By Mary Thurwachter
Lantana officials got a slap on the wrist from the Palm Beach County inspector general for violating its own and state laws and procurement policies by hiring an unlicensed contractor to renovate the town library.
In a review released March 30, Inspector General John Carey wrote that his staff also found the town did not promptly notify his office when it learned of possible mismanagement of the contract.
“We identified $411,731 in questioned costs and made three recommendations to enhance internal controls,” Carey wrote. The costs were payments made by the town to the uninsured contractor for work the company completed on the library.
Town Manager Brian Raducci said the recommendations — which have to do with staff training, updating procurement and contract policies and having a checklist to ensure bidders have proper licensing and are insured — have been implemented.
The town signed a contract with Sierra Construction, the lowest responsive bidder, to renovate the library on July 26, 2021. The following December, council member Mark Zeitler, an air-conditioning contractor, suspected Sierra did not have a license. He notified Raducci, who confirmed Zeitler’s suspicion and terminated Sierra’s contract.
Zeitler discovered the problem when he questioned a change order for additional air-conditioning work at the library. He noticed the absence of a license number for Sierra on the company’s sign in front of the construction site.
The town paid Sierra $411,731 for services rendered through Nov. 5, 2021, and assigned the contract to one of Sierra’s subcontractors, Multitech Corp., but terminated that contract when the company failed to provide required documents. The town then hired West Construction on May 9, 2022, to complete the work.
Ruben Sierra, president of Sierra Construction, was charged in April 2022 with uttering a forgery regarding the insurance information he provided Lantana and with filing a fraudulent workers compensation statement. The forgery charge was dropped and Sierra pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to the second. Adjudication was withheld and he was sentenced on Dec. 6 to 18 months’ probation and ordered to pay $618 in court fees.
Sierra Construction’s difficulties weren’t limited to Lantana. Sierra, whose first name is sometimes spelled Reuben, was also arrested in April 2022 regarding a Fort Lauderdale construction job incident, later pleading no contest in a Broward County courtroom to a third-degree felony, presenting a false statement of insurance coverage. Adjudication was withheld in this case, too, and Sierra was sentenced on Dec. 15 to 18 months’ probation, to be served concurrently with his Palm Beach County sentence, and fined $517.
As to the inspector general’s findings, Mayor Karen Lythgoe, in an email to The Coastal Star, wrote: “They were no surprise, as once it was realized that Sierra Construction did not have the proper licenses and insurance we expected this result. The process obviously had some holes in it, but that was corrected.”
Lythgoe wrote that “while audits are important as flaws can be identified and addressed, improvement is the reason for audits, not ‘gotcha.’ The $400,000 was spent on work delivered so it was not wasted as some are saying on social media.”
Lythgoe doesn’t blame staff for missteps.
“I have faith in our town staff to always try to do the right thing,” she wrote. “They are constantly working to improve existing processes.”
Resident Cathy Burns wasn’t so forgiving in her remarks to the Town Council at its April 10 meeting. She chastised officials for paying Sierra over $400,000.
“It’s a gut punch how they were paid and were an unlicensed contractor,” Burns said. “That’s pretty disturbing. I’m glad the town was able to catch it, but it really leaves me not feeling like I can trust you guys with money.”
After delays and cost overruns, the library opened on Feb. 22 with a final price tag of $1,505,000, more than twice the budgeted amount of $748,636.
Zeitler, reached by phone, said the IG report was “a wake-up call and will have people on their toes in the future. It’s definitely improved the vetting process. They really didn’t have checks and balances in place, and now they’re looking at it more carefully, making sure everybody has what they are supposed to have so it doesn’t happen again.
“In the end,” Zeitler said, “the library turned out really nice and they did a really nice job with it.”
Comments