m sure that the law firm conducted this investigation to the very best of their ability," Romley said after reading the report on Thursday. “However, to a trained investigator, the investigation is sorely lacking in several fundamental ways... It almost appears like this was a rush to judgment that they wanted to get this report before they had all the answers."
Romley pointed to the report, which states that attorneys for Sanders & Parks asked the Chavez Foundation and Trammell Crow to provide their complete project files for the bid, "but they would not produce them due to concerns regarding disclosure of confidential and proprietary information unrelated to the scope of our review."
The law firm also requested that Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation provide any e-mails related to Nowakowski or Deco Communities, "but they still declined to
provide their communications," the report states. Because Sanders & Parks is a private law firm and not a law-enforcement agency, they did not have subpoena power and only reviewed documents that were provided voluntarily.
Jason Rose, a spokesman for Trammell Crow, said they would not provide e-mails because they contain proprietary "business information." Rose called the report "29 pages of exoneration" and noted that Trammell Crow executives were willing to sign affidavits stating they received no information about any other bids.
The report also states that Sanders & Parks has requested additional documents that had not been made available at the time the review was written, including months of Nowakowski's calendar, Chavez Foundation board minutes and Deco's project-related correspondence.
Sanders & Parks interviewed 21 witnesses, including Nowakowski, other city officials and representatives from each development team. The firm also reviewed public records related to the bid process.
The firm's report states that investigators found no evidence that Nowakowski knew at the time of his April meeting with Deco that the Chavez Foundation was "going to actually pursue the (sale) or that it intended to submit a proposal." It also found no evidence that Deco provided specific details of its ultimate proposal to the councilman or that Nowakowski had a conflict of interest under state law at the time.
It was unclear Thursday night if City Council members will now vote on the sale. City Manager Zuercher could not be reached for comment, but a spokeswoman said the deal is "still on hold." An attorney for the city said Zuercher could single-handily decide to rebid the project or forward it to the council, though an attorney representing Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation disputed that during a meeting with two council members earlier in the day.
The report also noted that a primary factor in the decision to name Trammell Crow and the foundation as the preferred bidder was a difference in the terms for paying for the land.
Lyles, of Deco Communities, did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. He previously said his team of developers showed Nowakowski a conceptual site plan, saying, "Anytime someone sees your plan before they create theirs, or they’re in the process of it, has to be helpful."
Nowakowski has disputed the nature of his conversation with Deco, saying they spoke more generally about the need for a grocery store and housing downtown, though he acknowledged city property on Fillmore Street was discussed at least briefly.
The report from Sanders & Parks, which notes Lyles and another partner from Deco were interviewed, states Lyles "does not claim (Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation) co-opted designs or ideas from (Deco), or that (they) received inside information from the councilman about Deco's plans."
"Rather, Deco believes that either the evaluation panel was unqualified or that there was some 'influence' on the panel to award the (bid) to (Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation)," the report states. "Regarding the latter scenario, Deco admits that it has no direct evidence that the panel was improperly influenced to favor" the recommended bid.
Sanders & Parks also notes in its report, as Nowakowski and Trammell Crow have emphasized, that Deco did not protest the bid recommendation. Lyles previously declined to comment on the decision not to file a formal protest.
"Mr. Lyles stated Deco did not file a protest because Deco believed it would be decided by the same people who, in his opinion, got it wrong in the first place," the report states. "But that belief is incorrect; the evaluation panel that made the bid recommendation would have had nothing to do with a protest."
Jim Mahoney, a senior managing director with Trammell Crow in Arizona, released a statement responding to the report. He has said no one at Trammell Crow, which took the lead role in crafting the bid, had any conversations with Nowakowski or received information from his meeting with Deco.
"The findings from Sanders (&) Parks in their independent review validates the outcome," Mahoney wrote. "The city manager's office should carefully consider the damage done on multiple fronts should they decide to rebid this opportunity."
Alfredo Izmajtovich, an executive vice president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, released a statement thanking the city “for requesting this independent review to protect the integrity of our organization and its employees from false accusations at the hands of disgruntled competitors and from politically motivated attackers.”
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