By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
A little-noticed lawsuit filed by a minority-owned design and engineering firm that claims it’s been defrauded by AECOM, manager of the Broward School Board’s long-troubled $800-million capital improvement bond program, is headed toward trial next summer.
Florida International Consulting Engineers Design (FICE Design) is suing the School Board, AECOM Technical Services and Kathleen Langan, AECOM’s director for the Broward School Board’s SMART bond program from August 2020, when AECOM was hired, until March 2024. Today, Langan is an AECOM senior vice president based in Potomac, MD, according to her LinkedIn page.
Broward voters approved the general obligation bond issue in a 2014 referendum. The School Board inked multiple contracts with Delray Beach’s FICE Design to provide design and construction administration services at eight schools: Margate’s Atlantic West Elementary, Attucks Middle in Hollywood, Charles Drew Elementary in Pompano Beach, Lauderhill 6-12, Pasadena Lakes Elementary in Pembroke Pines, Sunrise Middle, Westchester Elementary in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale’s Lloyd Estates Elementary.
The company, whose president is identified on its website as Jim Burphy, contends it is owed more than $1 million for unpaid mechanical, electrical and plumbing renovation work at those schools, much of it for requested additional services outside the scope of its various contracts with the School Board. The money has gone unpaid for years – and in one case for as long as six years, says the 82-page complaint filed by attorney Ari Sweetbaum of the Coral Gables law firm Daniels-Rodriguez-Berkeley-Daniels-Cruz.
“AECOM has controlled each of the projects at issue, so much so that it controls the economic life or death of FICE Design,” the complaint, filed in October 2023 and amended in June, says.
AECOM’s answer was filed in July by Fort Lauderdale attorney Joseph Goldstein of Shutts & Bowen. The Dallas, TX-based infrastructure consulting giant denied any wrongdoing and asserted several defenses.
AECOM: FICE DESIGN HAS ‘UNCLEAN HANDS’
“AECOM affirmatively alleges that Plaintiff’s claims are barred in part or in whole by Plaintiff’s unclean hands. Sneaky and deceitful conduct is often equated with unclean hands,” the answer says. “From the exhibits it has submitted, it is evident that Plaintiff’s attempt to hold AECOM accountable for actions it is well aware AECOM had no hands in was committed in bad faith.”
The Broward School Board, represented by Plantation attorney Jon Kendrick, earlier this year asked Broward Circuit Judge David Haimes to dismiss all the claims against it because of its sovereign immunity under state law. Haimes has not yet ruled on that request.
Attorney Edward Lohrer of Fort Lauderdale’s Becker & Poliakoff filed a notice of appearance on behalf of the School Board in July.
FICE Design lays the blame for those delays in payment directly on Langan, who it contends repeatedly failed to present FICE’s billing paperwork to the School Board for payment despite repeated promises to do so, the complaint alleges.
“Ms. Langan wants to present herself as a hero to the SBBC [School Board of Broward County] by way of saving it money, but in reality, she and AECOM are just ensuring that the SBBC is in material breach of the subject contracts,” the lawsuit says. Because of Langan’s actions, “FICE Design has essentially not just financed, but also paid for the renovation design work on its projects” and that’s had “the obvious effect of crushing FICE Design financially.”
Judge Haimes dismissed Langan’s motion to dismiss the complaint in September. She later filed an answer in which she denied any wrongdoing but also asserted a number of affirmative defenses. That includes an assertion that the complaint is seriously flawed “because one or more of the documents the Plaintiff relies on in its Amended Complaint directly conflicts with the allegations in the Amended Complaint.”
‘A TOTAL FRAUD’
The 40-count complaint accuses the School Board of breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation, AECOM of negligence and AECOM and Langan of forgery.
“AECOM and Kathleen Langan, whether individually or at her direction, have doctored and forged the signature of FICE Design’s principal, James Khalil, P.E., without his knowledge and authorization,” the complaint says. The alleged forgery involves records falsified by Langan to make it appear that contractor’s change orders for work at two schools – seeking from the School Board a time extension and increased construction money – were the result of FICE Design’s “error” or “omission.”
“An innocent reader would be led to believe that the contractor originally believed the change order was due to FICE Design’s omission and that FICE Design’s principal, James Khalil, P.E., signed off on it. It’s a total fraud,” the complaint says.
“This forgery has damaged FICE Design in multiple ways. The forgery creates the false perception that FICE Design has acknowledged its design error and is therefore subject to damages in the form of a back charge. Further, the fraud is being used as a basis to not pay FICE on its substantial outstanding balance,” the complaint says.
The complaint – supported by more than 1,500 pages of exhibits – details FICE Design’s specific claims. For example, at the time of the complaint, FICE Design said it was owed $132,492 for additional work, such as roofing design changes, it did at Atlantic West Elementary at AECOM’s request.
When AECOM was hired in 2020 to replace Heery International as the School Board’s program manager, the complaint says AECOM called FICE Design to more than 20 meetings “to renegotiate” already agreed upon extra work. “Close to three years of nonsense meetings transpired.”
The complaint cites nearly a dozen unpaid work requests dating to 2019. “Although repeated representations have been made that these ASRs [additional service requests] would be submitted to the SBBC for approval to initiate payment, AECOM has not taken any action to get these already approved ASRs paid.”
The trial is scheduled to begin between Aug. 4 and 22.
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