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Published: 1/1/2012 - Updated: 4 months ago

Contractor got Toledo work despite criminal past

City work funded by federal program

BY TONY COOK AND CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

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The FedEx delivery at 1206 Waverly Ave. was no ordinary one.

The central Toledo home was vacant. The FedEx deliveryman was an undercover police detective.

And the oversized box, its seams taped tightly, contained 55 pounds of marijuana shipped from Arizona.

It was March 30, 2009, and the house was undergoing renovations as part of a federally funded program administered by the city’s Department of Neighborhoods.

The department awarded nearly $50,000 for the project to a nonprofit organization called Friendship New Vision, which in turn hired a general contractor to carry out and supervise the rehab work.

Project documents and interviews with former workers point to Gregory M. Harris — who has a long criminal history — as the person in charge of the renovations.

But on this particular morning, the work had little to do with home improvements, according to police reports.

At 11:24 a.m., a few minutes after the package drop-off, a black pickup truck registered to Harris’ company pulled into the driveway of the house.

Harris’ daughter Grecheri Harris, a vice president of his company, stepped out of the vehicle.

She loaded the box of marijuana into the bed of the truck, helped by her cousin, Shemuel Michael, who had been waiting inside the house. Minutes later they were stopped by the Toledo Police Department’s drug task force, which had watched the entire transaction.

The pair were later convicted of drug-related charges, but a Blade investigation shows Harris and his company continued to receive housing rehab work funded by the federal government through the city’s neighborhoods department, despite the proven criminal activity of members of his family — one of whom was an employee at the Waverly Avenue project.

The mayor’s office and neighborhoods department officials refused to answer questions about Harris and his involvement in taxpayer-funded housing projects, citing an ongoing internal city investigation into the department.

It has been under scrutiny since late November, when a Blade investigation highlighted allegations of bid rigging, favoritism, and poor supervision. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also have sent investigators to probe the department, according to several sources.

Friendship New Vision, which acted as the developer for the projects involving Harris, also refused to answer questions. The nonprofit community development organization was founded in 2004 by the Rev. Duane C. Tisdale, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in South Toledo.

Harris and his family members did not return numerous calls seeking comment. But a post on the Facebook page of Grecheri Harris, 28, confirms that she has been the vice president of Harris Builders since 2008. “I work side by side with My Bro Greg Jr., running my fathers construction company!” her Facebook profile says. “Its a great job if you can deal with your parents yelling at you like your still a kid! I don’t mind it!”

Crime and business

Gregory Harris is a shadowy figure who has mixed crime and family business in the past.

In the 1980s, Harris and his wife, Maggie, were among eight area residents convicted of mail fraud in connection with an insurance scheme. By the early 1990s, federal authorities described Harris as one of Toledo’s largest drug dealers. He and his sister Deborah, who is Shemuel Michael’s mother, were among eight people convicted in a federal narcotics case. At the time, Deborah Harris was a city fire dispatcher. Authorities said Gregory Harris and his sister laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money through Deborah Harris’ property-management company.

During sentencing in that case, Gregory Harris portrayed himself as a central-city Robin Hood who planned to use his drug profits to fix up central-city housing. He was sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary, served less than seven, and finished his supervised release in May, 2005. One month later he incorporated a company, GMH Investments, which also does business as Harris Builders.

Within three years, Harris became involved in federally funded rehab projects overseen by the city’s neighborhoods department.

City and federal regulations allow people with criminal backgrounds to receive such work if criminal charges are not pending.

Inspections of city documents and interviews with subcontractors indicate that Harris was involved in at least seven rehab projects. Four of those began after the drug bust at Waverly Avenue.

Officially, Harris Builders was the general contractor on only one project: a $66,427 rehab of a house at 741 Moran Ave. in the Scott Park area. The city funded most of the work through federal HOME funds to Friendship New Vision.

But in at least six other cases, Harris appears to have acted as a contractor, even though city documents indicate that other companies were hired. Those companies — Four Seasons Ltd., Builder Tech Wholesale, and J&S — appear on city documents to share representatives with each other and with Harris Builders. Calls to those companies were not returned.

Additionally, two subcontractors who worked on the projects confirmed that Gregory Harris hired them and supervised their work.

Nearl Venn of V&K Electric, the electrician on all seven projects, said he hadn’t heard of most of the other companies or their owners until The Blade showed him city records.

Likewise, Jack Ankenbrandt of Performance Plumbing, who worked on four of the projects, said that in each case Harris paid him and acted as the general contractor.

Both subcontractors said Grecheri Harris often handled Harris Builders’ payments to subcontractors.

“The daughter is pretty much running the books over there,” Mr. Ankenbrandt said.

Grecheri Harris usually paid him in cash, Mr. Venn said. But in one case, she paid with a check from Harris Builders. It bounced, he said.

The electrician maintains that Harris still owes him about $24,000. Most of that work was done after the drug bust, which Mr. Venn said he knew nothing about.

Millions in play

Every year, the city’s neighborhoods department distributes millions of dollars in federal grant money, making it one of the most important spigots of construction money in northwest Ohio. Last year alone, the city spent more than $27 million in federal housing and development funds.

Friendship New Vision is one of the biggest beneficiaries of that money, having received at least $1.4 million to buy blighted or foreclosed houses, hire a general contractor to renovate them, and then sell them to low or moderate-income people.

Although the agency hires the general contractor, the city’s neighborhoods department reviews the bids and monitors the rehab work.

The city provided The Blade with files on many rehab projects, but they were often incomplete.

For the seven projects with which Harris was allegedly involved, none of the files contained contracts showing which contractor received the work, even though the city requires developers such as Friendship New Vision to submit those documents for review.

The Blade subsequently requested copies of the contracts from the city but did not receive a reply.

What the files do show is that Harris Builders and many of the companies listed on bid documents, inspection records, and payment requests, are intertwined.

For example:

An inspection report for a project at 2313 Portsmouth Ave. lists “Harris” as the contractor, even though other documents indicate Builder Tech received the contract.

A fax from a city rehab technician about how to correctly tear off a roof at 2033 Talbot St. is addressed to Harris Builders, but other documents show Builder Tech as the contractor.

On a change order for a project at 120 Clifton, Keith Hill of Builder Tech signs on behalf of J&S.

One company that supposedly received two of the contracts shares an address and a fax machine with Harris Builders. That firm, Four Seasons Ltd., is registered in Nevada.

Also in those two cases, Harris Builders is listed as the general contractor on payment voucher requests submitted to the city for Four Seasons projects. Those voucher requests, for $9,107 and $4,869, are signed by Gregory M. Harris and his partner Nick Batt, respectively.

While this intermingling of names appears to obscure Harris’ actual involvement in the projects, it raises another issue.

City documents show the companies Harris Builders, Four Seasons, J&S, and Builders Tech frequently bid against each other. If Harris was an owner or partner in the companies, his involvement could be considered collusion. The city bans collusion to prevent price fixing and bid rigging. In fact, contractors are required to submit a signed non-collusion statement with their bids. They did so in six of the seven cases — the exception being the project at 1206 Waverly.

Discrepancies

Batt, whose name appears on project documents for Harris Builders and Four Seasons, was convicted of grand theft and theft in office for stealing money from the cities of Oregon and Holland in the 1990s while serving as their chief attorney.

In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court disbarred him, citing that crime and other unethical conduct that included deceiving the Ohio Department of Liquor Control and using offensive and abusive language before the Ohio Hazardous Waste Facility Board.

He later filed for personal bankruptcy, listing debts of more than half a million dollars.

Batt is now a registered agent with Harris’ company, GMH Investments. He is also a partner with Harris’ son in a new firm called GM Harris Builders.

In an interview with The Blade, Batt said he often acts as the licensed contractor for Harris’ company because Harris himself does not have a contractor’s license.

He initially denied involvement in Four Seasons, which he said is owned by a relative of Harris named Michael Jerry. He said he couldn’t remember signing documents on behalf of the company. He also denied working on the Waverly Avenue project, officially contracted to Four Seasons, even though city records show he pulled the building permit.

“I’m not saying I didn’t,” he said. “If that’s what it shows, that’s what it shows.”

The Blade then provided Batt with copies of city documents he supposedly signed for Four Seasons. He acknowledged signing one of the documents related to Waverly Avenue but said the other signatures were not his. One of those documents — a payment request for $36,552 — was also signed by city officials. Another was notarized.

‘On the fringe’

Harris and Batt’s partnership did sound alarm bells with at least one city official. In August, 2009, the city’s building commissioner, Chris Zervos, froze any additional contracts to Harris Builders. He said Batt was violating the city’s municipal code by allowing Harris to use his license, even though Batt had no ownership stake in Harris’ company.

In an interview with The Blade, Mr. Zervos emphasized he had no problem with former felons taking up a trade. In fact, his department helped create a journeyman program for plumbers at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio. “We think that’s wonderful,” he said.

But Batt and Harris were “doing their best to confuse the department of neighborhoods,” he said. “Nick Batt is one of those people who operates on the fringe. So is Harris.”

Eventually, in January 2010, Batt and Greg Harris, Jr., who is Harris’ son, hammered out a formal written agreement demonstrating that Batt had an ownership position. The city’s law department worked with the pair to create the agreement, Batt and Mr. Zervos said.

In the meantime, however, the elder Harris continued to receive work through two other companies — Builder Tech and J&S — according to Mr. Zervos and subcontractors who worked those projects.

“Harris was doing a similar thing with them as he was with Nick Batt,” Mr. Zervos said.

Unanswered queries

The Blade contacted Friendship New Vision to clarify Harris’ role in its projects. The organization would not agree to an interview and did not answer a list of emailed questions.

But Friendship New Vision knew about the drug activity that occurred at Waverly Avenue under Harris’ watch, according to Frank Spryszak, the assistant Lucas County prosecutor who handled the case.

He contacted Friendship New Vision’s office about the narcotics sting, he said. Also, court documents show the organization’s founder, Pastor Tisdale, received subpoenas to appear in court to testify about the property’s ownership. In the end, he didn’t testify because Grecheri Harris pleaded no contest, was convicted of a lesser charge of possession of marijuana, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years of probation.

Pastor Tisdale did not return messages left at the church and with his assistant.

Gregory Harris’ 26-year-old son of the same name, who also worked for Harris Builders, did community service at Pastor Tisdale’s church after a 2005 conviction for attempted possession of crack cocaine, court records show. The younger Harris was found in possession of wrapped bags of crack cocaine and marijuana that were prepared for shipment, according to police reports. He was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service under a plea agreement.

The city also was aware of problems involving Harris, according to city records.

No comment

Mr. Venn, the electrician who says Harris owes him money, took his complaints to the city’s neighborhoods department in 2010 and was called to a meeting with city Housing Manager Jody Prude, Friendship New Vision Housing consultant Tina Butts, and Gregory Harris.

According to Mr. Venn, Ms. Prude and Ms. Butts pushed him to sign a lien waiver, relinquishing his right to make any claims for payment against Harris.

They told him it was necessary so that funds could be released to Harris, who would then pay him, the electrician said.

“Tina said she grew up with Greg. She said he was not a crooked guy,” Mr. Venn recalled. “At the time, I was just basing my decision on what she was saying.”

When he still didn’t get paid, he took his complaint in September, 2011, to the city board that regulates home improvement contractors. The board dismissed it, citing the lien waiver.

Another problem with Harris Builders surfaced in April, 2009, when the city’s tax commissioner, Clarence Coleman, sent a memo to then-Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s assistant chief operating officer, Theresa Gabriel, who is now retired, notifying her that Harris Builders was not tax compliant.

Mayor Mike Bell’s spokesman, Jen Sorgenfrei, said the city’s ongoing internal investigation into the neighborhoods department prevented her from answering questions about Harris.

“While we continue to gather information we’ll hold comment until we can give an accurate and thorough picture,” she said.

The Blade tried to reach Ms. Prude, Housing Commissioner Mike Badik, and neighborhoods department Director Kattie Bond, but all three are on paid administrative leave pending the city’s probe and did not return phone calls.

Ms. Sorgenfrei also pointed out that many of the projects involving Harris and his company were approved under the administration of Mr. Finkbeiner, who held office until January, 2010.

Mr. Finkbeiner said he had never heard of Gregory Harris or Harris Builders and insisted the neighborhoods department was well managed under his tenure.

“I’m not aware of any misdoings or misdeeds in the Department of Neighborhoods, period,” Mr. Finkbeiner said. “As far as I’m concerned, while I was mayor of the city of Toledo, the Department of Neighborhoods had a system of checks and balances in place that would have made it very difficult for something illegal to have happened.”

Contact Tony Cook at: acook@theblade.com or 419-724-6065.

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