Heaps of ash and rubble remain on the ground two months after the Marshall fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County, and there’s no timeline for when debris removal will begin as the contract for the work isn’t finalized and new litigation and bid protests carry the potential for further delays.
Boulder County first said work to remove debris from people’s burned properties was expected to begin on Tuesday and would be completed by July 1.
However, the county hasn’t executed a contract with DRC Emergency Services, the cleanup firm chosen by county commissioners after receiving bids from 11 companies, said Andrew Barth, a spokesman for the Boulder County Department of Public Works.
Negotiations between the county and DRC are ongoing, he said.
Now, that unsigned contract is the focus of a lawsuit filed Feb. 22 by a newly formed group called Demanding Integrity in Government Spending, which is accusing Boulder County of violating Colorado open meetings laws during the selection process and is asking a judge to halt the project.
The entire 20th Judicial District bench recused itself from the case without explanation, and the Colorado Supreme Court has not chosen another judge to hear it, said Rob McCallum, a spokesman for the Colorado Judicial Branch.
On top of the lawsuit, two companies that competed for the debris removal contract have filed appeals that accuse the county of missteps in selecting DRC. One company has asked Boulder County to re-solicit bids while the other is asking the county purchasing department to recalculate scores in the bidding process and award that company the entire project or at least a piece of it.
The Marshall fire cleanup contract was estimated to be worth $52.6 million when Boulder County commissioners chose DRC on Feb. 10. The contract would cover fire debris removal for the wildfire’s residential victims in unincorporated Boulder County, Louisville and Superior.
The 6,000-acre Marshall fire erupted on Dec. 30 and, fueled by dry grasslands and strong winds, killed two people and destroyed 1,084 homes, making it the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
The legal battles could delay the project as lawyers work to settle the various disputes, but there are no judge’s orders or provisions in Boulder County’s procurement code to stop the county from moving ahead with DRC if it chooses to do so.
The group that filed the lawsuit, though, argues that any missteps by Boulder County during the procurement process could jeopardize federal reimbursements that are expected to cover much of the cost of the cleanup, meaning Colorado and Boulder County would be on the hook for paying for the project.
Clik here to view.
Putting a town back together
Meanwhile, Marshall fire survivors are outraged that no cleanup work on their properties has begun. They cannot rebuild their homes until the ash, burned building materials and household items, and any toxic fire debris are removed from their properties. Their insurance policies will cover temporary rental assistance for a limited time, so the clock is ticking.
Gwen Brodsky, who lost her home in the Coal Creek Ranch neighborhood in Louisville, said the fire victims are the collateral damage of the political and business process. Residents are frustrated by the delay, no matter the reason it’s happening, she said.
“We understand the business interest in seeing fair play and competition,” Brodsky said. “However, beneath that business interest are children and retirees and homeowners who simply need to put their town back together after two years of pandemic and a stunningly disruptive fire.”
Demanding Integrity in Government Spending, or DIGS, the group that is suing the county, was established in late January, and Michael Brown, a Boulder County resident and former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President George W. Bush, is affiliated with it.
The group’s charter says its purpose is to promote responsible government contracting and procurement processes and to bring accountability to the process. Brown previously told The Denver Post he is not working as a consultant for any of the fire debris removal companies that bid for the contract.
On Thursday, DIGS filed a motion asking for an emergency hearing for a temporary restraining order that would prevent any debris-removal work under the contract from beginning as the lawsuit works its way through court. And the group disputed claims by local government officials that its lawsuit was causing cleanup delays, citing a voice message a county attorney left with one of the DIGS lawyers that said no contract was in place.
In a Wednesday news release, Boulder County said it did not violate state open meetings laws because it used a review committee to evaluate bids and those committees are allowed to meet behind closed doors. That committee recommended DRC to county commissioners, who approved the contract proposal in a public meeting.
“The county isn’t happy about this delay,” Boulder County Commissioner Matt Jones said in the news release. “We did everything properly to comply with the law, and we are confident we’ll prevail against this lawsuit. We will be responding as expeditiously as possible with the hope that the courts will resolve the lawsuit quickly.”
DRC is lining up subcontractors and will be ready to go as soon as possible, Jones said.
Efforts on Thursday to reach DRC executives were unsuccessful.
Clik here to view.
Protests over contract decision
Fire debris removal contracts are high-stakes as the companies who win them stand to earn millions of dollars. The competition is fierce as the cleanup firms arm themselves with lobbyists, lawyers and public relations experts, which has been the case in Boulder County.
After Boulder County chose DRC, two of the 11 companies that bid on the project — Ceres Environmental Services and ECC Constructors LLC — filed protests against the decision, accusing Boulder County of missteps during the bid evaluation process. Ceres has asked the county to re-solicit bids, and ECC has asked the county to re-evaluate its bid score and award it the entire contract or at least a piece of it.
The county improperly opened negotiations with DRC and one other company after bids were submitted and didn’t allow Ceres an opportunity to compete, according to an appeals letter written by Karl Dix, a lawyer with the Atlanta firm Smith Currie. Ceres also is accusing DRC of misrepresenting its past experience with federal fire debris removal projects.
“DRC was provided with unfair opportunities to change and revise its proposal,” Ceres’ appeals letter said. “DRC misappropriated and materially misrepresented its experience by claiming performance experience that it did not possess, that it was not involved in and had little to no role managing.”
In its protest letter, ECC accused Boulder County of improperly awarding the contract to DRC for three reasons, including accepting DRC’s bid without verifying its claims that it could complete the project by July 1 without increasing its costs to meet that deadline, according to an appeal filed on by Phillip R. Seckman, a lawyer for Dentons, an international law firm based in Denver.
The Denver Post obtained both protest letters, which were filed Feb. 22, through a Colorado Open Records Act request.
ECC, which has an office in Lakewood, also said that DRC misrepresented its past experience in leading fire cleanup projects and the county had used those projects to give DRC a higher score when evaluating its bid, the company’s appeal letter said.
Ceres and ECC each alleged that DRC misrepresented its work with debris-removal projects, including asbestos cleanup, in California.
Ceres also sent a cease-and-desist letter to DRC, asking its competitor to stop using its work on California’s 2018 Camp fire cleanup in its list of past experience. DRC was a subcontractor under Ceres’ oversight for that project, according to a copy of the cease-and-desist letter written by Bernie Buescher, a lawyer at the Denver firm Ireland Stapleton.
“This is a demonstrably false representation of the work performed by the DRC family of companies,” Buescher wrote.