News

April 3, 2008

Prison fencing a no-bid job

Contractor with relationship with warden’s daughter got over $33,000 in work in 2007.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter
Terrie Morgan-Besecker on Facebook   |   @TLTerrieMorgan on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE – A contractor who has a personal relationship with the daughter of Luzerne County Prison Warden Gene Fischi was awarded more than $33,000 in no-bid contracts for work at the prison in 2007.

David Swida of Swida Fence was paid $18,000 under an emergency, no-bid contract to install fencing around the prison’s minimal offenders unit, and another $15,375 for three non-fencing construction jobs, county records show.

Fischi acknowledged his daughter is dating Swida, but vehemently denied the relationship had anything to do with the awarding of the contracts.

According to Fischi, the $15,375 payment was for work Swida performed around the end of last year at the main facility and the minimal offenders unit.

That work included repairs to the 40-foot exterior wall at the main facility and some minor excavation work and construction of a sidewalk and walkway at the minimal offenders unit, Fischi said.

Payment for the work was made through three checks of $4,475, $6,600 and $4,300 – all of which are above the county’s $3,500 threshold that requires department heads to seek quotes from at least three businesses.

Fischi said he did not believe he had to seek quotes from other contractors for those jobs because the payment came out of the prison’s commissary fund, which is not taxpayer-funded.

More important, Fischi said, Swida already had his equipment on site because of a separate $18,000, no-bid contract he was awarded in October to install another section of fencing at the minimal offenders unit.

That job was not bid out because it was deemed an emergency, which allowed the prison board to bypass bidding regulations. The board declared the emergency after learning other prisons had stopped accepting Luzerne County inmates who had to be moved due to overcrowding. The additional fencing allowed Fischi to alter the security classification at the unit so it could house more inmates.

Fischi said the two projects Swida performed at the minimal offenders unit involved work to the grounds around the building and in the exercise yard, which Fischi said had become a “mud bath.”

Swida excavated the yard and placed crushed stone, Fischi said. He installed some sidewalks and made a 6-foot-wide walkway around the building utilizing crushed stone, he said.

Fischi said he believed the repair to the prison wall at the main facility constituted an emergency because the wall was shifting away from the ground. Swida installed several hundred feet of drain tile at the base of the wall to help stop erosion, he said.

Fischi said Swida has repeatedly proven he does quality work. His company had previously won two contracts worth $141,700 – which were bid out – to install fencing at the main prison and the minimal offenders unit.

Swida was the low bidder on a $66,500 contract awarded in 2005 to install razor-wire fencing around the front of the main facility. He was the low bidder on a $72,200 contract awarded in January 2007 to fence in the minimal offenders unit to increase the security level of the facility.

Commissioner Stephen Urban said Fischi should have gotten approval from the prison board before approving the other projects.

“It’s all construction work. He should have come to the board and asked the board for permission to do this work. Then he should have put it out for bids or got quotes,” Urban said.

Urban also questioned whether the $15,375 payment to Swida should have come out of the commissary fund. Profits from the fund come from the sale of clothing, food, personal care and numerous other items to inmates.

Urban said those profits are supposed to be used to benefit inmates, such as buying law books or athletic equipment.

“I can’t see how sidewalks can be paid for from the commissary fund,” Urban said.

But Fischi said the money in question came from a surcharge that is placed on telephone calls inmates make, which generates about $3,500 to $4,000 a month.

Fischi said technically the money goes through the commissary fund, but commissioners may transfer that profit to the general fund.

“There are phone commissions put into the commissary fund that don’t necessarily have to go toward inmates,” he said. “In the past the commissioners have allowed me to keep the funds here and utilize them for items such as this.”

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