Reverberations continued Tuesday over a Denver City Council member’s allegations that a firm scheduled to get $13.4 million in work at Denver International Airport was a persistent violator of the city’s prevailing-wage laws.
Councilman Chris Nevitt raised the issue during Monday’s council meeting when he objected to a contract for RK Mechanical Inc. of Denver to repair cooling towers used in the air-conditioning system at the airport.
Tuesday, Councilman Charlie Brown said he wants to delay the issue and have a fuller discussion Feb. 20 at the council’s economic development committee.
“Those are serious charges, and I want him to back it up,” Brown said Tuesday in explaining his decision to pull the contract back to committee, which Brown chairs.
Nevitt on Monday accused the contractor of having a shoddy work history on the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. He said the firm had pervasive problems with violations of prevailing-wage rules. Nevitt voted to grant initial approval to the contract, saying he didn’t want to delay crucial work.
The prevailing-wage ordinance requires contractors on city projects to pay the prevailing industry wage for such work.
Dick Kinning, the chief executive officer of RK, denied Nevitt’s allegations. He said he plans to attend the Feb. 20 meeting to give his side. “We obviously deny any wrongdoing at all,” he said.
He said he thinks Nevitt, who has strong ties to labor groups, is pushing the issue because labor officials dislike his company because it isn’t a union shop. “We pay more than union shops, to the tune of double sometimes,” he said.
The auditor’s office said the person who tracks prevailing-wage issues was on vacation, but would be available during the committee meeting. Councilwoman Carol Boigon said she wants the issue tracked further to ensure there’s not a history of such violations by the firm.
“If it’s true, we don’t want to do business with these people,” Boigon said. “And if it’s not true, we’ve got to deal with that.”
Nevitt and Brown have clashed over labor issues in the past.
In December, Brown chastised Nevitt and Councilman Doug Linkhart for talking about labor strife when a proclamation was issued to National Hirschfeld, which has been in business for 100 years.
Businessman Barry Hirsch feld and his wife were in the audience when Nevitt and Linkhart recalled a 1994 labor strike at their printing firm. At the conclusion of the strike, the firm was no longer a union company and people lost their jobs.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
