Fire Bureau Manager in Hot Seat

[April 27th, 2005] A Portland Fire Bureau manager is under investigation for giving 27 contracts worth $85,000 to his son's company over the past two years.

Bureau officials confirm that a city investigation began last week, after WW started asking about the contracts awarded by manager Michael Speck.

Speck, 54, has been a Fire Bureau employee since 1984 and has a salary of nearly $69,000.

The company hired in the 27 contracts under investigation, Mt. View Contracting Inc. of Sandy, is owned by Speck's son, Todd, says Jack Graham, the bureau's senior business-operations manager.

Michael Speck works at the bureau's Logistics Center at 1135 SE Powell Blvd. He oversees maintenance on the bureau's 29 fire stations and is also involved in managing the $54 million public-safety bond approved by voters in 1998. Speck's duties include hiring outside contractors.

It appears that none of the contracts with Mt. View was subject to competitive-bidding requirements, and Graham says it's unclear so far in the investigation whether competitive bids were sought. City contracting procedures allow authorized employees such as Speck to enter into contracts for less than $5,000 without seeking competitive bids, although if the purchase tops $2,500, the Bureau of Purchases guidelines recommend obtaining three vendor quotes.

The work Mt. View performed includes drywall repair, tree removal and fence work-not exactly specialized tasks.

Records show that seven of the contracts between Mt. View Contracting and the Fire Bureau exceeded $4,890 but fell under $5,000. There were also at least five instances in which the city paid Mt. View for two invoices that added up to more than $5,000 within a week of each other.

Both the proximity to the $5,000 ceiling for no-bid contracts and the short amount of time between some invoices raise questions about whether Speck and his son sought to skirt contracting rules.

City Commissioner Erik Sten, who oversaw the Fire Bureau until Mayor Tom Potter claimed all bureaus upon taking office in January, says. "It's unfortunate when somebody seemingly abuses the technical aspects of the law."

Speck's direct supervisor, Ty Walters, was out of town and unavailable for comment. Graham, who requested the investigation, says Speck was apparently directly involved in granting the contracts. While unwilling to comment on specifics of the investigation, Graham says doing business with family members is unusual. "It is not normal bureau policy," he says. "If any laws or city policies were violated, we will take the appropriate action."

Oregon Revised Statute 244.040 (1)(a) says, "No public official shall use or attempt to use official position or office to obtain financial gain...for any business with which the public official or a relative of the public official is associated." Under statutory definitions, Speck qualifies as a public official.

"We've had two similar cases in the past five years," says Pat Hearn, director of the state Government Standards and Practices Commission. "The result has been findings of violations in each case the employee enriched a relative."

Neither Michael nor Todd Speck returned several phone messages. Michael Speck remains at work pending completion of the investigation.