1/30/2020 Gmail - Notice to Ben Keller and True Homestead Eric McDonough Notice to Ben Keller and True Homestead Eric McDonough Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 11:49 AM To: Steve Losner , Sean Fletcher , Jenifer Bailey , Larry Roth , Stephen Shelley , Patricia Fairclough , Frankel@mydelraybeach.com, Bathurst@mydelraybeach.com, Boylston@mydelraybeach.com, Petrolia@mydelraybeach.com, Johnson@mydelraybeach.com Cc: ggretsas@gmail.com, agreenstein004@hotmail.com Dear Homestead and Delray Beach Councils, My name is Dr. James Eric McDonough. I am the founder of the Facebook page True Homestead. We recently published an article based on public records we uncovered that describe what appears to be a prima facie case of bid splitting. After my journalist Ben Keller wrote an article for our website, which was then posted to True Homestead, George Gretsas decided he would threaten us in retaliation for the exercise of our First Amendment rights to speech, press, and/or petition. It should not need to be said that I do not take threats towards my employees or myself lightly. Therefore, I must ask which City is Gretsas working for as he threatens us? I need to know which municipality is responsible for these actions for future articles and/or law suits. If you could let me know if Gretsas is acting under color of law for your City, I would greatly appreciate it. Additionally, while I feel I have addressed the issues raised (most of them being either an honest mistakes later corrected, frivolous or based on Gretsas' overwhelming poor reading comprehension) by Mr. Gretsas on True Homestead, I feel that Mr. Gretsas directly emailing me also needs to be addressed. I do not want any contact from Mr. Gretsas in any form. I consider it harassment, and any future direct contact will be reported to the proper authorities as unlawful stalking activity. Furthermore, it is noted that any such claims made against my employees or myself will be treated as a SLAPP under FS. 768.295, while also being protected under the precedent established in NY Times v. Sullivan. If Mr. Gretsas feels he must contact me, please advise him to make all such correspondence through my attorney Alan Greenstein who can be contacted at (305) 772-7083, and is copied to this email. I thank you for your time and consideration in this important matter and eagerly await both information as to which city supports this retaliation and a public apology from Mr. Gretsas to my employee Mr. Keller. Regards, Dr. James Eric McDonough ---------- Forwarded message --------From: Ggretsas@gmail.com Date: Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 9:13 PM Subject: Notice to Ben Keller and True Homestead To: Dear Mr. Keller and True Homestead, The purpose of this communication is to put you on notice that you have published defamatory material on your blog and Facebook page. I am hoping that by providing you with the facts that you will address this issue and apologize for making a mistake. If the material remains on your blog, then I can only assume that your publication of false information is intentional and done with malice. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=0e34f33ef3&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-a%3Ar2583244380680249556&dsqt=1&simpl=msg-a%3Ar258… 1/3 1/30/2020 Gmail - Notice to Ben Keller and True Homestead To be very clear, your claims that the City of Homestead did something improper to benefit Delray Beach’s Fire Chief Neal de Jesus are false. Your allegations that Chief de Jesus and/or anyone at the City of Homestead who processed his contract committed felonies are false, reckless, outrageous, and clearly defamatory. Below are the facts with attached documentation that prove that your blog post is false and now that you have it in your possession, should this material remain on your blog, you will bear the liability for knowingly publishing false information, as will anyone else involved with the publication including the blog, website, and Facebook posters affiliated with the posting. Facts The City of Homestead contacted Chief de Jesus in 2014 for assistance with the Miami Dade County Fire review and permitting process for its Temporary Police Station project. (Exhibit 1) One of the City’s attorneys in Homestead referred Chief de Jesus to the City staff member who was handling the project. The recommendation did not come from me as I did not know Chief de Jesus and I didn’t handle any of the paperwork nor did I sign any of the contracts. Nor did I manage his contract nor supervise his work nor did I meet with him nor did I socialize with him. Anything involving his contract was handled by City staff which was typical for construction projects. According to the staff who worked directly with Chief de Jesus, he was extremely helpful and the City was able to secure the necessary approvals for the Temporary Police Station project. The City of Homestead was working on numerous large construction projects during my time there. As per Florida Statute 255.20, government projects in excess of $300,000 are treated as separate projects for the purposes of procurement processes. (Exhibit 2). As such, each of the projects mentioned in your post are defined as separate projects and followed all City and State procurement rules and all construction materials and services revolved around the specific project. As you will see from the attachments (Exhibit 3), separate contracts were issued to Diversified Group Consulting for each of the large projects that the City of Homestead was working on. Each of these contracts were authorized in compliance with Homestead’s Procurement Code and vetted by various City departments and the City Attorney’s office. (Exhibit 4). If you had looked at the contract summary forms, you would have noticed the approval signatures of a number of City employees from the different City departments (including the Department of Public Works, Risk Management, Procurement and Contract) that were responsible for reviewing the contracts and ensuring that all City laws and procedures were followed. Section 2-411.1(2) of the Homestead code exempts professional services from competitive bidding, which gives the Homestead staff the necessary flexibility to select consultants for specialized services (Exhibit 5). Chief de Jesus was recruited by City staff based on his expertise and reputation, proposals were solicited from Chief de Jesus by City staff, and contracts were negotiated and authorized by City staff, all in compliance with Homestead’s code. Your allegation that the contracts were split in order to avoid bidding is preposterous since competitive bidding wouldn’t be required whether the contract was for $25,000 or $100,000 since professional services per the Homestead City Code are exempt from competitive bidding. I will assume that you were not aware of this and that is the reason that you made the false statements but now you know the truth. In addition, none of the contracts exceeded $25,000, therefore each one of them complied with Section 2-411(a) of the procurement code and were not required to be brought before by the Homestead City Council. (Exhibit 6). The $25,000 City Manager cap provision that you recklessly cite in your post applies to each specific project, not per vendor as you falsely assert. In addition, at the time that staff was processing these contracts, they cleared each of them with the City Attorney. All of the contracts had not to exceed amounts in them due to the hourly nature of the work. Now that you have this information, if your post continues to claim that the City of Homestead “spent” $99,996 on Chief de Jesus’s contracts, you will have a very difficult time explaining to a judge and jury why you left that on your blog knowing it was false. The City was only billed $50,046 by Chief de Jesus and the City only paid $50,046 over the course of 3 fiscal years. The value of the projects below combined exceeded $63 million for which the City was billed and paid $50,046 for Chief de Jesus‘s services, which is .08% of all the projects below combined. Temporary Police Station Project Total Value of Contract $24,999 New Police Station Project Total Value of Contract $24,999 Seminole Theatre Project Total Value of Contract $24,999 New City Hall Project Total Value of Contract $24,999 Losner Park Project Total Value of Contract $7,800 In FY2014, a total of $10,425 was paid to Chief de Jesus‘s company. In FY 2015, a total of $31,709 was paid to Chief de Jesus‘s company. In FY 2016, a total of $7,912 was paid to Chief de Jesus‘s company. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=0e34f33ef3&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-a%3Ar2583244380680249556&dsqt=1&simpl=msg-a%3Ar258… 2/3 1/30/2020 Gmail - Notice to Ben Keller and True Homestead False allegations about bid splitting indicate either a lack of understanding of Homestead’s procurement code or defamation of a public official as competitive bids are not required under Homestead’s code for professional services. False allegations about violations of the City Manager’s spending thresholds indicate either a lack of understanding of Homestead’s procurement code and State procurement laws or defamation of a public official as each of the contracts were authorized per project and did not exceed $25,000 each. Each of the contracts were for separate projects at separate locations. Your statement that Homestead officials “appear to be utilizing their government positions to fund De Jesus’ fire consulting firm for personal financial gain” is defamatory. No one involved in the processing of Chief de Jesus’s contracts personally benefitted from them and Chief de Jesus didn’t even work in Delray Beach when he was first hired. Additionally, your statement that I “have a business” with Homestead’s current City Manager is false. I do not have a business with her. Your statement that “Gretsas was selected for the Delray manager position on October 10, 2019, after De Jesus, the then-interim city manager, persuaded the Delray City Council to hire him” is false. Your statement that Chief de Jesus “supplied a short list of names to the recruiter in Delray’s search for a manager that appears to have been rigged from the start” is false. Your statement that “the City of Homestead has spent well over a million dollars in contracts falling just below the $25,000 threshold, circumventing mandated review and competitive bidding processes“ is false. And finally, whoever you are, (and I say that because I have never heard of you before but I have heard of the name of the website that you posted on), please be aware that the City of Homestead has in its possession boxes and boxes and boxes of material involving numerous lawsuits filed against the City of Homestead by an individual affiliated with the website that you have posted on that have been dismissed by the courts. A number of others are still pending. I can promise you that all of the material in those boxes will be entered as evidence in a court proceeding to establish malicious intent for the publication of false information on the website in the event that your defamatory conduct ends up in court. I certainly would prefer not to spend any more time on this matter so please remove the false material from your post. An apology from you to all of the dedicated and honest public servants that you have defamed by you would also be appropriate under the circumstances. Now that you have the facts, please govern yourself accordingly. Sincerely, George Gretsas Scan.pdf 8642K https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=0e34f33ef3&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-a%3Ar2583244380680249556&dsqt=1&simpl=msg-a%3Ar258… 3/3