Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
DAVID KARPDisplaced residents languish as questions about the housing department's dealings with Ryan Construction, now called CTB Home Builders, continue.
TAMPA - Every time his brother visits, Willie Coley asks the same question.
"You heard anything?"
"No," he replies.
So Coley waits.
Every day's the same. The staff at the University Village nursing home wakes him up at 6:15 a.m. - "like I am going to work," he says. He eats breakfast, sits outside, takes lunch, and naps. Then dinner, then bed.
He likes it fine. But, really, Coley, 72, just wants to go home.
Before he can return to his tin-roof frame house in Jackson Heights, the city of Tampa housing department needs to make it accessible for his wheelchair.
Last summer, workers installed a ramp leading to his front door. But then they went away, without explanation. The ramp sits there today, tantalizing Coley. He can wheel himself up to his front door, but he can't get in. The door is too narrow to let him squeeze by.
"This long a time, they could have told me something," he says.
Coley doesn't know it, but he's been waiting, at least since October, because of Dean Ryan, the contractor indicted for bribing city housing officials.
Last fall, about a month before Ryan's indictment, city housing officials stopped working on at least 11 housing projects, including Coley's. Normally, these projects, which were at the point where contractors were making bids on them, would have been awarded. Instead, nothing happened on them for four months.
By that time, Ryan had changed the name of his old company and resigned as president to become a company consultant. His grandson, who had been an integral part of the old company, became president of the new one, CTB Home Builders.
Then, the city unleashed the logjam. They awarded eight of 11 contracts that had been in limbo to CTB Home Builders.
City housing officials say the company won the work because it was the lowest bidder. And they offer a variety of explanations for the delay.
David Snyder, assistant community redevelopment manager, cited the holiday season, the extra demands of an audit, an illness he said kept Kim Norquist, one of four supervisors in the housing unit, out of work for five weeks, and concerns about being sued by Ryan's new company if it could not compete for work.
Snyder said all the reasons together contributed to the slow down.
Contractors say they were given only one reason.
"We were told month after month that no jobs were being awarded - they were being investigated," said Jeanine Martins, a contractor who regularly won city contracts until she sold her company, Mastercraft Construction. "For at least three months, there were no jobs awarded. . . . It was a blanket deal."
Martins said Norquist told her, "We can't do anything until downtown gives us the okay."
But officials downtown, including Mayor Pam Iorio, economic administrator Mark Huey, and the assistant city attorney dealing with Norquist, said they did not know about the hold on work, which affected all contractors and not just Ryan.
Huey learned about it months after the fact. In retrospect, though, he said housing officials acted because they wanted to avoid getting sued.
"It was the cautious approach to take," he said.
Last fall, as work slowed, more than a dozen residents waited. City officials told none of the ones who spoke to the St. Petersburg Times what had happened.
Sixty-year-old Virginia Berry, who was recovering from cancer, needed to bring her house near Rowlett Park up to standards to comply with code. Paula Navarro, 73, had to get the roof on her West Pines house repaired and needed it treated for termites.
In mid-October, work by the city on the homes stopped in part because Norquist took a medical leave, said Snyder, his immediate supervisor.
Snyder said Norquist was out for five weeks, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 27, and could perform no work.
No one else in the office could process the work, either, said Snyder.
Not Snyder or Vernell Savage, the managers of the office.
Not Fred Meyer, another supervisor, who is assisting with the work now that Norquist has been transferred to the wastewater department.
Not the two inspectors who reported to Norquist.
The city did not move temporary workers from other departments to help out, either.
Snyder said the staff was especially busy because of the demands of an audit and the approaching holiday season.
Meanwhile, Coley spent Thanksgiving at the nursing home. The staff prepared a special meal, he said. It was nice, but he couldn't get his mind off his backyard and his neighbor, whom he had known for decades.
"I would just rather be home than here," he said.
The day after Thanksgiving, Norquist returned to work, Snyder said. By that time, federal prosecutors had indicted Ryan and former housing chief Steve LaBrake on charges of fraud, conspiracy and bribery. The day of the indictment, the mayor announced the city would not do business with Ryan Construction again.
The next day, Ryan signed corporate papers to change the name of his company to CTB Home Builders and sell his shares to his grandson, who had been vice president. Ryan would become a company consultant.
CTB's lawyer is now saying Ryan does not currently get "proceeds" from the company.
At the housing department, officials decided to put contracts on hold until Ryan's future could be sorted out.
Snyder said they were concerned about being sued by Ryan or his grandson if CTB could not compete on bids.
But Snyder did not consult city attorneys about the legal implications of the decision:
Would holding up the projects make the city vulnerable to claims from other contractors who lost work?
Huey said he understands why his staff acted.
"I did not know they were not bidding projects, but I can understand that they had this concern, a legitimate concern," he said.
Although more than a dozen projects stood still, one contract moved forward. It was a Ryan project.
In November, the city had moved a widow from her house in Sulphur Springs. Ryan Construction had won a $55,000 contract to build her a new home. It beat out Michael Angelo Construction to get the job.
Huey said he does not believe officials could have stopped the work since a contract had been signed.
When Ryan Construction ceased to exist and became CTB, there was an opportunity to rebid the work or award it to the second highest bidder. But housing officials opted to give it to CTB. Company and city housing officials maintain it is a separate entity from Ryan Construction.
Why not award the job to the next bidder, Michael Angelo Construction?
"It wasn't discussed," Snyder said in an interview, which was attended by his two supervisors.
"That was never discussed?" the Times reporter asked.
"I didn't have any conversations that I can recall," Snyder said.
Pressed on whether the second bidder contacted him about getting the work, Snyder said, "I don't recall any conversation like that."
Robert Martinez, president of Michael Angelo Construction, recalls the conversation.
A few days after Ryan's indictment, Martinez said he spoke to Snyder at his city office about the Sulphur Springs home. He had read in the newspaper Iorio did not want to do business with Ryan Construction anymore. Martinez wanted the job.
"He said that job was going to stay with Dean, that was just the way it was," Martinez said.
"I was confused," Martinez recalled. He thought Iorio had barred Ryan Construction from city work.
At that point, Martinez said Snyder got angry and cursed at him.
"He said (Ryan) had not been convicted yet," Martinez recalled. "That it was not necessarily true that he was out."
In late January, the city released a jam of housing projects. Companies that had bid for the work in September and October were allowed to update estimates. Many crossed out the old date on the proposals and scratched in a new one.
Work had hardly begun before the Times reported in March that the city was doing business again with Ryan Construction's old officers. Since then, work has slowed again.
"We are at their mercy," said Frank Navarro, son of 73-year-old Paula Navarro, who needs handrails for her front porch steps.
Coley is also waiting.
He hopes someday he'll be able to sleep in his bedroom again. At the nursing home, Coley must share a room with another patient. A curtain separates their beds.
Mostly, he would just like a straight answer.
"It makes me feel like they ain't going to do nothing," Coley said.
On Sunday, he spent one more holiday, Easter, at the nursing home.
- Times staff writer David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com