D.C. Housing Authority’s contracting office is known to few, accountable to none
By Jeffrey Anderson
The D.C. Housing Authority Board of Commissioners was meeting on Wednesday, July 10, 2019, when a trash collection and disposal contract came up for approval.
It seemed like a routine matter.
“Again, this resolution is to request authorization for us to enter into a 5-year contract with Jerome L. Taylor (“JLT”) Trucking, Inc. for $4.5 million, with a proposed $900,000 per year,” then-Director of the Office of Administrative Services, Lorry Bonds, DCHA’s longtime head of contracts and procurements, began.
“Again, a cost savings of what we had in previous years with regard to our contract.”
It would be the first time in 15 years that DCHA would have its own trash collection contract, Bonds explained, having “piggybacked” for years off a city contract issued by the Department of General Services.
“So that we are going into this service now as the Housing Authority, being able to actually manage our own contract.”
Then-Chairman of the DCHA Board of Commissioners (“Board”) Chairman Neil Albert and then-Executive Director Tyrone Garrett questioned nothing about the contract or the proposed award, and the 12 commissioners in attendance that day voted 12-0 to approve.
But Albert did take a moment to praise Bonds and her team for attending to the trash collection needs of DCHA’s public housing resident communities.
“I just want to, Lori [sic], just again, commend you guys for listening to the residents. I’ve sat here over a year listening to complaints about trash collection, the rodents that come about as a result of poor trash collection and recycling. I think it’s a step forward that DCHA’s undertaking this under its own procurement rules, to not have to be dependent on [the city’s] trash collection system.”
Albert kept going: “Lorry [sic], before you go, I just want to thank you for enduring Board meeting after Board meeting. You come up here and answer these questions effortlessly and Mr. Garrett, you should be proud to have [Lorry Bonds] on your staff. Thank you so much for all you do for us.”
“Thank you, Lori [sic],” Garrett added.
Yet there was a problem with the award that speaks to the dysfunction and impropriety that has come to define DCHA: The JLT Trucking award was “improper in several ways,” according to the D.C. Contract Appeals Board (“CAB”), which, in a withering 20-page opinion, ordered the contract to be terminated and reevaluated–a rare action that reflects on the egregiousness of the matter.
The CAB found that the contracting officer–who reported to Bonds– failed to evaluate and document bidding scores and failed to conduct an independent evaluation of the competitor’s technical proposal “as required by the solicitation and procurement law.”
Bonds’s team also “unreasonably assigned” maximum technical scores to JLT for capacity, experience, and management plans– actions that were “not warranted” based upon what JLT actually proposed, the CAB found.
At the same time, the contracting officer “improperly downgraded” the technical merit of the protester, F & L Construction Inc., based on the same evaluation metrics.
In short, the contracting decisions were not “based on any objective formula or other calculation,” and were made without explanation or documentation, the CAB found.
The JLT contract is but one red flag hanging over DCHA procurements, which have prompted whistleblower complaints, internal audits, and probing coverage by District Dig and other local media outlets.
All of this consternation comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser is about to install the third leadership team at DCHA in as many years. (Garrett departed in 2021 amid a slew of controversies; Albert resigned in 2021 after The Dig exposed his approval of contracts for his girlfriend; and Garrett’s successor Brenda Donald, just completed an embattled two-year term as executive director.)
At the same time, a torrent of controversies and scandals has attracted the attention of law enforcers, the *D.C. Office of the Inspector General, and D.C. Councilmember Robert White, who chairs the Committee on Housing.
“For months I have been aware of the many investigations run by multiple agencies,” White says. “The existence of this many investigations shows what I’ve been sounding the alarm about since I took over the Committee on Housing: there is a culture of corruption and a lack of accountability among some DCHA employees that we have to root out.
“DCHA’s next leader must prioritize this work because there simply is no other way to rehabilitate the struggling agency and build back trust with residents. I have reviewed some of these issues in public hearings and have made referrals of potentially illegal or unethical behavior to investigatory agencies.”
The selection of a new leader at DCHA could test Bowser’s leadership and integrity, but what about the past havoc that the most recent leader at DCHA left behind – and the people responsible for it?
***
Hired on an interim basis in 2021, Donald quickly established a public-facing persona built on platitudes and promises while also solidifying her reputation as a backroom fixer focused on tamping down–rather than fixing–problems and scandals.
She got more than she bargained for. In September 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) issued a devastating report finding that inadequate management, oversight and basic knowledge of the rules and regulations of running a public housing agency have led to a failure to provide “decent, safe, and sanitary” housing for residents of public housing.
HUD threatened to hold DCHA in default of the U.S. Housing Act if it did not take “serious and immediate remedial action” to correct the raft of deficiencies.
Since then, contracts and procurements have risen to the top of the list of such deficiencies.
Although Donald’s routine response to questions from the media was to blame her predecessor–Garrett– the HUD audit also found that her executive team used “emergency contracts” to cover up “contract mismanagement and malfeasance from the previous administration.”
Which placed Bonds, as director in charge of contracts and procurements, at the center of alleged contracting improprieties– and alleged efforts to cover them up.
Yet one of the most conspicuous changes Donald made when she took over the agency was to promote Bonds to General Counsel.
Donald’s elevation of Bonds, in February 2022, came as a surprise to current and former DCHA officials who say their perceptions of Bonds have been validated by her close proximity to a number of contracting controversies.
In November, DCHA’s Office of Audits and Compliance (“OAC”), an internal body charged with conducting audits, inspections and investigations, produced several reports in which it found that the agency had engaged in illegal procurement activities in 2019.
The Board placed Bonds on leave but Donald quickly reinstated her.
Among the OAC’s findings was that Bonds’s former department used emergency contracts to conceal illegal sole-source procurements; used subcontractors to facilitate bid-rigging; and divided contract deliverables into purchase orders under $100,000 to avoid federal procurement requirements, a practice known as “bid-splitting.”
Donald replied to a text from The Dig and said that, “I am no longer at DCHA.” She did not respond to additional attempts to contact her.
Bonds has not responded to calls and emails seeking comment.
One former commissioner is not surprised by the telltale signs of a lack of transparency and integrity.
“Of all the things DCHA did badly–and they did a lot of things badly– procurement was the worst,” says Ann Hoffman, who served for two years before Bowser replaced the Board earlier this year with an interim stabilization board.
“It’s like a Black Box.”
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DCHA is awash in internal and external probes, but the JLT contract is attracting some troubling attention of its own, multiple sources tell The Dig.
For years, DCHA had received trash services through a contract with the Department of General Services. When it issued its own solicitation, in April 2019, it drew interest from JLT Trucking; the incumbent vendor, F & L Construction, based on Good Hope Road in Anacostia; and Bates Trucking and Trash Removal, among others.
Based on an evaluation of capacity, management plan, service and route schedule, mobilization plan and price, JLT, F & L and Bates came in first, second and third, respectively.
A bid protest ensued. In its complaint, in May 2020, F & L claimed that it received late notice of the award, which compromised its appeal rights, and that DCHA withheld debriefing materials including a tabulation of price submissions and scoring results for each bidder.
Based on photos and Uniform Commercial Code filings, F & L alleged that JLT began purchasing trash containers to perform the contract as early as spring of 2019—before the Board approved the award–because DCHA informed the company in April that it would be getting the contract.
And, although JLT claimed to be a D.C.-based firm, receiving preference points in the bid evaluation, its operations were actually based in Upper Marlboro
Perhaps most troubling, F & L contended seeing JLT employees socializing with DCHA employees and officials, such personal relationships allegedly leading to “various improprieties in the solicitation and evaluation procedures of this Contract.”
F & L concluded it was “aggrieved in connection with the solicitation” because, “but for DCHA’s flawed evaluation and unreasonable actions, F & L would have had a substantial chance of receiving the award of the Contract.”
The Procurement Practices Reform Act of 2010 (“PPRA”) was enacted to ensure “fair and equitable treatment” of those who deal with the District’s procurement system, and increase public confidence in its procedures.
The CAB’s role under the PPRA is to ensure that the District’s procurement law is applied uniformly, and that the integrity of the procurement process is maintained.
When it sustains a protest because an impropriety has occurred, the CAB can order termination of the contract. It did just that: In its opinion, dated September 14, 2020, the CAB also found that DCHA “unreasonably prejudiced” F & L’s chances of receiving the contract award, and ordered DCHA to reevaluate the proposals, conduct a proper independent assessment, and make a new award decision “consistent with procurement law.”
Citing several deviations, the CAB found no explanation as to why the contracting officer ignored the findings of the evaluation panel and lowered F & L’s technical and pricing scores, even after every panel member awarded F & L’s proposal the maximum points possible.
The technical evaluation was “improper and prejudicial to F & L,” the CAB wrote, and the price evaluation was “unreasonable.”
After DCHA sought, unsuccessfully, to continue its contract with JLT while it re-evaluated the bids, the CAB denied the request, and shot down a subsequent request to reconsider its ruling, on October 14, 2020:
Delaying the order that DCHA immediately terminate the contract in spite of the improprieties and violations that occurred “would only serve to perpetuate the impact of the violations… and compromise procurement integrity by allowing an improper contract award to continue to stand,” the CAB decided.
After DCHA purported to re-evaluate the bids, F & L’s score went down, and the company dropped to third place, for reasons unknown to The Dig, or the CAB. (F & L’s president Freddie Winston referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment, citing the potential for further legal action.)
“Once we sustain a protest, that’s where our function ends,” said a representative of the CAB. “It’s up to the agency to work through the re-evaluation, hopefully with guidance from our decision. You hope people do the right thing, but there’s no check unless there’s another protest.”
There would be no further protests, and JLT is still picking up the trash for DCHA under a 5-year contract– an unusual arrangement, given that the original contract (with DGS) called for F & L to provide services to DCHA for just two years, with three 1-year options.
In response to questions from The Dig, Chief Operating Officer Rachel Molly Joseph said in an email that DCHA took “voluntary corrective action” in response to the CAB’s orders, including awarding JLT with an interim 90-day “Emergency Contract,” and that the re-evaluation of proposals resulted in JLT “being determined the most responsive (with the highest technical score and lowest price) and responsible offeror.”
DCHA issued a second 90-day emergency contract to JLT, said Joseph, and the CAB rejected a separate protest for not being filed in a timely manner. “As such, nothing changed the approval by the Board and authorization to proceed with a contract. Thus, a contract for the Board-approved term was issued by DCHA and executed by JLT. The contract is currently active with DCHA.”
She declined to provide The Dig with any information to substantiate the criteria Bonds’s team used to re-evaluate the proposals.
“We’ve provided all of the requested information on the process and have nothing more to add at this time.”
***
It took years for DCHA to become one of the poorest performing public housing agencies in the country. Despite demanding “substantial compliance” with federal law by the end of March, HUD has backed away from what once sounded like an ultimatum.
Benchmarks have become vague, deadlines have gotten pushed back, and consequences of noncompliance have gotten pushed aside; reform, for some, has become a matter of self-preservation.
The widespread perception, inside and outside the agency, is that DCHA is in need of a top-down house-cleaning.
Brenda Donald may have run out her contract without further scrutiny, but Lorry Bonds might have cause to look over her shoulder.
Earlier this year, The Dig interviewed a former employee of JLT who alleges witnessing two meetings between her and Taylor that occurred off the DCHA premises, around the time she presented the trash hauling contract to the DCHA Board, in the spring and summer of 2019.
The Dig has obtained an affidavit, “sworn under penalty of perjury” by that same former JLT employee, who requested to remain anonymous.
In the affidavit, the former employee says that in the spring of 2019, at a restaurant near Eastern Market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Taylor met with Bonds and other individuals, then later, over drinks, told his employees that “JLT would be ordering new trash bins to use in the DCHA contract.”
In June or July of that year, a batch of trash bins–”red in color,” like the JLT company logo — showed up, according to the affidavit:
“I was one of the employees assigned to unload the bins to a staging area at JLT, where we put JLT stickers on them and prepared them for use.
“It was during this time that Jerome Taylor told me the red bins were also for the DCHA contract.”
The former employee saw Bonds and Taylor meet again, “after the bins had been ordered and delivered,” at a JLT facility in Hyattsville, the affidavit states.
“When she left, she had a large amount of paperwork with her, so much so that I helped her carry it to her car.”
Taylor might find himself under scrutiny soon as well, if only for his company’s location status.
JLT receives preference points for being a D.C. based contractor, but that claim is debatable.
Last week, The Dig visited the address on file with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (“DCRA”) for “Jerome L Taylor Trucking Inc.”
It’s a unit on the 7th floor in The Hecht Building at 1401 New York Avenue, NE– a mixed-use development consisting of 335 “modern residential units” and 125,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, according to the developer’s website.
The concierge said Taylor was not in, and that The Dig was at “the wrong office–the other one is in Maryland.” She gave out an address in Upper Marlboro.
That address matches the one JLT identifies as its “Principal Office Address,” according to the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, which lists JLT as a “foreign corporation.” (Taylor originally registered his company in Delaware, records show.)
Indeed, a 3-acre industrial site at 8469 Burton Lane is festooned with JLT signs, and the lot contains a fleet of trash trucks and bins with the company logo.
Still looking for a legitimate D.C.-based location for JLT, The Dig found the company address registered with the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development–which certifies companies for preference points when bidding on a contract– is different then the one on file at DCRA:
JLT’s purported office at 1421 Kenilworth Road, NE, Suite 201, is a group-share conference room at the end of a hallway behind a locked door in an office building attached to the Department of Motor Vehicles–a property managed by D.C. real estate developer and investor Stan Voudrie. (Voudrie did not return a call to his cell phone.)
Reached by cell phone, Taylor directed The Dig to DCHA for information related to his company’s contract. He confirmed that Bonds should be the person to talk to. “If you want to know about a contract that JLT holds with DCHA, call them. I’m just a trash hauler.”
Asked if he had ever socialized or met with Bonds privately or anywhere other than DCHA headquarters, he said, “That’s against the law, why would I do that?”
Asked to confirm or deny the statements in his former employee’s affidavit, he replied, “I don’t believe it. You’re making stuff up. I don’t owe you any answers.”
Maybe not. But a DCHA “media” statement The Dig received at press time for this story says:
“DCHA takes very seriously all allegations of misconduct, and we have robust internal and external processes for reviewing such matters.
We have initiated a review of this matter with the support of outside counsel and will not be able to comment further while said review is underway.”
“However, based on the information we have at this point, DCHA followed all procedures relating to this contract. We will disclose the results of the review.”
*Despite repeated inquiries, the D.C Inspector General’s office declined to discuss the status of any investigations.
