KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Another conflict of interest accusation has further tangled the process for selecting a new single-terminal design for KCI.
Representatives from Burns & McDonnell said Tuesday the company wants the city to restart the selection process due to an alleged personal relationship between another design proposer and a lawyer working with the city specifically on the KCI project. The company also wants the city to fire the lawyer.
“We are very upset to have learned about the existence of a personal relationship between the city’s outside legal consultant and one of the proposers,” said a statement from Mike Brown, vice president of Burns & McDonnell. “This information came to our attention over the weekend and necessitated our advisement to the city.”
The statement from Burns & McDonnell said, in part, that the "flaw and irregularities" of the current selection process may unfairly impact the final decision.
“Obviously, this is terribly disappointing to us in lieu of our position as the preferred proposer by the airlines and the proximity of a pending November election,” said Brown.
Despite calls from Burns & McDonnell, members of the KCI bid selection committee told 41 Action News they plan to go ahead with Thursday's announcement of the winning bid.
"I am very confident that this has been a fair and equal process," Councilwoman Jolie Justus said on Tuesday.
Justus and Councilman Jermaine Reed said the issue raised by Burns & McDonnell is being considered by the city attorney, who will issue a written opinion. The committee plans to debrief the rest of City Council on the process at a special session Wednesday.
"I think we're seeing a new conflict of interest issue raised every week. We're seeing just a plethora of things that keep coming up. It's time to decide," Councilman Quinton Lucas said of the process.
Lucas said after a decision is made, then the whole City Council can consider the concerns about conflicts of interest and decide if the bidding process should be redone. Neither Justus nor Reed said they could completely rule out the possibility of such an outcome.
41 Action News reached out to the three other companies bidding on the new KCI terminal. At the time of publication, only JLL responded, declining comment.
You can view all the proposals here.
FLYING STANDBY
Just a week prior, a conflict of interest complaint directed at Councilwoman Jolie Justus put a hold on deliberations.
The complaint filed with the city drew attention to Justus's work with one of the companies that submitted a bid on the contract. Soon after, the city ethics commission decided unanimously that there was not a conflict of interest.
“I wanted to make sure that any cloud that was lifted even if it is for political reasons be lifted and that we can move forward,” said Justus.
Justus heads the pro-bono arm of the firm she works for. That firm did a case for Burns & McDonnell four years ago, but Justus said she did not work on it.
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