Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 9, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 5 Polar Park contractor to pay $1.9M over false claims of diversity A joint venture of Gilbane Building Co. of Providence, Rhode Island and Hunt Construction Group, Inc. of Indi- anapolis agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that it misrepresented allocation of work to disadvantaged businesses while building the Polar Park baseball stadium in Worcester. On Dec. 21, Attorney General Maura Healey's office filed an assurance of dis- continuance in Suffolk Superior Court alleging that the joint venture violated the Massachusetts False Claims Act and consumer protection laws. Healey's office says Gilbane/Hunt misled the Worcester Redevelopment Authority by falsely stating in its bid for Polar Park Project it planned to "maximize partic- ipation of woman and minority-owned businesses (W/MBEs), and then, once selected to manage the project, misrep- resented the status of W/MBE partici- pation to the Worcester Redevelopment Authority (WRA) until the project was substantially complete." "Construction companies in Massa- chusetts must live up to their promises to create opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses on public projects," Healey said in a press release. "If a company says that the inclusion of diverse businesses is a priority in an effort to win a public contract, we are going to ensure that they are held ac- countable for those representations." Under the terms of the settlement, Gilbane/Hunt will pay $1.9 million to the state, of which Worcester will receive $500,000 as restitution. According to the press release, the city has agreed to use the proceeds of the settlement to promote W/MBE participation in gov- ernment contracting. "Our work to improve government contracting opportunities with under- represented businesses is one of our recent initiatives to ensure our economic development strategy is more equitable and inclusive," Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said in the press release. B R I E FS Peterson Oil to face class action lawsuit for alleged bad oil mix A lawsuit filed by several customers against Peterson Oil Service Inc. of Worcester accusing the company of knowingly delivering the wrong mix of heating oil was certified on Dec. 12 as a class action lawsuit by a Worcester Superior Court judge. Filed in 2019 by nine customers of Peterson Oil, the lawsuit alleges the company sold and delivered a mix of heating oil that caused damage to heating systems and burned less efficiently. "For over ten years Defendant Peterson Oil Service, Inc. ("Peterson Oil") has engaged in an elaborate scheme to generate millions of dollars in tax credits and other profits, under the guise of helping the environment, by cheating its customers and leaving them out in the cold," the initial filing says. Peterson Oil will appeal the decision, said Louis Ciavarra, an attorney at Worcester law firm Bowditch and Dewey, LLP, who is representing Peterson. "We do not believe the situation supports a claim for a class action," Ciavarra said in an interview with WBJ. "e number of claims is minuscule and thousands of customers of Peterson continue to buy fuel without incidents, as does the Commonwealth and towns across the state." "A lot of people don't know they've been harmed. People are still in the dark," Jeffrey Strom, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told WBJ in a phone call.. "ousands of innocent customers were le out in the cold so that the Peterson's could financially enrich themselves through state tax credits. eir own internal documents and employees have confirmed allegations in the case," Strom said in a written statement. "Any suggestion that this was a scheme concocted to help the environment is not credible. "Not only were customers le in the cold, but also overcharged because their oil was less efficient and their own documents show that," he added. Polar Park, when it was under construction in 2021 T H E T I C K E R $4.1 million Grant funding to be split among the Jane Fund in Holden, Planned Parenthood in Worcester and Marlborough, and nine other Massachusetts organizations to improve abortion access Source: Commonwealth of Massachusetts Nine Months that Zyno Medical still sold its distributed IV pumps after allegedly finding out they were defective. The Natick company paid a $493,140 civil settlement. Source: U.S. Attorney Office for Massachusetts $19.9 million Amount paid by a New York investor for the 15-acre Westborough Executive Park, which is 35% vacant after its occupants made post-COVID office space reductions Source: Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates March Month in which John Madej joined Marlborough manufacturer Web Industries Inc. as president. In December, he became CEO, succeeding Mark Pihl. Source: Web Industries Government oversight of diversity requirements is poor F L AS H P O L L Do Massachusetts state and local governments do a good job of enforcing diversity requirements on public projects like Polar Park? On Dec. 22, Gilbane Building Co. and Hunt Construction Group, the contractors behind the $160-million Polar Park public baseball stadium project in Worcester, agreed to pay a $1.9-million settlement to the state and city governments to resolve allegations claiming the two construction firms lied to officials about how many woman-owned and minority- owned firms were included in the public project, which was uncovered by an investigation from media outlet GBH. The City of Worcester plans to use its portion, $500,000, to implement a minority and women business enterprise initiative. When polled online, nearly two-thirds of WBJ readers said state and local officials do not do a good job of enforcing diversity requirements on public contracts. COMMENTS "No, and that is a good thing! Diversity requirements are yet another woke idea gone wrong. Let's get the best companies to do the best work, period!" - Dom Cassone No. 65% Yes. 35% Peterson Oil's location in Worcester W

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