Community activist Alvertis Simmons claims he won a no-bid contract worth $185,000 from the Regional Transportation District in exchange for his help getting blacks to vote for RTD’s FasTracks tax initiatives in 2005.
RTD officials deny this claim, which Simmons raised in a sworn deposition in response to questions from RTD lawyer Rolf Asphaug.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said RTD spokesman Scott Reed. “It’s not true.”
But something still seems funny about this contract and the way it ended.
Simmons, who is suing RTD in Denver District Court, claims he had a “gentlemen’s agreement” with RTD general manager Cal Marsella.
“Tell me what the gentlemen’s agreement was,” Asphaug asked Simmons in a deposition obtained by The Denver Post.
“Cal and I talked, and he said ‘Alvertis, you’re known in the community, and we would like to have your support.’
“And I said, ‘You know, Cal, we need some black participation on that RTD project.’ I said, ‘You know, you can’t just get billions of dollars and not have the black community a part of that.’
“He said, ‘If you work with us, you’ve got my word that we will get some black participation on that project.’…
“We did our part. My community did their part. The vote got passed, and I had to sit and wait until they could find some work.”
Eventually, RTD awarded Simmons and Associates Consultants a no-bid contract to help handle luggage on airport-bound buses in Boulder and to inspect the work of maintenance companies hired to clean RTD facilities.
The RTD advanced Simmons a check for $10,000 to help start this enterprise, which at the time had no employees, no insurance and no workers’ comp coverage. The money was to help him get those things going, Simmons said.
Also, Simmons at the time faced trial on forgery charges stemming from his effort to get work providing security for Denver’s NBA All-Star Weekend in February 2005. Simmons was acquitted of those charges last year, but at the time that RTD granted him a contract, it could only guess at the outcome.
“Did not go well”
RTD spokesman Reed said Marsella couldn’t comment since he is on the witness list in the pending trial. But Reed said that RTD hired Simmons as part of a pilot program aimed at helping disadvantaged businesses.
The program, however, did not last long. And Simmons was the only entrepreneur involved in it. “It did not go well,” Reed explained.
Simmons testified that Marsella didn’t seem too concerned about his indictment or the news that it generated: “He just said to me, ‘Alvertis, make sure that you take care of that indictment.”‘
But before Simmons could cash the $10,000 check from RTD, KHOW-630 AM radio talk show hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman broke news that there was a warrant for Simmons’ arrest in Las Vegas for writing $4,500 worth of bad checks at casinos. Simmons never disclosed this problem to RTD – but said he didn’t know about the warrant until Caplis and Silverman reported it.
RTD, which claims it had an open termination clause in its contract with Simmons, canceled its $10,000 check and asked Simmons to withdraw from the contract. Simmons signed a letter of withdrawal that RTD crafted, but he said he did so under duress.
So far, RTD has offered Simmons $20,000 to settle the case. That’s what Simmons told me, anyway. Reed said there has been no settlement offer.
RTD now awaits a decision on a motion for summary judgment, claiming the case has no merits. But if it doesn’t win that motion, the case is set to go to trial Jan. 28.
When I first met Simmons last year, he was battling his forgery indictment and trying to clean up his debt problems in Vegas – which he says was a misunderstanding. He has since been through a rehabilitation of sorts.
Amid addressing his personal problems, Simmons successfully waged a discrimination campaign against Albertson’s, which allegedly permitted racist graffiti and behavior at its Aurora warehouse.
“Rough edges”
One result of that campaign was that three black nonprofits received checks from Albertson’s totaling more than $32,000 – and Simmons joined a consulting team hired to help Albertson’s clean up its act. Simmons has also been involved in a campaign called “Start Talking” to combat the “stop snitchin”‘ message in rap music.
“Alvertis might have rough edges, but he is sincere and pure in his heart about helping the oppressed, the low-income and those who have been discriminated against,” former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb told me.
So in the brief time I’ve known Simmons, he has cleaned up his Vegas debts and got the charges against him there dismissed. He has helped straighten out a major grocery chain’s discrimination issues. He has beaten his forgery rap. And now he’s taking on RTD for inexplicably canceling a contract that he hoped would help him employ members of the African-American community.
RTD is making the mistake of underestimating Simmons.
“The RTD needs to make good on their commitment to Mr. Simmons and to the community,” said Simmons’ attorney, Mark Bove. “They need to settle up on the contract that they pulled from him.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Lewis at , 303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
