“You have written so many bold faced lies in your newspaper about me,” Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Board member Nadia Combs wrote in a text message to the Guardian three days ago. [EDITOR’S NOTE: the Tampa Bay Guardian is a strictly on-line publication, not a newspaper].
“Shocking you are now reaching out to me for the FIRST time,” Combs continued. However, Combs’ “first time” claim is inaccurate. Public records show that the Guardian has previously “reached out” to Combs via email multiple times, including twice to expressly ask for comment about events involving top officials at the scandal-plagued HCPS.
Combs first response to us came Friday morning when we asked if she also attended the Masters Golf Tournament in April. We have previously reported on the private jet travel of HCPS Superintendent Van Ayres and procurement boss Christopher Farkas to the Masters this past April, paid for by major HCPS contractor Horus Construction.
“I have never attended a Master’s Tournament in my life,” Combs continued in her text message. “This is the only time I will engage with you.” We had written Combs that regardless of what her answer was to our initial question about a possible Masters trip, we would have follow-up questions.
Because Combs refused to “engage” further, we did not provide her with our follow-up questions. We will instead seek to obtain those answers to our questions through a public records request to HCPS.
However, such work has been made difficult by the fact that HCPS has been unlawfully withholding public records that we requested 5 or more weeks ago. Public records that others have requested are also being withheld by HCPS without explanation, which is a violation of the Florida Public Records Law.
HCPS General Counsel Jeffrey Gibson told us on Friday that he would work with HCPS staff that day to finally get us the records. Most of those records were released to us yesterday, and we are now analyzing them.
“If you had taken the time to know me instead of constantly making up lies, we could have had better communication,” Combs ended her text message with. “Wish me well as I put students and our district first for another four years.”
[Another EDITOR’S NOTE: investigative reporters for the Guardian must keep an arms-length relationship with those whose work we report on. Therefore, we neither seek “better communication” with government officials, nor do we “wish them well” in their work. Not even when they make tired old “it’s for the children” claims, one of the oldest tactics in the politician playbook.]
Because Combs asserted that we have written “lies” about her and that we are “constantly making up lies,” we asked that Combs tell us in writing “exactly what things we have published that are lies.” Combs had not responded to our invitation three days after we made it.
Also this past Friday, we sent an email with these detailed questions to Tim Kruge, Director of Operations at CORE Construction. Core is a 1,200+ employee construction company with 24 offices in 9 states, including an office in Tampa. On their website. CORE claims that they are the number one “K-12 Builder in the U.S.”
Our questions to CORE mainly concerned their involvement in the Tomlin Middle School construction project in 2023, criminal practices that subcontractors in fact did report to CORE at that time, and what CORE did with the evidence provided to them.
Via text message and phone message, we asked Kruge to confirm receipt of our email with these questions (we posed two additional questions which we are not publishing at this time).
TampaBayGuardian.Com received no response to our questions by the time of publication of this article. We also provided HCPS General Counsel Jeffrey Gibson a copy of all of our questions to CORE.
Notably, CORE lists its Tampa office address as being 3840 North 50th St. which is the offices of Horus Construction. However, CORE is not listed as a tenant on the Horus building (see photo).
It was Horus and its president Jonathan Graham who provided the previously mentioned free private jet travel to the Master in April, and other gifts, to HCPS superintendent Ayres and procurement boss Chris Farkas. Within a month, the highly questionable “undervalued HCPS real estate in exchange for overvalued Horus construction services” swap was recommended by Ayres to the school board for approval.
Because of certain information in our possession, we had planned to contact Kruge anyway in due course. However, we contacted him on Friday after a CORE project accountant sent out an email asking subcontractors on last year’s Tomlin Middle School construction project to take 10% less in exchange for being paid now. “Now” as in the Friday before a long weekend. “Now” as in six weeks before Christmas in an economic environment where many are struggling to pay for groceries and utilities.
In CORE’s email to local subcontractors, the project accountant claimed that CORE is “still waiting for Owner [HCPS] final funding on Tomlin, with no payment date in site. As we are looking at closing this year out financially, we’d like to offer the opportunity to receive final payment as early as today, for a 10% discount. If you’re interested, please execute, and return the attached Early Payment Agreement.”
The so-called “Substantial Completion Date” is an industry term that has significant legal and contractual implications. It was established by HCPS as August 9, 2023, more than 15 months ago. CORE’s email to subcontractors therefore raised many eyebrows. And it raised questions.
Has HCPS really not paid CORE long after the Tomlin project substantial completion date? If CORE has been paid to a level that would legally trigger payouts to subcontractors, why did CORE avoid using the “substantial completion date” term in their email?
Local subcontractors who provided us with CORE’s proposed Early Payment Agreement characterized it as an “attempted shakedown.” Does CORE want the 10% to funnel all or part of it to Horus to fund further corruption of HCPS?
As always….the Guardian reports and the readers decide. Please like our Facebook page to find out when we publish new stories.
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