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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
 Posted - 01/06/2009 : 3:41:10 PM
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I was doing some research and I came across this article,
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Great Northern Site Corporation is a company owned by William Thibeault and is located at 85 Boston Street, Everett, MA.
Litigation Over World Trade Center Clean-Up Payments
by Jonathan Rosenbloom
May 2003
Within hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, the New York City Department of Design and Construction agreed with four main contractors to begin the daunting clean-up. Due to the severity of the situation the department was unable to follow its typical construction contract guidelines. Most importantly, the department did not sign a written contract setting prices for how much money it would pay the contractors and their subcontractors for the work. To date, the department and the four main contractors have not inked a final contract as several issues, including liability insurance, remain in dispute.
When clean-up of the site ended on May 30, 2002, the department began reviewing subcontractors’ invoices and bills for the work they had already done and amounting to over $650 million. Without a written contract setting specific prices for specific jobs, the department is left to determine which bills to pay and at which rates. As the department determines that a particular invoice is excessive and decides not to pay the invoice, there no doubt promises to be subcontractors who will challenge that determination. In what may be the first of many to come, on April 29, 2003 New York County Supreme Court Justice Diane S. Lebedeff decided that the department has the authority to review and reduce invoices that it deems excessive.
Subcontractor Submitted High Invoice
Tully Construction, Co., one of the four main contractors, had been working on a major State Department of Transportation construction project on lower Route 9A (West Street) on September 11th and was one of the first at the site. Tully, like all of the main contractors, entered into agreements with subcontractors for equipment. One of those agreements was with Massachusetts-based Great Northern Site Corporation for the lease of three (and later four) heavy excavating machines.
Tully and Great Northern agreed that Great Northern would be paid approximately $189 per hour per machine, amounting to approximately $100,000 per machine per month.
Shortly after the machines were delivered to the site, Tully and Great Northern agreed that the rates for the excavating machines would be subject to the Department of Design and Construction’s approval.
By June 2002 the department had issued two memos stating that subcontractors would be paid for their work at a rate of 75 percent of the rate found in the construction industry’s standardized suggested price index, the “Rental Rate Blue Book for Construction Equipment.” The Department would only pay above 75 percent of the Blue Book rate if the subcontractor could provide documentation indicating that the rate was “usual and reasonable pre-September 11, 2001.” The policy, the department stated, was to prevent “’opportunities for unscrupulous individuals to enrich themselves’ in the wake of September 11th.”
Great Northern’s charge for each of its machines at $189 per hour rate came in at approximately $45 per hour higher than the Blue Book rate for similar machines. So the department asked Great Northern for proof that it charged as much per hour before September 11th. When Great Northern failed to submit the documents the city had requested, the department reduced the company’s rate to $108 per hour.
Great Northern sued. It claimed the city agency did not have the authority to change the company’s rates, since the equipment was being put to use on property of the Port Authority, which was created by the States of New York and New Jersey. It said it was entitled to a public hearing, because the city had created a new rule.
Justice Lebedeff dismissed Great Northern’s complaint on April 29, rejecting all its arguments. The city had a right to take reasonable steps to make sure it is not overcharged, the judge ruled, and could so on the site owned by the Port Authority because the September 11th attacks “affected an area far beyond the site.”
Controlling The Floodgates
Justice Lebedeff’s decision has the potential to save the city millions of dollars in overpayment and/or fraud. The city is currently reviewing millions of dollars in unreconciled invoices billed from the World Trade Center clean-up. Pursuant to Justice Lebedeff’s decision the Department has the authority to review these invoices and ensure that the city is not overpaying or paying false claims.
In reviewing the invoices the Department has been working with the Department of Investigations and an auditor, KPMG, who will supplement the auditing staff to reconcile paperwork and then provide it to the Federal Emergency Management before the end of the year. Upon FEMA’s review, the city will be reimbursed for its payments.
As the department makes a determination as to the appropriate rate in each of these invoices, there promises to be litigation, which could prolong the end of the clean-up phase and put off the development.
Great Northern Site Corporation v. Department of Design and Construction, Index No. 122546/02 (Lebedeff, J.) (N.Y.Cty.Sup.Ct.) (Apr. 29, 2002).
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2009 : 4:09:34 PM
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This quote from the above article, sums it up pretty good; ” The policy, the department stated, was to prevent “’opportunities for unscrupulous individuals to enrich themselves’ in the wake of September 11th.”
It seems the man has no conscience! |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2009 : 8:31:00 PM
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He's a 9-11 price gouger, he causes suffering everywhere he goes and never rectifies it and even tonight, he had two attorneys at the Public Hearing Anthony Rossi once again, and Attorney Bennett that spoke, and once again, threats of a lawsuit, like everyone is supposed to run and hide with his threats. Rossi should be ashamed of himself threatening his own neighbors like this.
Any person that can perform these acts is scum of the earth and absolutely nothing short of the devils godfather. Anyone that advocates for him, or is not in favor to cease his filthy operation, is just the same.
"blatantly, gone are the days" |
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n/a
deleted
136 Posts |
Posted - 01/07/2009 : 10:14:52 AM
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I just heard this and what a bogus business practice to defraud the State of New York and taking advantage of people. That was ground zero where thousands lost their lives, and fire and police gave their lives trying to save people. This city needs to get rid of him right now. Stop his illegal Woodwaste operation and stop this from going on 99. Last nights hearing was a start in the right direction.
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Cam
Member
82 Posts |
Posted - 01/08/2009 : 2:50:01 PM
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| So Thibeault even tried to fleece New York over Sept 11, 2001. |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2009 : 2:13:15 PM
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Newburyport - You must be logged in to see this link.
Courting trouble
Crow Lane Landfill neighbors had been hoping that the state Superior Court would move up the date of a contempt hearing against New Ventures, the company that owns the site. The request was denied, and William Thibeault, the man who owns New Ventures, will be in court as planned on April 23 to answer charges that he has failed to maintain the landfill and control the horrible odors that have plagued the surrounding neighborhoods for years
It’s a setback, but given all that the Crow Lane neighbors have been through, it’s manageable. And there could be some advantages. Newburyport knows Thibeault and his strategies #8209; the stalling, the threats and the intimidation from a couple of different arenas. Now, with a few months before the city has its day in front of a judge, residents have time to try to learn how Thibeault maneuvers his way around a courtroom.
As a businessman who deals in waste and heavy machinery, Thibeault has been involved in more than a few legal tangles. But one case that Port residents might want to consider as they head to court with Thibeault dates back to 2001-2002, in New York City at Ground Zero, the devastated site of the World Trade Center.
While the rest of the country was pouring out its hearts and wallets to the victims of 9/11, Thibeault was trying to figure out how he could make the most money from the tragedy through his company, Great Northern Site Construction.
According to New York City Superior Court documents, Great Northern’s equipment — at first three and then four heavy excavating machines — was rented on Oct. 1, 2001, by Tully Construction, of the four main contractors hired within hours of the attack on the World Trade Center. The two companies agreed that Great Northern would be paid $100,000 per machine per month based on three eight-hour shifts and 176 hours per month per shift, or about $189 per hour.
An addendum to the rental agreement that both companies approved after the equipment was on site stated that the agreement was “subject to the Department of Design and Construction approval of the equipment rates.”
In two notices issued in October and November 2001, the Department of Design stated subcontractors would be paid at 75 percent of the rate in the “Rental Rate Blue Book for Construction Equipment,” the construction industry’s standardized suggested price index. They also requested Great Northern provide invoices reflecting similar rates “for comparable rental equipment prior to Sept. 11, 2001.”
Again, according to New York City Superior Court documents, Great Northern failed to show the department that it charged an equivalent fee “for comparable equipment from July of 2001 through September of 2001.” Only one piece of evidence #8209; a daily time and material report, not an invoice #8209; was produced.
Auditors found that the rate being charged by Great Northern was about $45 per hour higher than the suggested Blue Book rate for rental of similar equipment.
Great Northern claimed the rate reflected the hazardous conditions at the site, a factor the state said it had taken into consideration when allowing 75 percent of the Blue Book rate.
The Department of Design reduced the rate to $108 per hour, and Great Northern petitioned for a hearing, claiming, in part, that it was denied due process. Great Northern argued that the department did not have jurisdiction over the site, which is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and that it did not have the authority to review and reduce contracted rates after the fact.
Thibeault lost. New York County Supreme Court Justice Diane S. Lebedeff on April 15, 2003, denied Great Northern’s petition for a hearing to set final policy on rates for Great Northern and others at the site of the World Trade Center cleanup. The proceeding was dismissed.
In her decision, Justice Lebedeff said in part that the rental agreement entered into by the contractor and Great Northern clearly allowed for the Department of Design to adjust the rental rate, and Great Northern should have been alert to the subsequent actions when “quantum proof” #8209; the pre-Sept. 11 invoices #8209; was requested.
In a May 26, 2003, news story in the Gotham Gazette, which is published by the non-profit Citizens Union Foundation, Great Northern Site Corporation was reported to be a Massachusetts-based company. The paper went on to praise Lededeff’s decision saying it “had the potential to save the city millions of dollars in overpayment and/or fraud.”
Thibeault was unavailable for comment on the New York case or his upcoming court date on Crow Lane.
"blatantly, gone are the days" |
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Great Northern Site Corporation
