Buy America Act, Crothall Services Group, Inc. and Compass Group PLC

To: ExDir@fdva.state.fl.us
Sent: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 2:39 pm
Subject: Buy America Act, Crothall Services Group, Inc. and Compass Group PLC

Dear Lt. General Milligan:
It has come to my attention that a multibillion dollar foreign multinational corporation has the contract(s) to run [catering and cleaning for] some five (5) FDVA nursing homes for Florida veterans. Is that correct?
As the proud son of a World War II paratrooper (the late Edward A. Slavin, Sr., after whom the Southern New Jersey Chapter of the 82nd AIrborne Div. Assn. is named), I would like to have a few questions answered by close of business tomorrow, October 1, 2010.
Please answer:
1. What is the total value of Florida and Federal Funds paid each year and in total over time to the world's largest catering company, Compass Group PLC and its Crothall Services Group, Inc., a British multinational corporation, and predecessor or affiliated companies, to run Florida Department of Veterans Affairs nursing homes in Florida?
2. Were these contracts ever subject of meaningful competitive bidding? How long do they last and when does each of them expire?
3. Does the Buy America Act apply? Are there any exemptions?
4. How do the past, present and current wage, health and retirement benefits compare between: (a) Florida Department of Veterans Affairs contractor employees and (b) employees of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs? Please provide a spreadsheet with comparisons, stating each of your assumptions.
5. How much profit has Compass Group PLC and its Crothall Services Group, Inc. ever made from this FVA contract and its predecessors over its course of performance, including bonuses and change orders? Are the contracts audited? Have there ever been audit exceptions or refunds? Have there ever been any been protests by American firms or veterans organizations?
Have any unions filed unfair labor practices charges? Please provide details.
6. How many of the FDVA facilities have a collective bargaining agreement in effect with Crothall/Compass?
7. Are FVA's Crothall/Compass contractor employees protected by any whistleblower rules/laws? If so, what are they? Have any Crothall/Compass employees ever been disciplined/fired for raising concerns about medical malpractice, health, safety or other concerns without any legal protections? If that ever happened, would they have any recourse with your office? What procedures exist? Are Crothall/Compass employees informed of them? Has FVA ever considered adopting policies to protect these employees? If not, why not?
8. Has anyone in the Florida State Legislature or Congress ever spoken out about these questionable contracting arrangements with Crothall/Compass?
9. Will you please send me copies of the contracts in quo in a PDF format? When do the contracts expire? Will they be subject to competitive bidding requirements? If not, why not?
10. Are you prepared to make a public statement tomorrow for attribution about this situation -- American veterans being cared for not by government employees, but by employees of a foreign multinational corporation, making profits from VA health care services and (possibly) underpaying U.S. workers, particularly when compared to the salaries, benefits and retirement plans that VA federal government employees would be paid?
I look forward to your answers. Please call me if you have any questions about any of my questions.
Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
215-554-1187 (cellular)

Here's the snooty response from Tallahasse:

Dear Mr. Slavin:



We are in receipt of your request from yesterday afternoon. As Chief of Staff for the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA), thank you for your inquiry. The premise upon which your inquiry seems based is incorrect as FDVA owns and operates its state veterans’ homes. Our administrators and staff are state employees. Crothall is contracted to provide housekeeping and laundry services. Before addressing each of your ten requests, however, please allow me to explain our role in assisting you.



We will continue to produce and/or make available for your review the records and documents requested in our possession. However, for reasons outlined below, we do not research and prepare specific legal or policy statements at the request of the public. Likewise, we will also not explain the markings, handwriting, or other notations on each document provided. Although we have in the past answered general questions, this is done in an effort to assist the public with the services offered by the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs (FDVA).



By way of background, please accept this explanation of our duty to provide existing records. FDVA is not required to answer questions about its public records or to create a new record in response to a request for “information.” In other words, FDVA is not required to give out information from the records of this office. AGO 80-57. (Attorney General Opinion or AGO) For example, the Public Records Act does not require a town to produce an employee, such as the financial officer, to answer questions regarding the financial records of the town. AGO 92-38. Cf. In re Report of the Supreme Court Workgroup on Public Records, 825 So. 2d 889, 898 (Fla. 2002) (the custodian of judicial records "is required to provide access to or copies of records but is not required either to provide information from records or to create new records in response to a request").

Likewise, FDVA is not required to reformat its records to meet a requestor's particular needs. The intent of Ch. 119, F.S., is "to make available to the public information which is a matter of public record, in some meaningful form, not necessarily that which the applicant prefers." Thus, in AGO 97-39, the Attorney General's Office concluded that a school district was not required to furnish electronic public records in an electronic format other than the standard format routinely maintained by the district.



Ch. 119, F.S., provides a right of access to inspect and copy an agency's existing public records; it does not mandate that an agency create new records in order to accommodate a request for information from the agency. For example, the clerk of court is not required to provide an inmate with a list of documents from a case file which may be responsive to some forthcoming request. Wootton v. Cook, 590 So. 2d 1039 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991). However, in order to comply with the statutory directive that an agency provides copies of public records upon payment of the statutory fee, an agency must respond to requests by mail for information as to copying costs. Id. See also Woodard v. State, 885 So. 2d 444, 445n.1 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004), remanding a case for further proceedings where the custodian forwarded only information relating to the statutory fee schedule rather than the total copying cost of the requested records.

I provide this background analysis to you to explain why you will not receive a response, item by item, to many of your legal and policy questions presented in your multiple and ongoing requests. At the same time, we welcome providing you with the following in response to each numbered request:



(1) The contract with Crothall Healthcare Inc., will be provided.

(2) Yes, the contract was competitively bid; the procurement documents are integrated into the contract which will be provided.

(3) This is a legal question which we recommend you seek counsel of your choosing.

(4) We do not have any documents responsive to this request.

(5) We do not have any documents responsive to this request.

(6) There are no collective bargaining contracts with the State of Florida and contractor employees.

(7) This is a legal question which we recommend you seek counsel of your choosing.

(8) We do not have any documents responsive to this request

(9) The contract with Crothall Healthcare Inc., will be provided.

(10) Records requests do not include “preparing public statements for attribution about this situation”



The contract will be provided to you electronically by our Records Management Liaison Officer at no cost. Again, thank you for your inquiry and your interest in Florida’s veterans.





Earl Daniell
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret)
Chief of Staff
Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs (FDVA)
4040 Esplanade Way, Suite 180
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0950
Phone: (850) 487-1533
Cell: (850) 559-0494
FAX: (850) 488-4001
Email: danielle@fdva.state.fl.us

Website: www.FloridaVets.org

FDVA Foundation: www.FloridaVeteransFoundation.org