A Chicago firm has abruptly given up its $14.74 million janitorial contract at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Lambert International Airport, spurring Lambert to seek new bids for the three-year deal.
United Maintenance Co. withdrew June 2. A few days earlier, Lambert officials had begun inquiring about a news report that United was accused by a Chicago agency of reserving jobs based on political considerations in violation of its contract with that city.
Lambert’s director, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, said Friday that United didn’t give a reason for its withdrawal.
On April 15, the Chicago inspector general’s office said it had established that a city contractor sent an email to an employee of an alderman stating that the contractor would be reserving 25 jobs for the alderman’s ward. The contractor also asked the alderman’s office to supply names of interested applicants, the inspector general’s report said.
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The inspector general didn’t name the contractor, later reported that it was United, which has a contract to clean O’Hare International Airport.
Alderman George Cardenas told the Sun-Times that United had sent the email to his office in 2014 and that he then reported it to the inspector general. A spokeswoman for Cardenas confirmed on Friday that that had happened.
A United spokeswoman, Gabrielle Weiss, declined to comment Friday on United’s withdrawal from Lambert or on the Sun-Times article.
The inspector general also said that it had recommended that the Chicago procurement department initiate proceedings to bar the unnamed company from city business and that the department had done so.
However, Lambert’s attorney, Mario Pandolfo, said the procurement agency told him it had yet to decide what to do on the issue and hadn’t begun any “debarment proceeding†against the contractor. Pandolfo said the agency also didn’t confirm that United was the company involved.
A spokeswoman for the procurement department declined to comment Friday.
Hamm-Niebruegge said she learned about the inspector general report and the Sun-Times article from a May 20 letter from an official with Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union.
The local, which covers both Chicago and ºüÀêÊÓƵ, has had disputes with United over its treatment of workers at O’Hare over several years. In its letter, the union asked that the city re-bid the contract.
Hamm-Niebruegge said she asked Pandolfo to check into the issue. She said United didn’t acknowledge it was the focus of the inspector general investigation. She said the issue “became moot†when United withdrew.
Lambert had which turned out to be the lowest, because of concern over news reports that United’s president had ties to organized crime figures.
Lambert later reversed the disqualification after concluding that United in an appeal had provided “credible support†that the reports were unfounded “and/or did not support rejection†of the bid.
Hamm-Niebruegge said United’s contract was to have begun July 1. She said the airport was working on an extension with the current contractor, Regency Enterprises Services LLC of south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County. Regency had been the third-lowest bidder for the new contract.
She said she wanted a new round of bids because the scope of work had increased this year because of Southwest Airlines’ decision to open some new gates after the original bids were solicited. The amount awarded to United had been increased to reflect the additional areas to be cleaned.