Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

CHELSEA

Contractor back at work despite prior banishment

There are complaints he overbilled town

By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

CHELSEA -- A contractor at the center of an alleged kickback scheme that snared the town's top official had been barred from town work in 1999 after reportedly overbilling for road sand.

But by 2006, the contractor -- Frank Monroe, of Whitefield -- had returned to town service.

Today, he's back in charge of the town's road sand and owns the right to plow in winter.

Last year, Monroe allegedly made two payments to Board of Selectmen Chairman Carole Swan totaling $10,000.

That same year, Monroe secured the town's plow contract without submitting a bid.

In February, police allege Swan asked him to inflate the town's sand bill in an apparent bid to yield $10,000 more. That led to Swan's arrest Feb. 10 on forgery and theft charges.

Swan is free on bail and will not resign her seat, her attorney indicated Friday.

Monroe is engaged in plowing town roads and, though lacking a contract, was most recently paid $25,380 on Feb. 24 for sanding and plowing.

Poor performance

Former Town Manager Bob Drisko said this week he fired Monroe in 1999 because Monroe had charged the town for more sand than was delivered.

"I had Frank sign a statement that says he could not bid on any town contracts," Drisko said in an interview.

Rick Danforth, who served on the Board of Selectmen at the time, said selectmen fired Monroe, who had separate plowing and sand contracts, after discussing the case in executive session May 3, 1999.

Drisko said Monroe spread so much sand on winter roads the town had to purchase additional material at escalated midwinter prices.

"You would have thought every road in Chelsea was a gravel road," Drisko said. "He just poured it on. And we had to go back and buy more sand from him."

Peter Coughlan, director of community services for the state Department of Transportation's Maine Local Roads Center, said his research shows Chelsea's sand contractor applied 5,500 cubic yards of sand and salt in 1999 -- more than 200 cubic yards per mile.

Coughlan did not know the name of the contractor in Chelsea in 1999; Danforth and Drisko confirmed it was Monroe.

In response, Coughlan said he helped Drisko get plowing contractors to install a "ground speed control device" on trucks to regulate the amount of material applied to roads.

With that device, only 1,800 cubic yards of sand was applied the next winter, by Chelsea contractor Paul Soucy -- saving the town $13,000, Drisko said.

Coughlan said someone from his division also helped Drisko measure the amount of material Monroe delivered to the town's sand shed.

"I went over there after (Monroe) gave us the bill, and I said, 'No way that's the amount of sand I contracted for,'" Drisko said. "They came over and we did a physical measurement of the sand pile and it was exactly half of what we were billed for -- instead of 200 cubic yards, we only got 100.

"When I read about the (alleged) kickbacks (from Monroe to Swan) in the newspaper, I said, 'Oh my God,' and wondered if the something like that was happening back then."

Danforth said selectmen subsequently agreed to terminate Monroe.

In response, Monroe hired Mark Susi, an attorney, to sue the town. But Drisko said Monroe backed down after Susi received proof that Monroe had overbilled.

Attempts to reach Susi -- who has since retired from law -- were unsuccessful this week.

Lack of bidders

That was 1999.

By 2006, after Drisko departed as town manager, Danforth said there weren't a lot of contractors bidding on road projects. Most were afraid of backlash from Swan, Danforth said.

So Monroe -- facing little competition, and with few officials in office who recalled his 1999 ban -- bid for and won the pact to plow town roads. He has held it ever since.

Selectmen voted unanimously to award Monroe the town's two-year plow contract on Oct. 10, 2006. He was the low bidder and garnered a $177,625 award. The motion was made by Swan and seconded by Selectman Guy Berthiaume.

Danforth said Monroe then rebid and won the pact in 2008.

That would be the last time he would have to compete for the job. When the contract lapsed for the 2008-10 season, the next contract, for the 2010-12 season, was not rebid.

Stephen Langsdorf, an attorney for the town, said the contract was never formally renewed in 2010. So Monroe had effectively been given a contract renewal without bidding or signing an agreement, Langsdorf said.

"There was an intention to execute a three-year contract, but it was never signed," Langsdorf said. "There's nothing in place. There were discussions with selectmen."

In an interview after Swan's arrest, Langsdorf said:

"In February 2010, Carole Swan approached Frank Monroe and put pressure on him to pay her, personally, $3,000 -- and he paid her.

"In the fall, the same thing happened, and she convinced him to pay her $7,000 cash.

"He's a small businessman, which is why he was subject to pressure by her," Langsdorf said.

Monroe told him that "as a contractor, he felt he had no choice but to pay her."

The 2010-12 plow contract would have been awarded sometime after April 2010.

Doing the work

Langsdorf said Monroe currently is working under the terms of last year's plow contract, receiving the same sum -- a little more than $19,000 a month. He said he would recommend the town put the plowing contract out to bid again after this season ends.

One week after receiving the town's snowplow contract in 2006, Monroe then scored the sand contract, on motions by Swan and Danforth.

Records of warrants paid to Monroe for sand and plowing from 2006 to the present, requested Wednesday of the Chelsea Town Office by the Kennebec Journal, were not made available as of Friday.

But records previously released to the newspaper under Freedom of Access requests show Monroe collected these amounts for the right to provide the town's road sand during the winter of 2007-08:

* $9,975 on Oct. 29, 2007;

* $4,420 on Jan. 23, 2008;

* $5,000 on Feb. 19, 2008; and

* $1,800 on March 18, 2008.

'Hostile environment'

Contractors and some former selectmen who served with Swan said they believe Swan merely handed the work to Monroe.

Soucy, the Chelsea contractor, said there weren't many jobs put out to bid after Drisko left.

Contractors who got town jobs had to contend with Swan, who watched them closely and made working conditions unbearable, Soucy said.

Even though Swan was not the road commissioner -- that role belonged to the town manager; Mary Sabins, at the time -- Swan made sure to make daily inspections of contractors.

"You felt like you were being watched," Soucy said. "When you have to go through dealing with unnecessary stuff like that it kind of discourages people from bidding."

Soucy said he stopped bidding on town projects prior to 2002 because of the "hostile environment at the Town Office."

He said town officials -- especially Swan, he said -- were hostile to open bidding.

"In order to have people interested in bidding, it shouldn't be an atmosphere of 'What are you doing here?'," he said. "The atmosphere should be enjoyable, not negative. But that never happened. They would scowl at you. It just makes working conditions not very favorable. I could go out and work on other jobs and not have to deal with the politics in this town. Why put yourself through it?"

Danforth said no one will ever know if Swan encouraged Monroe to submit a bid in 2006.

"We would have had no control of what she said outside (the Town Office)," Danforth said. "We weren't getting a lot of contractors bidding on projects. He came in, and I think some of the minutes show we discussed past problems and were willing to work with him and go forward."

Kennebec County Sheriff's Department Detective David Bucknam, the lead investigator in the Carole Swan case, said Monroe is not being investigated.

Nor is Langsdorf recommending an investigation into Monroe.

"(Kennebec County District Attorney) Evert (Fowle) personally told me Frank is a victim," Langsdorf said. "He explained to me he saw Frank as a victim and commended him for coming forward."

Monroe said Wednesday he is not represented by an attorney.

"I'm really making no comment," Monroe said Wednesday. "If that's what (Drisko) says, print it, I guess. I'll eventually have something to say about it."

City Editor Bob Mentzinger and Staff Writer Betty Adams contributed to this report.

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com