Judge Chitty Finds City of Forney in Breach of Contract & Orders Summary Judgment

03-05-2013

Denise Bell
Post Managing Editor

Unfortunately for the taxpayers in Forney, reliable sources are reporting that Kaufman County Judge B. Michael Chitty has entered a Summary Judgment against the City of Forney in the civil lawsuit between Pate Transportation Partners, LP, Forney Road Builders, LP and the City of Forney.

Apparently Judge Chitty has found the City of Forney along with Defendants, Brian Brooks and Darren Rozell in Breach of Contract, and reportedly the parties have reached a settlement that should be announced soon.

A Breach of Contract ruling was issued with the Summary Judgment which eliminates the need for a trail as Judge Chitty has already found legal justification to rule after reviewing all the evidence and depositions submitted to him.

The purpose of a Summary Judgment is to avoid an unnecessary trial, and two criteria must be met prior to the judgment being granted. First, their must be no genuine issues of material fact and two, the party seeking the Movant must be entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

A civil suit resulted after the City Council terminated Pate Transportation Partners as the construction management firm on the FM 548 at Hwy 80 Bridge project, and this will be an extremely costly decision for the tax payers of Forney.

Forney’s former Mayor, Darrell Grooms, first endorsed Pate Transportation before the TxDOT Commission, for use on the Forney Pass-Through Toll Project, in 2005.

Then the 2007 Forney City Council, which consisted of former Mayor, Darrell Grooms and Council Members, James Hatley, Brian Haughey, Robbie Powers, David Holler, Andy Parker and Darren Rozell, repeatedly promoted Pate Transportation as their choice for a construction management company, and ultimately they voted to award the firm a $50 million dollar construction services contract in association with the Forney Pass-Through Toll Project.

After dozens of design and construction change orders, on January 12, 2011, the Forney City Council convened and without explanation voted to terminate the services of Pate Transportation, and on March 1, 2011, the Council awarded a new contract to Kellogg, Brown & Root Services, Inc. (KBR) to complete the FM 548 Bridge project.

In a January 2011 interview with The Forney Post, Pate Transportation General Partner, Jennie Taraborelli, explained that the City of Forney owed Pate a little over $4 million dollars in unpaid invoices which were from several change orders that were approved by City Manager Brooks and Asst. City Manager, Gina Nash.

Because the change orders in question had not received prior approval from the Forney City Council, as is a contract requirement of the Texas Pass-through Toll Program, the State of Texas does not have to reimburse the City for these changes to the design and construction of the FM 548 Bridge.

Unfortunately, Pate Transportation and Forney Road Builders did the work upon the authorization of City Manager Brooks, and therefore the city is responsible to honor the contract, regardless of if TxDOT reimburses the City, or not.

Because City Manager Brooks absolutely refused to accept responsibility for his actions, which obviously reflects his lack of experience with the Texas Pass-through Toll Program, Forney now faces a multi-million dollar legal judgment.

At this point it is unclear exactly how much this will cost the tax payers of Forney, or exactly how the City will pay the settlement, and it is also unclear if the City Council will hold City Manager Brooks responsible for this situation, or if he will again get a free pass.

The tax payers of Forney should clearly understand that with this judgment, the City will be responsible to pay at least the outstanding monies due each of these companies, legal fees, court costs, and quite possibly additional damages.

Settlement estimates range between eight and ten million dollars, and again it is unclear where the Council expects to get this money.

The Forney City Charter names the City Council as the direct supervisors of City Manager, Brian Brooks. They can reprimand, suspend or terminate him, without cause, at anytime, or they can again refuse to hold him accountable.

The below photographs are of the FM 548 - Hwy 80 bridge project and were published on February 22, 2011.