No to no-bid contract

RTD, activist agree to cancel deal after warrant disclosed

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 14, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

More stories »

Alvertis Simmons' $185,000 no-bid contract with RTD became a no-go contract on Friday.

The Regional Transportation District and Simmons agreed to cancel the deal, two days after it had been signed and amid reports that Simmons is wanted in Las Vegas on bad-check charges.

Simmons, a community activist, was indicted last year in Denver on a forgery charge. The RTD staff - but not the board that approved the contract on a 12-2 vote - knew about that when he was hired Tuesday.

But RTD said Simmons hadn't disclosed the arrest warrant in Las Vegas.

"We pointed out to him that there were matters we were unaware of that we should have been made aware of," said RTD spokesman Scott Reed.

Simmons didn't respond to requests for comment.

Simmons' contract kicked off a promised aggressive hiring and contracting program for minority businesses under the upcoming $4.7 billion FasTracks program - a 12-year build-out of RTD's rail and rapid transit network approved by voters in 2004.

But fallout from RTD's hiring of Simmons with his legal difficulties overshadowed everything, Reed said.

"It's created a big issue with the small-business and minority community," he said. "Mr. Simmons became the focus rather than the program."

Simmons met Friday with RTD's assistant general manager for administration, Phil Washington, and agreed to withdraw, Reed said. Payment has been stopped on five checks totaling $10,000 issued to Simmons this week for start-up expenses on the contract.

The one-year RTD contract called for Simmons to provide four employees who would conduct daily inspections of selected RTD facilities, including bus shelters and park-n-rides. They were to check on the work of cleaning contractors assigned to those areas. RTD says it has had problems with maintenance and cleaning.

Simmons also was to provide baggage handling during busy travel seasons at selected SkyRide bus stations, at Denver International Airport and at park-n-rides.

Simmons' indictment, issued in August, alleges that he forged a proof of liability insurance document in order to obtain a security contract. Simmons has said he is innocent of the allegation.

His firm, Simmons Security, provided guard services at the Colorado Convention Center during NBA All-Star Game functions in February. The indictment said some of Simmons' employees had criminal records, making them ineligible to be licensed as security guards. One was on parole for murder, it said.

Reed said RTD learned about the Las Vegas warrant Thursday on a KHOW radio talk show hosted by Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman. The felony warrant is for four counts of passing bad checks and one count of obtaining money falsely.

Bernie Zadrowski, chief deputy district attorney in Las Vegas, said Simmons called his office Friday in an attempt to clear up the warrant.

Zadrowski said Simmons was offered a potential plea deal to reduce the charges to misdemeanors in exchange for making full restitution of the debt. He said Simmons is accused of writing $4,500 in bad checks in late 2001 to cover "markers," or cash advances, at three Las Vegas casinos - Paris, Bally's and MGM Grand.

"It's not a sexy case," Zadrowski said. "I prosecute, literally, 500 cases like this a month. Markers are the lifeblood of this community."

Simmons got the RTD contract after he was recommended by Les Townsend, a consultant serving on RTD's FasTracks outreach program for minority businesses. Townsend said Friday he wasn't acquainted with Simmons before that.

RTD has signed agreements with the African-American Leadership Group and with other minority business organizations, pledging to ensure business opportunities with FasTracks.

Townsend said that contracting with a small firm such as Simmons' would be a "demonstration project" to the minority community that RTD is serious about aggressively seeking business opportunities with them now and when FasTracks gets underway in earnest.

Cal Marsella, RTD general manager, said the agency remains "thoroughly committed to an aggressive and expansive (small and disadvantaged business) outreach and utilization program."

He added, "We will certainly learn from this experience and will incorporate lessons learned into future efforts."

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News