Controversial Cook paving project resurfaces

It's back.

A controversial project that has been dropped twice before by the Cook County Board is back on the agenda for Tuesday's regular meeting.

The board will consider awarding $284,000 to Infrastructure Engineering for "parking and entrance control" at the county's Hawthorne Warehouse on Chicago's West Side, even though two competitors came in with significantly lower bids on the original parking-lot paving project - a detail that twice led the plan to be scrapped.

"This is incredible," said Bartlett Republican Commissioner Timothy Schneider, who called the deal "the poster child for waste and mismanagement in Cook County."

The proposal originally came up two years ago, but when the Daily Herald reported that Infrastructure Engineering had donated almost $5,000 to President Todd Stroger and more than $40,000 to other county officials, and Schneider came out against it, it was abruptly dropped at the next county board meeting.

"It's like it never existed," Stroger said.

It resurfaced last year as part of a bond proposal, but when the bond deal was scaled back, the Hawthorne Warehouse project was dropped again.

Then, it came up again in March as part of an extensive new bond proposal. At that point, Evanston Democratic Commissioner Larry Suffredin said it was essential to maintain the Hawthorne Warehouse.

"I don't question whether the Hawthorne Warehouse parking lot needs to be repaved," Schneider said. "The issue is why are we awarding contracts to the highest bidder?"

Yet, the project was never put out for new bids, and the original award stuck, with the $284,000 to go to Infrastructure Engineering, less about $13,000 for work already done and paid for on the almost $300,000 bid.

Bruce Washington, director of planning and development, said the firm had already completed almost a quarter of the job, and this is just "reinstituting a contract with a vendor that the board had selected."

He had originally explained that the contract was awarded to the firm on account of quality of work, even though the lowest bidder had previously done jobs for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, the Illinois Department of Transportation and Chicago, but he now called it "the most expeditious thing to do."

He said the contributions to Stroger "had nothing to do with it."

"That process was open and above-board," added Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis, "and the board actually approved that."

The bitterly contested contract adds fuel to a Tuesday agenda that already figures to offer abundant fireworks. Suffredin and Finance Committee Chairman John Daley have proposed a resolution "urging" Stroger to adopt a countywide hiring freeze, after he vetoed a similar ordinance that would have imposed such a freeze when it passed by a 16-1 vote at the last meeting, and that motion figures to come up as well next week. All were offered in response to a rash of new hires by Stroger since he lost the Democratic Primary in his bid for re-election in February.