Shiprock Home contractor disputes DOJ statement

The contractor for the new Shiprock Home for Women and Children says he hasn't been suspended from doing business with the Navajo Housing Authority, as Deputy Attorney General Luralene Tapahe alleged in a written statement to the Navajo Times last week.

NHA Director Aneva Yazzie says that may have been true last week, when the DOJ statement was published, but Robert J. Nelson's company, RJN Construction, has been suspended as of Aug. 31, when Nelson failed to show up for a hearing on the matter.

A June 28 letter to Nelson from Yazzie "serves as notice ... that the Navajo Nation Housing Authority intends to suspend you and your firm from doing any business with the NHA for a period of two years."

However, the letter states Nelson has the opportunity to request an "informal hearing" to dispute the charges.

Nelson responded July 14 by registered mail that he "welcome(s) the opportunity to finally address the numerous accusations levied against RJN Construction Management, Inc. and myself over the past several months," and requested a hearing - although he wanted a more formal hearing with his attorney present.

He says he didn't hear anything from NHA until Aug. 24, when they set a hearing date for Aug. 31 (Yazzie said the registered letter went out Aug. 16).

"It's ironic that they set a hearing if I'm already debarred," Nelson said.

Nelson said he couldn't make the Aug. 31 date and sent a letter asking that it be changed to Sept. 2, but Yazzie said that's not good enough.

"It's not within the time frame," she said. "He had 30 days to respond to the June 28 letter. That's July 28."

Nelson pointed out NHA itself missed the deadline by not responding to his July 14 letter until more than a month later. In his Aug. 30 letter, he also questions whether the NHA has any authority to suspend him, citing federal regulations that give the funding agency (in this case the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) regulatory authority over the contractor.

Debarred by NHA

Yazzie said NHA's own policy gives it the authority to suspend contractors on the Navajo Nation.

"He's making references to federal policy," she said. "We have our own policy."

The letter from NHA states it intends to suspend Nelson because the two contracts he signed for the home violate NHA procurement policy by being cost-plus, sole-source contracts.

Nelson says the home is not an NHA project, and at any rate, NHA personnel who reviewed the contract made no objection to it when it was first signed.

It's basically the same contract Nelson used for three previous projects on the Navajo Nation, he said, adding, "I just changed the names and dates."

"I'm a contractor," Nelson said. "They want to debar me for signing a contract."

He also said he doesn't understand why this issue is coming up seven years after the contract for the shelter was signed in 2003.

"If they had a problem with the contract, why didn't they say something earlier?" he asked.

Tapahe wrote in her statement that if the home's board of directors insists on retaining RJN, NHA would withdraw $364,000 it has put toward the project.

But Nelson says that money was never part of the project. The home's CEO, Gloria Champion, verified that.

"The first I heard of it was when I read it in the newspaper," she said. "I thought, 'What? NHA is giving us $364,000?'"

In an e-mail to Champion and others, Leon Spencer of the Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land Office, which has contributed funds to the project, wrote that the money was offered by NHA to the Department of Justice and Navajo Nation Design and Engineering Services on the condition they not hire RJN.

"I take this to be a bribe offer to try to have Navajo Nation be selective in its procurement processes," Spencer wrote.

Yazzie said the money is left over from an Indian housing block grant that has already been appropriated and partially used to build the home, which is 80 percent complete.

On Aug. 19 Champion and her board members said they would stick with RJN even if it means foregoing the rest of the grant.

"This man has invested so much of his own time and money into this project, I can't imagine anybody else doing it," she said. "He has met with me and my staff countless times to make sure we get a building that fits our needs. If anyone says he's making money off of this, they'll have to deal with me."

Nelson: It's personal

Nelson, who has built more than 150 single homes on the Navajo Nation as well as chapter projects such as the Smith Lake Veterans Center and Nageezi multi-use building, says he believes NHA has a vendetta against him dating back to the Chester Carl administration, when Nelson refused to engage in what he considered shady financial dealings.

In a letter to Navajo Nation Attorney General Louis Denetsosie, New Mexico State Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, corroborated old friction between NHA and RJN, stating Carl once said in a public meeting that RJN Construction was "going down."

Carl, the former head of NHA, is now under federal indictment for accepting bribes from a contractor, and scheduled for trial Nov. 1.

"I thought I could get a fresh start under Aneva Yazzie, but I guess not," Nelson said.

Tapahe has resisted a state of emergency declaration signed by President Joe Shirley Jr. ordering the home's completion, and the home is in danger of losing a $1.45 million grant from the state of New Mexico if construction isn't completed by next summer.

Tapahe said in her statement that the contract could be rebid, awarded to another contractor and the construction started within three weeks, but Nelson disputes that.

"It will take 30 days just for the bidding process," he said. "That's if they can find a contractor willing to take over another company's project and all the liability that entails."

Nelson said that RJN, which also designed the project, owns all the architect's renderings and will not relinquish them to another firm.

"They think if they throw all this stuff at me I'll roll over and play dead," he said. "I've got news for them. It's not going to happen."

Nelson stated in his Aug. 30 letter that he will litigate if necessary to keep the contract.

The contractor said the project, for him, is personal. His late wife grew up in Tuba City and witnessed the extent of domestic violence on the reservation.

"Before she died, I promised my wife I'd finish this home," he said. "That's why I feel so strongly about it."

On that point, Nelson and Yazzie agree.

"We do want to see the project continue," Yazzie said. "That's important to us."

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