Opinion ID: 3049934
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Barber Helps PUGH

Text: Barber supervised the JCESD’s twenty-six job-site County inspectors. Barber was responsible for hiring sewer contractors to do no-bid emergency work, approving contractors’ paperwork, and certifying their expenses before sending the expenses to JCESD Assistant Director Chandler. In January 2000, Barber determined the sewer pipes in the Paradise Lake subdivision should be replaced on an emergency basis instead of being repaired. On January 7, Barber told City Inspector Hodges that Barber had chosen a contractor who could do the job in about 45 days. PUGH’s President Yessick sent Barber a letter, dated January 27, 2000, offering that PUGH could do the job for about $1.2 million. That same day, Yessick also sent Hodges a letter, dated January 27, 2000, stating that PUGH would be performing the job. Given that emergency work contracts were limited to $50,000 or less, PUGH eventually received a no-bid field directive in the amount of $857,000, on which PUGH made a 50% profit. However, because Barber had classified the work as an emergency, there was no contract for Paradise Lake on which to put the field directive. The 46 emergency work contract therefore was placed on the unrelated multi-milliondollar Cahaba River project.