LITTLE ROCK — In defending his bill to allow the state to punish contractors for hiring illegal aliens, Rep. Jim Nickels said Thursday that illegals helped renovate a state office building a few hundred feet from the Capitol.
He was referring to the Multi-Agency Complex, commonly called Big MAC, which was remodeled in 2009-10 to convert part of it into legislative meeting rooms.
Nickels’ allegation before the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs brought consideration of his House Bill 1013 to a halt as committee chairman Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, questioned him about the claim.
Nickels, D-North Little Rock, said he was trying to show that contractors hire illegal aliens and mistreat them.
The aliens were not paid for their work on the Big MAC, he said.
“I just want to point out that this problem is right in our midst,” Nickels said.
The head contracting firm on the project was VCC, which has a branch in Little Rock.
VCC Chief Financial Officer Bradley Davis was at the committee meeting. He said he first learned that a subcontractor may have used illegal aliens on the project when the director of the Arkansas Building Authority, which oversees work on state buildings, asked him to attend Thursday’s meeting.
“VCC follows all certification guidelines to ensure, to the best of our ability, that everyone we employ is legal,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Contractors rely on their subcontractors to ensure that they follow all state and federal regulations in this and other matters.”
Nickels said the illegal aliens were working for a subcontractor, Beebe-based S&G Construction. S&G’s license was revoked by the secretary of state in December. Listed phone numbers for the man described by the Better Business Bureau as the company’s owner, Richard Inman, were disconnected.
Davis told the committee that 15 to 20 subcontractors worked on the Big MAC renovation.
He would not release information about when S&G worked as a subcontractor or why the contract ended.
According to the Arkansas Better Business Bureau, S&G Construction did not respond to a complaint filed against it in September. The complaint said S&G failed to honor a service agreement.
Nickels said he was told last week by a contractor “who has been adversely impacted by the hiring of illegals” that illegals had worked on the Big MAC job. He said the contractor had not worked on the renovation in the Capitol complex.
Arkansas Building Authority Director Anne Laidlaw, who Nickels asked to attend the meeting, said the building authority is not investigating the use of illegal aliens on the Big MAC job because “we haven’t received a complaint.”
“We don’t have anything. We haven’t received anything. It’s only strictly hearsay from Rep. Nickels at this point,” Laidlaw said. “There’s nothing for us to work with.”
She said the building authority learned of the possible problem Tuesday.
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She said the Department of Finance and Administration has a sworn statement from VCC, as required by law, that it has not hired illegal aliens. Laidlaw said contractors are required to certify to that fact on a state website. Subcontractors are not required to do so.
Instead, subcontractors have to submit sworn statements to the lead contractor that none of the subcontractors’ employees are in the country illegally.
Act 157 of 2007 prohibits state government from contracting with employers of illegal aliens. Contractors and their subcontractors have to certify that they don’t employ illegal aliens. If a contractor is found to have violated the law, the business must remedy the violation within 60 days or risk the state terminating the contract.
Laidlaw said S&G Construction workers were on the job site for only three days and then did not return to work “so their contract was actually terminated with VCC and they [VCC] hired another contractor. Apparently there were other issues there.”
She said the VCC contract was for between $4 million and$5 million.
Nickels said he complained to the Department of Labor that illegal aliens were used in the project.
Labor Department General Counsel Denise Oxley said the department has received a complaint about work done at Big MAC.
“I do know that we have a pending investigation into the renovation of the Big MAC building,” Oxley said. “We are looking into whether they paid prevailing wage on that project.”
She said the Labor Department is not responsible for addressing immigration problems.
A contractor at Thursday’s committee meeting provided reporters with the name and contact information for a man he said was an illegal alien who had worked at Big MAC.
Manuel Damacho, who said he is in the country illegally, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that S&G hired him to frame some rooms in Big MAC and never paid him the $7,000 that he was promised.
“We finished the job we had to do,” Damacho said. “I don’t know why they paid S&G; S&G quit the job.”
He said he worked on the building in May and June. He said once S&G closed, he repeatedly asked VCC to pay him.
Damacho said he was contacted by VCC on Thursday before the committee met andit offered to pay him part of what he said he is owed.
“The first time, they said, ‘No, you get paid through S&G.’ Now they said they want to pay me $5,000,” Damacho said. “$5,000 is OK. I don’t want to lose everything.”
Davis said the company was not offering Damacho money. Instead, Davis said, VCC was trying to understand Damacho’s complaint.
“We obtained information from Mr. Damacho and are still investigating at this time to determine if he might be owed money from one of our subcontractors,” Davis said. “However, Mr. Damacho is not owed any money directly by VCC, and VCC has fully paid all outstanding invoices to subcontractors.”
The committee is to continue considering Nickel’s bill at 11:30 Monday morning. The bill would allow the state Contractors Licensing Board to take away or suspend the license ofa contractor who hires people he knows to be illegal aliens. It has a provision to protect contractors who hire illegal workers who used false documents to gain employment.
The bill says that to protect themselves from investigation by the board, contractors can check employee identification through a federal system.
Employers can verify whether an employee is eligible to work in the U.S. by submitting information provided on the Employment Eligibility Verification form - known as the I-9 - to the E-verify database, according to the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/25/2011