Sunday, September 21, 2003
A state senator says he going to look into ways to stop purchasing scams from happening again.
By PEGGY SINKOVICHand STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Purchasing scams such as the one in Trumbull County could crop up elsewhere unless changes are made in the way janitorial companies deal with public contracts, officials say.
Many cleaning supply companies will submit brochures with no prices and ask an employee of the potential client to call a sales representative. This could cause problems, Prosecutor Dennis Waktins said.
"This needs to be looked at, and I think it is a statewide issue," Watkins said.
Barry Jacobson, the former mayor of Lyndhurst and an owner of Envirochemical Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday to one charge each of bribery and complicity to theft in office, both third-degree felonies, in a continuing investigation into Trumbull County purchasing practices.
Paperwork submitted to the court includes photocopies of two checks totaling $17,000 that Jacobson said he wrote to Tony Delmont's wife, Karen, as a bribe to secure county business. Delmont is the maintenance department director and was in charge of ordering supplies.
The checks were deposited into an account for an ITAM that Delmont owned.
Legislative attention
Jacobson said in a sworn statement that he paid "tens of thousands of dollars" in bribes from 1999 to 2002.
In an interview with The Vindicator in May, Jacobson declined to provide a company catalog and said prices were negotiated with customers.
"We received a catalog recently from another company and there were no prices, but it stated to call a salesperson," Watkins said.
"This is something that may need legislative attention" because of the potential for future abuse, Watkins said.
The Associated Press reported Friday that authorities in Georgia and Florida arrested a chemical company's top executives and charged them with bribing state and local government workers to buy millions of dollars worth of its products.
Stone Cold Chemicals sells cleaning materials and pesticides to government agencies around the country, the AP reported.
Watkins said he has discussed the matter with state officials and state Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty.
"I want to look into it and I plan to," Dann said Friday. "I want to find a way to prevent this from happening again."