Did DEI play a role in Charlotte transit security contract? (10-01-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Here's wsoctv's write up on the release of the state auditor's preliminary report on Cat's Safety Charlotte Area Transit Safety or Charlotte Area Transit System Safety. North Carolina Auditor Dave Bullock said that in twenty eighteen, the cat's armed security contract called for between sixty eight and eighty eight personnel. However, there were only thirty nine armed security officers, despite the contract increasing in cost from five point nine million to its current eighteen point four million. Okay, so the costs triple and the number of armed security guards declines by forty percent. At first. Bullock said that the security contractor PSS Professional Security Services was only hired to provide unarmed security because they broke the contract into two pieces for armed versus unarmed security. PSS got that. The auditor said that CATS limited its selections from this contract to firms that were registered in the city's Business Inclusion Program, which is the goal of that program is to direct city contracts to businesses that are owned by women and minorities. CATS then terminated its contract with the armed security vendor due to poor performance, and then expanded the PSS contract to add the armed security responsibilities to PSS, but there was no competitive bid put out for that contract. Again, they just handed it off to PSS, even though they split it up the first time. Gave PSS the bigger contract for the unarmed security component. They gave another company that didn't have to be women or minority owned. I don't know what that. I don't know if they if it is G fours or sorry Strategic Security. I don't know if they're minority owned or what. But they won the initial contract and then they got kicked out for failure to perform. But there's no data, there's no explanation of how they failed to perform, and then the city just turned around and gave it gave that contract to PSS in response to the audit, Mayor vy Lyles defended PSS, saying, this report appears to suggest that PSS is not qualified, but fails to offer specific evidence to support this conclusion. And when we spoke to the auditor in the last hour, he said, they never made that accusation. She's just reaching she's trying to find some excuse for something to come after them over. But they don't make the assertion that PSS. They don't even make a suggestion that PSS is not qualified. They simply pointed out that race was a factor when you went out for these bids. And that's an important piece of information because it does raise the question of are they qualified. The Auditor's office isn't saying they are or are not. They're just pointing out that PSS got the contract based on race, based on your city policy, and then they got the second contract without going through rebidding process. That's why I said last hour that this just smacks of cronyism. To me, that's what it smacks of. You got the first contract and now we're just going to fold this other one in after we let the other company go. But the mayor says PSS has met contract requirements and continues to provide satisfactory services. And as the auditor said in the last hour, what are those metrics? We don't know. You say, Okay, they're doing a fine job providing adequate, satisfactory services. What are like, how do you measure that? So here's the from the preliminary findings. The scope of work for the original twenty eighteen contract indicates that the armed personnel would be armed with either a firearm or a taser. Additionally, at this time, again six years ago, the number of armed personnel that the company that had a contract at that time. The number of armed personnel was required to provide cats under the original twenty eighteen contract is not clear. We don't know how many gfours was required to provide cats. It's unclear. The price proposal attached to the contract, as Exhibit B shows G four S would provide approximately sixty eight armed company police, but the contract scope of work indicates that the city requested and G four S agreed to provide eighty eight sworn company police. So the State Auditor's Office is still working to confirm exactly how many armed security personnel G four S provided two cats under that contract. In twenty eighteen. So that's why they've got this range of either sixty eight or eighty eight. We don't know what the number is. And this is why because in the price proposal, gfours said, here's our price, here's our like, you put this out for solicitation for bids, here's our bid, sixty eight armed company police. And Katz comes back and says, now, our scope of work is eighty eight police. We want eighty eight police. We don't know if gfours provided that or not, but they still got the contract either way. The fact that Katz requested in the scope of work eighty eight armed officers but then allowed PSS to only run thirty nine this year, like, that's a choice. That was a choice they wanted. They wanted to push I guess more of the personnel into the unarmed category. On October one, twenty twenty one, that contract for gfours was then assigned to a company called Universal Protection Service LLC, but it was doing business as ally. You've probably seen them around Allied Universal Security Services. Because Allied had materially absorbed G four S. Okay, so I guess a merger of some kind. They bought G four S so they amended the contract. Additionally, the city then exercised both of the one year renewal terms which were part of the original contract. So, and this is pretty standard in a contract. You do an initial term for you know, two years, three years, whatever, and then you get like the renewals, you know, one year renewal, one year renewal, and then you go and do another RFP request for proposal, you put it out for bid again. So that meant that their contract went through October twenty twenty three, but a year prior, in October twenty two, in its letter exercising the second renewal option, the city told Allied that the city was quote currently in the process of procuring a new transit security contract to take over the provision of the CATS security services after the second and final renewal option of Allies contract expired. So they were told a year prior, we're going to be going out forbid again. The city issued an RFP seeking a new contractor, and that was in July of twenty two. Based on the Auditor's Office or OSA, the Office of the State Auditor OSA. Based on osa's initial review, it appears that this RFP was split into two parts, one part seeking a contractor to provide sworn company police and armed security personnel collectively the armed Security services, and then the other part seeking a different contractor for unarmed security services. So like, if that is actually the way the proposal was written or the request for proposal, the solicitation that went out, Like did they say that we want two different companies here? What if a company came forward like PSS and they bid on both they said, we can do both. We're going to do it all, and we're minority owned and so we can fulfill your racial checkbox quota thing, and so we can check that box. But we can do we can do it all. Maybe they weren't allowed to. I don't know. I haven't seen what the solicitation said, but according to this write up in their report that they wanted a different they were seeking a different contractor for the unarmed security services. The proposal for unarmed security services was targeted only to businesses that were registered and certified with the city's Charlotte Business Inclusion Program, or the CBI. The CBI program seeks to enhance competition and participation of minority women in small business enterprises mwsbes in city contracting leveraging the commitment of city leadership. CBI's goal is to be a national model in the business inclusion space. To accomplish this, all city departments have increasingly examined their procurements and set specific participation goals on a contract by contract basis. During discussions regarding the request for proposal, City Compliance Officer Terrence Watson noted that the solicitation for unarmed security services quote is only open to CBI security firms. It is not open to other firms, regardless if they have other certifications by other parties. What does that tell you? They would not even look at a bid if you were a white dude, if you were a company owned by white dude. Like, that's what that says. You got to be in the CBI program. If you're not credentialed in that program, you don't get to bid on the bigger securecurity contract. And this is all for equity. The next day, mister Watson sent another email emphasizing that the advertisement must mention the unarmed scopes have been designated as targeted for CBI security firms only. So they made sure everybody knew we're not taking any bids. We're not looking at any bids unless they are compliant with our CBI program. The requirement that it only accept proposals submitted by CBI certified vendors functionally excluded other qualified vendors who could have provided security for the CATS writers. Additionally, certain communications put forth by the CBI Advisory Committee raise questions about CBI's partisan motives. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right see for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. On the text line, I got a message here from the grumpy major who says the does the audit report mentioned that PSS Company president Celestine Ratliffe is former command staff at CMPD. You mentioned cronyism. Well, there you go. It does not mention her by name. It does mention that the president is a thirty year CMPD veteran and her husband is Lee Ratliffe. And I knew Lee Ratliffe when he was the public information officer for CMPD years ago, like twenty five years ago, So it does not mention that. But they've both been, you know, in law enforcement in CMPD. They've been in the local area for the last you know, thirty plus years. I gotta believe they know a lot of these people. In fact, I saw when I was doing some background research on Lee, when I saw that he was connected to this PSS I did not know this is that they started this company. I came across a couple of videos where he was confronting people. Do you remember this would have been in like twenty twenty twenty, nineteen twenty twenty. I want to say, where people these leftists set up. They set up a tent outside of the jail and they were offering post release services to formerly incarcerated persons. Do you remember this? And then they like the sheriff like didn't want them there and whatever, like there was a big thing about it. Anyway, Lee Ratliffe, there's a video of him coming down in his capacity as PSS. He came down and was talking to these people trying to get them to clear out, and they were like recording him. You know who are you? And you have no authority and all this stuff. And so he was, I guess, contract with the Mecklenburg County government to provide security at the government center or the jail area or something. So he apparently has been getting contracts with the local government or his company is beginning contracts with the local government for a little while twenty years so, I don't know. There is this CBI Charlotte business initiative the CBI Advisory Committee, and these are volunteers that advise, that offer their input and such and the Office of State Auditors report says that certain communications put forth by the Advisory Committee raise questions about the CBI's partisan motives. For example, April ninth this year, at a meeting of the CBI Advisory Committee, there was a discussion about House Bill one seventy one, that is quote an act eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in state and local government. At the time, House Bill one seventy one was being debated and considered by the North Carolina General Assembly. At the committee meeting, then committee Chair Siara Lilly encouraged committee members to quote listen to the Republican argument made in support of the bill during the committee hearings so that they could quote be prepared to counter it. They go on to note in a footnote that Lily's LinkedIn profile notes that she is the quote Senior Vice President of Culture and Belonging. That's a title at Diversified Maintenance, where she ensures the company's culture evolves in alignment with its business strategy. She served as chair of this advisory committee until September last month. So this raises the question, right, like, if this is the ideology of the people that are advising your CBI program, how much of that is pervasive in the awarding of the contracts? Is the advisory committee weighing in and making recommendations on particular companies? Are they putting race at the forefront for equity and inclusion purposes? Would that have run a foul of the state law? Yeah, there's a lot in this report that has yet to be unearthed. And as the auditor kept saying when we talked with them last hour, this is just a preliminary report. This is just the information they have, and obviously this is for the community to digest and to start asking questions that this report is starting to surface. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seven six eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. From the Audit the State Auditor's report here on the Charlotte Area transit security. When the city rebid the contracts right, they split the contracts. In twenty four they split them in half. They're like one a contract for armed security, one for unarmed. The city received eight proposals. One of those proposals was submitted by Allied that had the contract, so they resubmitted a review panel. Don't know who that review panel was. They evaluated each of the proposals received and did not recommend that the city recontract with Allied. Instead, the panel recommended awarding the armed security services portion to Strategic Security Corporation and the unarmed security services portion of the RFP to Professional Police Services PPS but doing business as Professional Security Services PSS. PSS is AZBI Certified Minority Business Enterprise and the wife of PSS's founder and CEO was employed by the CMPD for thirty years. That's the ratlifts. After the panel reviewed all the submitted proposals, it sought the City Council's approval to contract with SSC and PSS. This was then debated. Sorry so this was in twenty twenty three. City Council debated this. At that meeting, the Brett Kagel or Brent Cagel rather sorry, who is now the cat's interim CEO. He pointed out that PSS quote had previously served the city as a minority business enterprise subcontractor, and that splitting the RFP into two parts allowed PSS quote the opportunity to move into the prime contractor position. He noted that giving PSS this opportunity was a benefit of breaking the RFP into two pieces, so this was held up as an advantage as a benefit. The City Council voted to approve the panel's recommendations. After getting approval from the City Council, the city executed the contracts with PSS and SSC. Then in twenty twenty four, the city canceled its contract with SSC so like a year later canceled it with SSC because SSC quote failed to meet certain requirements of the contract and to perform its duties to the satisfaction of CATS. The cancelation was effective December fourteenth, twenty twenty four. Around the same time, the city also changed the contract with PSS so PSS now provides both armed and unarmed security services. Based on the osays the Office of State Auditor's initial review, there is no clear evidence that the city issued a new RFP for the contract for armed services, nor did they engage in a competitive procurement process before they amended the PSS contract. The osay has not come to a conclusion on the quality of service provided by PSS at this time. That's important why because the mayor, in response to this said in her letter, the report appears to suggest that PSS is not qualified, but fails to offer specific evidence to support this conclusion. The audit didn't say that. The report didn't say that. It literally SAYSSA has not come to a conclusion on the quality of service provided by PSS at this time. They haven't said that they made no conclusion. They're just pointing out that PSS got the contract without a competitive bid process. This from seven oh four number on the text line the PSS contract reeks of insider connections and kickbacks. Forget about the CBI or DEI. Nonsense. No, look, this is what I've said from the beginning. This is to me, the rub is that there was no competitive bid process or procurement process that was entered into. It's fine, like, you don't think this other company is doing a good job, you want to scrap the contract, fire them for cause, go for it, but you should say why they're not performing and you put out another RFP. You go out and find other companies that now want to bid on this work. You don't just roll it into the contract with PSA. Why Because PSS didn't get the contract the first time, right, PSS didn't get the armed services contract? Did they come in second? And that's why you rolled it in because there are certain exceptions for when you are able to go without a request for proposal process to go out to you know, for solicitation of bids and and there's no indication that any of those exceptions applied here. Now maybe they did, I don't know. It's not been divulged until right now, it says. The report says at this preliminary stage, OSA State Auditor has not yet confirmed the specific reasons why the city canceled its contract with SSC, So we don't know to me, and that's why I said, this is what the central issue is. After reading through this report, for me, it just reeks of cronyism. And maybe that's completely wrong. I'm totally fine to say I was totally wrong. There's completely legitimate reasons why they got the contract without going into a solicitation for BID's process. Totally happy to acknowledge if they have a good explanation for why they did it this way, But we haven't heard that yet. Maybe we'll hear that at the press conference today. Oh no, sorry, they postponed the press conference till Friday. I guess they want to get all of their answers lined up so they can address all of the points. Let's hope they did a better job than Mayor vy Lyles did in her letter to the OSA. And look, if any if there's anything we can learn from recent experience with the mayor, you got to give her at least three tries before her statements are actually responsive. So I'm willing to give her some time and a couple of drafts. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Let me first jump over to the phone. Let's talk to Joe. Hello, Joe, welcome to the show. Hi, Pete, I think you picked up the wrong line. This is Jerry. Jerry, welcome to the show, it says Joe on the call screener box here. So I'm so sorry. That's not your fault. It's Bernie. He's fired. Now. Well, I didn't want to throw Bernie under the bus, so maybe I said it wrong. That's totally fine. Pardon me. I heard you say at one point where you were reading from the report the city council had to approve blah blah blah. But the question I have is does this run through the city manager. Yeah, all the all of the city departments are under the city manager's control. Right, so I have I've had a problem with him for a long time because the whole four hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year just chase me no end. And what upsets me even more is I don't even think we have any group or body or organization in Charlotte that has the gumption or the financial wherewithal to even like pursue this legally. Like I don't either. The Democrats pursue, pursue, pursue what legally well to try to. Find a way to get to hold people accountable for this. If this runs through the city manager's office, why why are who's going to have a hearing to pull him in and make him explain all of this because you know, the city, the city council is not going to do it right. Well, that's the answer though the city council. He works at the pleasure of the city council. So right, And that's what I'm saying that they're like Democrats, sue Republicans and too oblivion, whether they have legal standing, whether they have a legal leg to stand, they just they just sue. And what I'm saying is what upsets me is that for those of us in Republicans here in Charlotte that I'm not I don't even want like revenge or I just want accountability, Like if you've screwed up, Okay, take some responsibility. We don't have any way of forcing these people to be held accountable. Well, the ballot box is the way you hold them accountable. You turn up the public pressure on them. But this is what being in. The minority and how you always say, you know, how you always say the media, democrats and the media. I'm repeating myself. Yeah, like you know, we could ye the ballot. Box right, Well, but this is hang on, but hang on, Jerry, hang on. This this preliminary report from the Auditor's office is a good first step. It's identifying certain issues that need to be looked into and answered for. Because if this was a decision to split the contract up, right, did this come from the City Manager's office, did it come from this the CBI people, the advisory committee to the CBI, did it come from the city Council, Like, I don't know, but this this is the first step in that process. I think so you're saying, I want accountability, but we don't even know all of the facts yet. We don't even know who made the decision to split the contracts. We don't know why they then folded them back into one company. We don't know any of that yet, So we don't know who to hold accountable. If knowing about the murder of Arena Zaruska and then having the most horrific video evidence proof of what happened to her, and yet seventy percent of the people in the city were still felt moved to vote for in the primary for Mayor Lyles. I am sorry to say that I don't really hold out much hope. Right, well, seventy. The information would come out would change anything at the ballots off it may not. But also, just for context, seventy percent of Democrat primary voters in a tiny turnout primary, right, so there were I mean, the vast majority of people in Charlotte registered to vote did not vote. She won her Democrat primary, Yes, but the turnout, I forget what it was. Wasn't it single digits? It was very low. So do you think do you honestly think that anything that any of this the her murder and when and this news coming out will make a difference. I hope so lifeline piecee No, I mean I hope so so here but here, well, I mean, here's the thing. I think what you're engaging in is speculative. Right, You're you're you're already worried that nothing is going to change, But you've got to go through a process to get the information and the evidence in order to effectuate that change. Now if because like I don't know what's going to come out of the auditor's full audit, right, what if they can pin it on somebody, What if they can right, what if there was malfeasins or cronyism or illegal activity or something like that, Then yeah, I mean I feel like that probably that could move the needle, But I don't know that yet. So I'm just in fact gathering mode at this point because we don't know. So will we even have any of that before the election? Likely not. Well, I mean that's why you put this report out now, so we can start asking these questions now. That's what he said in the interview at noon. He wants the public to have this information now, and so now maybe media will start asking some of the questions and I'm trying to answer to raise some of these questions that I've got. They need to divulge all of this stuff. But do I have a lot of confidence that the city Council is going to act in a transparent manner? I do not know. I do not I do not believe that the Charlotte City Government and the City Council have any desire to be more transparent than they have been so far. So I can't throw your lifeline, but Jerry, it's good to hear from you. I appreciate the call. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecalanarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.