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Aire Filter Products, Arizona
Federal agents arrested nine Mexican
nationals Tuesday and accused them of working illegally at a Mesa plant
that manufactures military helicopters. The workers, whose names
were not released, were contract employees of Aramark and Aire Filter
Products, subcontractors at the Boeing plant. (The Arizona
Republic, September 1, 2004
Aramark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 24, 2008 Naperville Sun
A company hoping to win another contract at the DuPage County Jail has donated
thousands of dollars to elected county officials. Aramark, a Philadelphia-based
company that has provided the jail's food service for 21 years, has poured
$14,770 into campaign coffers of State's Attorney Joe Birkett, Sheriff John
Zaruba, County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom and others since 1999, according
to the Illinois State Board of Elections. County Board members Brien Sheahan,
Debra Olson and Mike McMahon have received several hundred dollars each. In a
bidding process fraught with ambiguity and conflict, Aramark has been fighting
for more than a year to continue serving food to jail inmates. When the bid was
redone for the third time in December, the company submitted a $949,616 bid that
was $6,000 lower than that of its competitor, Minnesota-based A'viands. But
after the state's attorney's office said Aramark submitted a menu that didn't
meet requirements, officials recommended the bid be awarded to A'viands.
Aramark's menu diverged slightly by offering breaded fish patties rather than
the specified fish fillets and 12-ounce instead of 8-ounce oatmeal servings,
Assistant State's Attorney Tom Downing said. Potential savings -- However,
County Board members are giving Aramark another shot at the contract, opting for
a fourth bid instead of awarding the contract to A'viands. They say the county
can save thousands of dollars by changing bidding requirements. Instead of
stipulating a specific menu, board members want to mandate only certain
nutritional requirements, as was done during the second round of bidding.
Allowing bidders to submit their own menu resulted in a bid from Aramark that
was $120,000 less than when it followed a menu mandated by the county. That cost
difference is enough to justify yet another bid, said Sheahan, calling the whole
process "ridiculous." "We're basically having a $120,000 argument over whether
milk and oatmeal will fit on a tray, and I think we owe it to taxpayers to make
sure we are getting the best value for their money," he said. "We're not
interested in spending extra every year so people at the County Jail can eat
fish fillets instead of fish sticks." Nothing to hide -- Sheahan said a $500
contribution from Aramark to his primary campaign had nothing to do with his
support for a fourth bid. "I really don't care whether Aramark gets it or not,"
he said. "I want the lowest bid to get it. I think the interest of the committee
is just to get the best value for taxpayers." Saying she believes Aramark has
submitted responsible bids, Olson, of Wheaton, said she supports a fourth bid to
potentially save the $120,000. "This is about saving taxpayers money," said
Olson, who noted that she has supported extending the temporary contracts to
A'viands. "Any implications that my motivations are other than in the best
interests of taxpayers is insulting." Birkett, who has received $3,600 from
Aramark, said the campaign contributions played no role in the opinion rendered
by his office, which ruled Aramark's bid noncompliant. "If I'm asked for opinion
or legal guidance, I give it, free from any political support I've received,"
Birkett said. The recipient of $4,500 from Aramark, Schillerstrom sided with the
state's attorney, saying Aramark failed to meet the menu requirements. "I
believe A'viands is the lowest responsible bidder," he said. "I think it's clear
that Aramark did not comply with the bid." Zaruba did not return a phone call
seeking comment. Nutrition requirements -- Disputes about nutrition requirements
have plagued the bidding process, which began last March. After the county
declared A'viands the winner of the first bid, Aramark filed a lawsuit claiming
its submitted menus were deficient. Schillerstrom upheld the protest, finding
that both companies failed to meet requirements and declared a second round of
bidding. For the second bid, the county outlined more specific nutrition
standards. But both companies fell short, saying it was impossible to meet
sodium requirements. In the third bid, the county hired a nutritionist to create
a specific menu. While A'viands said the menu gave clear and specific
requirements, Aramark disagreed. "It was crystal clear to us that we were to
submit a menu that exactly met those requirements, and that's what we did," said
Perry Rynders, CEO of A'viands. Rynders expressed "significant disappointment"
at the county's decision to hold another bid, saying no one had disputed that
A'viands did meet requirements. Temporary contract -- To keep prison inmates
fed, the county has issued a string of temporary contracts to A'viands since
July. But it's difficult to attract and hire good workers at the jail while the
contract remains in limbo, Rynders said. "It's very difficult for us to find
staff to work on a temporary basis," he said. "Each time this comes up, they're
wondering if their job is on the line. I don't think the County Board
understands how difficult this is on us." Aramark spokesman Tim Elliot said the
county should return to a nutrition-based bid instead of one based on a menu.
That is standard procedure for most of the 700 correctional facilities the
company services worldwide, he said. Aramark is a private company that is the
19th-largest employer on the Fortune 500, employing 240,000 workers in 19
countries. Hospitals, eldercare centers, schools, corporations and sports
stadiums are among the company's clients. Board member Jim Healy of Naperville
agreed with Aramark that the county's "ambiguous" menu should be thrown out in
favor of nutritional requirements. "We don't care what you serve as long as you
meet the nutritional standards," he said. The county should have stuck with very
basic nutritional requirements as it had done until last year, said board member
Jim Zay. "This is insane ... the more people we get involved, the worse it
gets," Zay said. "This has been costing us hundreds of thousands more because
we've been screwing around with it."
November 7, 2007 Financial Times
Madison Dearborn is preparing a sale of Valitas, a company that provides medical
care to prison populations, three sources told mergermarket. An auction for the
company will probably kick off early next year, and the company is working on
putting together a staple financing package at the moment, according to one of
the sources. UBS has been mandated to run the process, the second source said.
Valitas’ EBITDA is around USD 50m, according to an industry banker. The
company’s main subsidiary, Correctional Medical Services, reached USD 750m in
revenues in 2007, according to its website. The company is likely to draw
interest from private equity buyers only, as there are no natural strategic
buyers for the asset, the banker added. Valitas could draw interest from Maximus,
a listed provider of healthcare services to the US government, a second industry
banker said. Madison Dearborn backed a management buyout of the Missouri-based
company in 1997 from Aramark, the company that provides food service and
uniforms to institutions, according to news reports. Under Aramark the division
was called Spectrum Healthcare, and included a business that provided contract
healthcare services to the US military. That business, however, was sold to Team
Health, another Madison Dearborn portfolio holding, in 2002. Team Health itself
was sold to the Blackstone Group, in 2005. The company is one of the oldest
healthcare investments in Madison Dearborn’s portfolio, the industry banker
said. A company spokesperson declined comment, and a Madison Dearborn official
did not return calls.
March 18, 2007 The Oregonian
Federal court statistics show that plaintiffs filed nearly 4,200 cases under
the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs pay practices, in fiscal
2006, which ended Sept. 30. That's up from 4,040 cases in fiscal 2005 and 2,751
in 2003. In Portland this month, Richard Bird filed a class-action lawsuit
against his ex-employer, Aramark Correctional Services Inc. He alleges the
nationwide prison-service provider broke Oregon laws by failing to properly pay
him and co-workers when they worked overtime, took rest periods and put in for
their final paychecks. An Aramark spokeswoman said Friday that the company does
not comment on pending litigation. Those claims surfaced in a state court --
Multnomah County Circuit Court, specifically. And although Oregon doesn't track
civil cases by cause, attorneys say wage-and-hour claims are numerous in state
venues. Why the flood of cases? It's easy for employers to make a mistake and
relatively easy for employees to make them pay for it, said Nancy Cooper, an
attorney with Bullivant Houser Bailey in Portland. Wage-and-hour rules are
complicated and vary across state lines, making national firms such as
Philadelphia-based Aramark vulnerable. Oregon, for instance, requires employers
to provide paid 10-minute breaks, Cooper said. Arizona does not.
February 3, 2007 AP
The first time Joseph Neubauer took Aramark Corp. private in 1984, the deal was
worth $889 million. When he and other managers led a leveraged buyout of the
nation's largest food services company a second time, the price tag zoomed to
$6.24 billion. And the biggest winner among shareholders at Aramark, which
Friday completed its first week as a newly private company? Neubauer and his
family, whose holdings soared in value to almost $1 billion. That puts Neubauer,
65, who came to the United States from Israel alone at the age of 14 and said he
learned English from John Wayne movies, near the top of the list of
beneficiaries from a wave of leveraged buyouts that has swept corporate America
in the past year.
August 14, 2006 In These Times
While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its
rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting. What’s
worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing prisons;
nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by corporations.
Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better with chronic
overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look suggests a
different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based Institute on Money
in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, private
prison companies, directors, executives and lobbyists gave $3.3 million to
candidates and state political parties across 44 states. According to Edwin
Bender, executive director of the Institute on Money in State Politics, private
prison companies strongly favor giving to states with the toughest sentencing
laws—in essence, the ones that are more likely to come up with the bodies to
fill prison beds. Those states, adds Bender, are also the ones most likely to
have passed “three-strikes” laws. Those laws, first passed by Washington state
voters in 1993 and then California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation.
They were largely based on “cookie-cutter legislation” pushed by the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks
of private prison companies. Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison
dollars, with its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent
of their total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates.
Florida already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth on
the way. It’s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system. Texas
and New Jersey are close behind. But in Florida, some of the influence peddling
finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary James
McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an Aug. 2
morning call-in radio show. “I actually think the state is better at running the
prisons,” McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an internal audit
last year by the state’s Department of Management Services, which demonstrated
that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3 million. Things may no
longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida for the likes of
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the former
Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla. But with a little bit
of spiel-tinkering—and a shift of attention to other states—the prison
privatizers are likely to keep going. The key shift, Bender explains, is that
“the prison industry has gone from a we-can-save-you-money pitch to an
economic-development model pitch.” In other words, says Bender, “you need
[their] prisons for jobs.” If political donations are any measure, economically
challenged and poverty-stricken states like New Mexico are a great target. In
this campaign cycle, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has already received more
contributions from a private prison company than any other politician
campaigning for state office in the United States. The Institute of Money in
State Politics, which traced the donations, reported that GEO has contributed
$42,750 to Richardson since 2005—and another $8,000 to his running mate, Lt.
Gov. Diane Denish. Another $30,000 went from GEO to the Richardson-headed
Democratic Governors Association this past March. Richardson’s PAC, Moving
America Forward, was another prominent recipient of GEO donations. Now, its
former head, prominent state capitol lobbyist Joe Velasquez, is a registered
lobbyist for GEO Care Inc., a healthcare subsidiary that runs a hospital in New
Mexico. But don’t get the idea that GEO has any particular love for Democrats:
$95,000 from the corporation went to the Republican Governors Association last
year alone. What companies like GEO do love are the millions of dollars rolling
in from lucrative New Mexico contracts to run the Lea County Correctional
Facility (operating budget: $25 million/year), and the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility ($13 million/year), among others. CCA also owns and
operates the state’s only women’s facility in Grants ($11 million per year). To
make sure that those dollars keep flowing, GEO and CCA have perfected the art of
the “very tight revolving door,” says Bender, which involves snapping up former
corrections administrators, PAC lobbyists and state officials to serve as
consultants to private prison companies. In fact, the current New Mexico
Corrections Department Secretary Joe Williams was once on GEO’s payroll as their
warden of the Lea County Correctional Facility. Earlier this year, Williams was
placed on unpaid administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he spent
state travel and phone funds to pursue a very close relationship with Ann Casey.
Casey is a registered lobbyist in New Mexico for Wexford Health Sources, which
provides health care for prisoners at Grants, and Aramark, which provides most
of the state’s inmate meals. In her non-lobbying hours, it turns out that Casey
is also an assistant warden at a state prison in Centralia, Ill. It appears that
even for a prison industry enchanted by public-private partnership, Williams and
Casey may have gone too far.
August 9, 2006 Toledo Blade
Food-service company Aramark Corp. agreed yesterday to a $6.3 billion buyout
by a group of investors including Joseph Neubauer, the company's chairman and
chief executive officer. The buyers will also assume $2 billion in debt. The
deal is the latest in a series of management-led buyouts. Others recently
include the $21 billion offer to take hospital chain HCA Inc. private and the
$13.4 billion offer for oil and gas pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc. Aramark
said yesterday that shareholders will get $33.80 in cash for each share, an
improvement on the $32-a-share initial bid made by the same group in May. Shares
fell 47 cents to $32.58 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. Headquartered
in Philadelphia, Aramark has approximately 240,000 employees in 20 countries. It
provides food services, facilities management, and uniform apparel to hospitals,
schools, stadiums, and arenas.
May 1, 2006 Bloomberg
Aramark Corp., the food-service company that sells hot dogs and beer
at Boston's Fenway Park and Shea Stadium in New York, received a $5.8
billion takeover offer from a group led by its chairman and Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. The group, which also includes JPMorgan Chase & Co.,
Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Warburg Pincus LLC, bid $32 a share,
Philadelphia-based Aramark said today in a statement. That's 14 percent
more than its April 28 close. Aramark's shares surged as high as $34.95
as investors bet the company, which also runs college and corporate
cafeterias, would eventually fetch more from the buyout group or another
acquirer. The company's board formed a committee of independent
directors to review the proposal, Aramark said. ``There exists for
insiders an opportunity to sell the company to a rival bidder or compete
in a bidding war for the company,'' JPMorgan Chase analyst Michael Fox
wrote in a report. Fox has a ``neutral'' rating on Aramark.
Private-equity firms have announced more than $120 billion of takeovers
this year, up from $83 billion in the same period of 2005, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg. Pressure to meet quarterly earnings targets
and abide by new accounting and governance laws have pushed some
companies to go private. Leveraged buyout specialists usually borrow
about two- thirds of the purchase price to finance acquisitions. Their
goal is to improve the operating performance of the companies they
purchase, often by cutting costs, and then sell the companies in two to
three years to make a profit.
Brown County Jail, Brown County, Wisconsin
June 14, 2007 Green Bay Press Gazette
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision that Brown County Sheriff Dennis
Kocken doesn’t have the constitutional power to privatize food service at the
jail could cost the county more than $1 million a year. But Bruce Ehlke, the
Madison attorney representing the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees union, said the court’s decision preserves the state
legislature’s authority over county offices such as sheriff, district attorney
and coroner. “A decision in favor of the sheriff would have substantially
impaired the state legislature from having anything to say about county
government,” Ehlke said Thursday. “It’s one thing to blow off a few disgruntled
employees, but there were very significant constitutional issues here.” The
court voted 4-3 that the union could challenge Kocken’s decision to lay off its
workers and enter an agreement with Illinois-based Aramark Correctional Services
to provide the jail’s food service. Kocken said the privatized service saves the
county about $1.1 million a year and allows him to put more officers on the road
and at the jail. Kocken was not available for comment Thursday. A spokesman in
Kocken’s office said questions should be forwarded to attorney Tom Godar in
Madison, who represents Kocken in the case. Godar did not return calls to his
office Thursday. Dean Meyer, executive director of the Badger State Sheriff’s
Association, which backed Kocken with a friend-of-the-court brief, called the
ruling disappointing.
Campbell University, Harnett County, North Carolina
January 17, 2008 Dunn Daily Record
The Harnett County Sheriff's Office has busted a burglary ring which struck
Campbell University student housing during the Christmas holidays. Two suspects
have been arrested and Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins said he plans to
arrest three more but offered no details. In custody are Terrance Jerel Moore,
21, and 22-year-old Leslie Herman Gaitor, both of Main Street in Buies Creek.
Both men have been charged with 12 felony counts each of breaking and entering,
larceny and possession of stolen goods. Mr. Moore was employed as a cook at the
Chick-fil-A on the Campbell University campus, which is run by the Aramark food
management company. An Aramark official declined comment. Sheriff Rollins said
all of the suspects in the case except Mr. Moore are former Campbell students.
Most of the burglaries took place in Bob Barker Hall, he said. Stolen items
included laptop computers, PlayStation games and textbooks. Cascade
County Regional Jail, Cascade County, Montana
October 27, 2005 Great Falls Tribune
The kitchen supervisor at the Cascade County
regional jail was arrested at the correctional facility Tuesday for
allegedly smuggling illegal drugs, tobacco and smoking paraphernalia to
inmates in exchange for a small fee. Kelly Jerad McCann, 21, appeared in
District Court Tuesday on charges of transferring of illegal articles to
inmates, a felony. McCann is an employee of ARAMARK Corp., a national
company the jail contracts with to supply meals at the facility.
Detention officers became suspicious when two inmates chosen at random
tested positive for marijuana.
Cook County Jail, Cook, Illinois
April 4, 2007 Sun Times
"I'm not going to be a minority front for anybody," declared Chicago
businessman Harold Davis. Who asked you to? "Mike Maltese," answered
Davis. Davis, the solitary figure you see in the picture, standing alone
in a big empty South Side warehouse, called after I'd written about the
FBI paying a visit last month to fired Cook County employee Paula
Perkins. Perkins' job was to make sure firms like Davis' that applied
for lucrative county contracts were run by actual minorities and were
not just fronts for thick-necked white guys, a time-honored tradition in
these parts. Perkins' axing, some believe, was the result of her doing
her job too well. "I know her," Davis told me. "Ms. Perkins' job was to
prove that I was not phony." And that she did. After a 14-month
evaluation and inspection of his operation, Perkins certified Davis'
company, American Enterprise Food Service, as a bona fide
African-American business. She reaffirmed that Monday, saying, "When I
saw it, it was full of merchandise . . . people were in there working."
Perkins' certification paved the way for Davis to win an 18 percent
share of $62 million in contracts to supply commissary products (chips,
underwear, paper products) to inmates at Cook County Jail. The main
contractor, Aramark Correctional Services Inc., is part of a
multinational, multibillion-dollar corporation that services 475 prisons
across North America, including Cook County jail. It's a Fortune 500
company with a reputation for racial diversity. Davis begs to differ. He
claims that Aramark's account executives based in Oakbrook Terrace
didn't want a minority partner at all. "They wanted a minority front,"
he told me as we walked through his empty warehouse on Monday. Exactly
who told you that? "Mike Maltese did," he said, referring to Aramark's
district manager who has since been transferred to its Kentucky
division. Any relation to imprisoned Cicero Town President Betty
Loren-Maltese? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Davis said
Maltese conceded he was her nephew, but didn't want to talk about it.
Maltese did not return my phone calls. Company spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis
Tuesday told me, "Aramark does not discuss personnel or contract
matters, but we conduct our business with utmost integrity and according
to the highest ethical standards." Davis wants to argue that point. He
says his contract began in February of 2006 and that from the beginning,
the Aramark guys did all the purchasing, hiring and running of the
warehouse. Davis said he expected, after a brief training period, that
he would take over all of those responsibilities. "I started asking
questions," he said. "When was I going to take over the warehouse?"
Never, was the the answer he says he got. Maltese, claims Davis, offered
him $17,000 a month in "free money" to be a "pass through . . . a dummy
company," Maltese allegedly preferring to have one of his own guys do
the actual running of his operation. Davis said he told Maltese no. And
that, he says, is when, in the summer of 2006, Aramark pulled its
merchandise out of his warehouse and stopped paying the rent. The
county, however, is still paying Aramark on that contract, though Davis
gets none of it. Aramark's spokeswoman said the company couldn't release
specifics but terminated the deal "for legitimate business reasons." All
of this makes me want to talk to Betty Hancock Perry. Hancock Perry is
the head of Contract Compliance, one of the many county departments the
feds are currently crawling all over. It was Hancock Perry who fired
Paula Perkins earlier this year. And Hancock Perry to whom Davis
reported his problems with Aramark, according to letters and memos I've
seen. My request Tuesday to interview her was turned down by County
Board President Todd Stroger, who issued a statement saying he referred
my inquiries to his inspector general but would not "compel any employee
to speak publicly about this ongoing investigation." We await the
results. I wonder, though, if the FBI's next visit won't be to an empty
warehouse on the Far South Side.
October 22, 2004 Sun Times
Aramark,
accused of using politics to secure the food service contract at the
Cook County Jail, will likely hang onto the contract because it is the
low bidder. Bids were opened Thursday and they showed Aramark will
charge about 75 cents per meal, compared with 99 cents from Amerimeals
and Compass -- which accused Aramark of playing politics last month.
September 14, 2004 Sun Times
A lucrative
Cook
County
contract is being extended three months, as county officials debate how
much political patronage has influenced the contract process. Aramark
will continue to provide food at the county jail, at a rate of $856,000
a month, while county officials seek bids for a new contract. Aramark
signed a $39 million contract in 2000, but with increases, the contract
is now worth more than $43 million. Last month, as the contract came up
for bid, an Aramark competitor -- Compass, a division of Canteen --
claimed the bid process was rife with troubles, including the influence
of politics, and backed out of the bid process, leaving Aramark as the
only qualified bidder for another contract. Aramark hired John Robinson
and contracted with John Maul, both former aides to Sheriff Michael
Sheahan, and Compass claims they influenced the bid process. Compass
also said it was denied records and access to information needed to
submit a bid. Campaign finance records show Aramark and its many
divisions since 2000 have contributed $11,240 to county officials,
including commissioners and Sheah
With allegations lingering that the fix
was in, Cook County officials were set to open bids Thursday on a $50
million food service contract at the county jail. But when only
one company -- Aramark -- submitted a proper bid, county officials said
they weren't even opening it, instead opting to re-bid the contract in
hopes of attracting more companies. Fat chance, at least one of
Aramark's competitors said, as Compass Group -- a division of Canteen --
alleges that Aramark has hired enough cronies of Sheriff Michael Sheahan
that it is sure to lock up the contract. Both Sheahan and Aramark deny
these allegations and Sheahan encouraged Compass to sit down and discuss
its concerns with the county. Aramark holds the contract now, but
is accused by Compass of creating unsanitary food conditions at the
jail, attracting rodents and airborne disease by leaving food out for
several hours before serving inmates. Compass also alleged, in a letter
sent last week to county officials, that as it tried to get records to
prepare a bid, it was rebuffed time and again. (Sun Times, August
27, 2004)
A Cook County Board commissioner
called on his fellow commissioners Monday to block a $50 million
contract for jail food until allegations of bias are resolved.
Chicago Democrat Forrest Claypool made the demand Monday after Crain's
Chicago Business reported that a competitor for the contract accused the
sheriff's office of not giving it information necessary to bid.
The contractor, Canteen Correctional Services, is competing against
Aramark Correctional Services, which employs two former top aides to
Sheriff Michael Sheahan and may end up being the only bidder for the
job.
(Daily Herald, August 24, 2004)
A firm that had hoped to oust a
politically connected competitor on a huge Cook County contract instead
is pulling out of the bidding — complaining of "flawed and
biased" county procurement procedures. In a blunt letter to
Sheriff Michael Sheahan and other county officials Friday, Canteen
Correctional Services says it will be unable to bid for an estimated
$50-million pact to feed inmates at the Cook County Jail because
officials haven't given it the data it needs to compete, despite
repeated requests. That means incumbent contract-holder Aramark
Correctional Services may face no opposition for a new four-year pact on
Thursday, when Mr. Sheahan, who operates the jail, and other officials
are due to open bids. Aramark employs Mr. Sheahan's former top
aide, John Robinson, as a lobbyist and vice-president. Mr. Robinson
resigned as undersheriff in December 2000, days after revelations that
he used sheriff's office stationary to promote a British Virgin
Islands-based company that ran an alleged investment scam. He faces the
potential suspension or loss of his license as a lawyer over that
matter, with a state disciplinary hearing set for Oct. 5. Aramark
also this month retained as a consultant another top ex-aide to Mr.
Sheahan, John Maul. He was acting executive director of the jail until
last summer. Aramark, a division of Philadelphia-based Aramark
Corp., and Canteen are giants in the food-service industry. They've
clashed repeatedly around the country, including in Chicago, where
U.K.-based Compass' Levy Restaurants unit has held off Aramark for the
food contract at McCormick Place. Still, Compass' Cook County
letter is notable for its language and specificity. The letter
also asserts that Aramark's operating procedures are "questionable
to any industry standard." For instance, "hot" meals for
inmates sit on racks as long as three hours before they're delivered to
be eaten, the letter alleges. "Improper storage of food was
observed continually" during a site tour and "pest control
issues exist," it says. Aramark, a division of
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., and Canteen are giants in the
food-service industry. They've clashed repeatedly around the country,
including in Chicago, where U.K.-based Compass' Levy Restaurants unit
has held off Aramark for the food contract at McCormick Place.
Still, Compass' Cook County letter is notable for its language and
specificity. Under its current contract, Aramark provides meals at
slightly more than 77 cents a serving, according to Mr. Stroger's
spokeswoman. That's well under the average of $1.01 the Illinois
Department of Corrections spends just to purchase food. The Compass
letter implies that Aramark may have cut costs through lowered standards
and deferred maintenance. (Chicago Business, August 22, 2004)
Correctional
Treatment Facility, Lucas County, Ohio
March 18, 2005 Toledo
Blade
Three Lucas County work-release inmates were taken to St. Vincent Mercy
Medical Center Wednesday after they ate food that contained what
appeared to be metal shavings. Two of the inmates were released from the
hospital and returned to the facility, 1111 Madison Ave. One was kept
for unrelated reasons, said Jean Atkin, county Common Pleas Court
administrator. She said work-release and the Correctional Treatment
Facility, 1100 Jefferson Ave., receive food from the county jail, which
contracts with Aramark for food service. Treatment facility officials
yesterday reported a similar problem, but they thought the pieces were
aluminum foil, Ms. Atkin said. She said no one at the treatment facility
ate the food, which was thrown away. Rick Keller, corrections
administrator, said he did not hear of any food complaints in the jail.
Ms. Atkin said a complaint was lodged with the food provider. She said
the contract with Aramark is up for renewal soon and that there have
been some concerns about the food service. Aramark officials could not
be reached for comment.
Cosjocton County Justice Center, Coshocton, Ohio
The new contract for the kitchen crew and
the food they serve at the Coshocton County Justice Center comes with
good news and bad news. The two cooks at the jail, Janet Swaney
and Vickie McKee, will keep their current salaries. However, the cooks
will lose insurance and retirement benefits through the county, and pay
twice as much for health insurance with the contracted company.
Details of the contract with Aramark were worked out with administrators
at the sheriff's office and the Coshocton County
Commissioners. "We'll be making our current wages,
(but) we'll be losing out on several things," she said. "If
you don't have a county job, you don't have the retirement. What we've
put (into our retirement), we'll get, but it won't continue."
(Coshocton Tribune, July 23, 2004)
Dallas County Jail, Dallas, Texas
October 11, 2006 The Dallas Morning
News
Dallas County commissioners voted Tuesday for the first time to
award a jail commissary contract, ending a tradition in which the
sheriff decided who gets the lucrative deal to sell snacks and other
items to more than 7,000 inmates. The roughly $34 million, five-year
contract awarded to Keefe Commissary Network is expected to generate
more money for the county than the existing contract. County officials
who didn't like how the former sheriff handled the awarding of the
existing commissary contract moved to get state law changed last year to
allow commissioners to decide the commissary vendor. The new law allows
the sheriff to designate commissioners to decide the contract. Sheriff
Lupe Valdez didn't want to be involved because of past problems, her
spokesman has said. Keefe, a St. Louis company, estimated that annual
revenue to the county based on sales of snacks, pens, toiletries,
playing cards and other items would be about $2.6 million, which is
almost four times what the current contractor provides. That contractor,
Mid-America Services, was given the contract in 2002 by then-Sheriff Jim
Bowles, who was a longtime friend of the owner, Jack Madera. At the
time, commissioners complained that other companies offered better
financial terms. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield cast the sole vote
against the contract award, saying Aramark offered a better value to the
county. He said Aramark offered a slightly higher commission rate as
well as $1 million in upfront money, to be paid out each year of the
contract. But Commissioner John Wiley Price said Keefe guaranteed the
county at least $2 million each year. "The numbers speak for
themselves," he said. Mr. Mayfield also said Keefe did not disclose to
the county its involvement in a federal corruption investigation in
Florida involving a prison contract until after the Justice Department
issued a news release about it in July. The county's request for
proposals required such a disclosure. The former head of the Florida
corrections department and a prison official were charged in July with
accepting more than $130,000 in kickbacks from a Keefe subcontractor
over two years in connection with a 2003 prison-store contract. "There's
a lot of smoke there," Mr. Mayfield said. "I find it incredulous that
Keefe did not know they were under investigation in 2004 and 2005." No
knowledge: Keefe's chief executive wrote in a July 31 letter to
purchasing supervisor Linda Boles that the company had no knowledge of
illegal activity related to the case. In a Sept. 11 letter, U.S.
Attorney Paul Perez in Florida wrote that Keefe and its employees are
considered witnesses in the investigation but that could change.
"Nothing in this letter ... shall preclude the United States from later
determining that Keefe or any of its employees are subjects or targets
of this investigation," he wrote. It isn't the only controversy in which
the company has been involved. In 2004, Keefe was found to have charged
sales tax on some items that aren't taxable in Texas in connection with
a Collin County jail commissary contract. As a result, almost 600
inmates were overcharged more than $5,000, records showed. Because of
the error, the Collin County sheriff awarded the contract to a different
firm.
Dauphin County Prison, Dauphin,
Pennsylvania
September 20, 2005 Patriot News
While Dauphin County Prison's food service vendor has agreed to
reimburse the county $65,000, there was no criminal intent behind the
overbilling, authorities say. The agreement reached between
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. and the county district attorney ends a
several-month grand jury investigation started last year into
allegations of watered-down food and overcharging. Aramark did provide
adequate food as called for in its contract with the Swatara Twp.
prison, but the investigation showed the county was billed for meals
that were not made, said District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. The
$65,000 is for overbilling that occurred in 2002 and 2003, Marsico said.
The investigation was spurred by repeated inmate complaints. While there
were menu changes under the current contract, Marsico said the
investigation found Aramark was providing the required meal content.
Aramark officials refused to discuss what went wrong on their end or
what steps they've taken to make sure the problem does not reoccur
September 20, 2005 AP
Dauphin County Prison's food service vendor agreed to
reimburse the county $65,000 for overbilling during 2002 and 2003, authorities
said. Officials said there was no criminal intent behind the overbilling, and
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. did provide adequate food as called for in its
contract with the prison. "I'm very pleased with the amount of money we
received," District Attorney Edward M. Marsico said. "I believe it
more than covers any loss the county may have had." Masrisco said much of
the overbilling occurred because the company had charged a flat amount for meals
instead of tracking the actual ups and downs of the jail population, and he said
both prison officials and the company would keeping a more careful eye on how
many meals actually are provided. Aramark
officials declined to discuss what went wrong what steps they were taking to
prevent a recurrence. "We fully cooperated with the inquiry and consider
the situation to be resolved," company spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said.
March 19, 2004
A 16-year old Harrisburg boy escaped from a Dauphin County juvenile detetnion
center, using a stock to disable a locked door and a walkie-talkie to create
confusion. The teenager, who then outran two guards,
remains at large following the escape at about 1 a.m. Tuesday from the Schaffner
Youth Center in Steelton. No one was injured,
according to county spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher. The
teen, who was admitted Saturday on unspecified misdemeanor charges, is not
considered dangerous. His name and the nature of the charge was not released
because of his age. Two guards have been
suspended without pay pending a review of the facility, which is managed by
Cornell Abraxas and holds about 65 youths, Kocher said. "We
did have several unfortunate breakdowns in security," she said. (AP)
Officials are looking into whether a food
service company is cutting back on the amount of food served to
prisoners. Reporter Chris Schaffer has the exclusive story. When inmates
come to the Dauphin County Prison food service giant Aramark provides
the food they eat. A few months ago county officials began looking into
the company's books, as part of a contract renewal process. They saw
documents including years of menus, instructions, and budgets. Dauphin
County Commissioner Jeff Haste: "The numbers didn't quite match up
- it appeared in our minds that we had been over-billed" (WHPTV
February 1, 2004)
DeWitt County Jail, Cuero, Texas
May 9, 2006 The Victoria Advocate
Bookkeeping problems in the DeWitt County Jail commissary should be a
thing of the past now that the supplier and office policy have changed,
Sheriff Jode Zavesky told county commissioners Monday. Zavesky said he
had signed a contract earlier this month with Keefe Supply Company to
supply and administer the jail's commissary. "Our last supplier (Aramark)
kind of left us dangling," the sheriff said. "They said we were too
small an operation and they weren't coming back." Commissioner Curtis
Afflerbach asked if the problems with the system that the county auditor
reported at the last court's meeting would be resolved with the new
company. "We hope to reconcile that the best we can prior to this new
contract," Zavesky said. "We've also implemented some changes with our
staff that we hope will keep us from getting into the same problems."
Dona Ana County Detention Center, Dona Ana, TX
A
Sun-News investigation into allegations of impropriety within Doña Ana
County government makes it clear that at least some of the accusations
are true. The allegations, including mismanagement of contracts,
failure to follow county ordinances and problems related to the county’s
1999 water system bonds and the proposed county complex to be built on
Motel Boulevard, are serious enough to gain the attention of State
Auditor Domingo Martinez. The state auditor’s letter contains
allegations that the county continued to pay for maintenance services at
the Doña Ana County Detention Center after the contract expired in June
2003, and that the county manager signed a contract for $340,000 for
maintenance services at the jail though he isn’t authorized to sign
contracts over $10,000. The allegations stem from the expiration
of the maintenance services contract between the county and Aramark on
June 30, 2003. Jail Director Al Solis gave a contract-extension document
to Haines, who signed it, though it was for $340,000. (Lcsun-news.com,
April 4, 2004)
Downview Women's Prison, Banstead, UK
March 27, 2007 IC Surrey
REPLACING prison food with over-priced outside catering fare is a recipe
for disaster in a women's jail. This is the opinion of prison visitors
whose latest report says inmates much preferred 'porridge' the way it
is. Aramark, the company which has taken over the canteen at Downview
Women's Prison, is typical of the caterers who have taken over the food
at many jails. And the report by the Independent Monitoring Board claims
the new system is not being welcomed anywhere. The report says: "We were
warned in advance by other independent monitoring boards who had
experienced a similar change to expect a disastrous transfer - and it
has been. "The decision to privatise the canteen may bring cash benefit
to the Treasury but the introduction of Aramark to run the prison
canteen has so far been a disaster. "For prisoners the canteen is one of
the most important facets of their lives but prices have risen
sharply,the inventory has shrunk, revisions take ages to implement and
the administration is poor. "In contrast the old prison-run canteen at
least understood the needs of the prisoners and charged prices that
matched their wages. "It worked and this seems to be the same story
repeated throughout as prison after prison has lost control of its
canteens." In a report which praises "committed and dedicated" staff,
the board said all the faults it found with Downview were beyond their
control. Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina
January 19, 2006 The Chronicle
Duke Student Government kicked off its first meeting of the spring
semester with an eye toward the future Wednesday night. During the
meeting, DSG discussed the upcoming confidence-no confidence vote on
ARAMARK, Corp.—the Philadelphia-based company that operates a number of
eateries on campus. Every year, DSG votes on whether or not it has
confidence in the current dining service. The decision is ultimately
brought before the Board of Trustees, which has the final say in whether
or not to renew the company’s contract. For the past two years ARAMARK,
which operates the Great Hall, the Marketplace, Trinity Café, Subway and
Chick-Fil-A, has received a “no confidence” vote from Duke University
Student Dining Advisory Committee and DSG. The vendor has nonetheless
remained on campus. Senior Paige Sparkman, vice president of student
affairs, said the upcoming vote is “extremely important” because
ARAMARK’s five-year contract is up at the end of this year. “There can
be a more drastic result of the confidence-no confidence vote this
year,” said DSG President Jesse Longoria, a senior. DuPage
County Jail, DuPage County, Illinois
May 29, 2008 Reporter Met
For the fourth time in about a year, the DuPage County Board has
extended a temporary contract for food service at the county jail. After
Tuesday’s County Board meeting, Chairman Robert Schillerstrom expressed
frustration that the process has dragged on for so long. But board
member Michael McMahon, R-3rd District, of Hinsdale, who heads the
board’s Judicial and Public Safety Committee, said the county should be
able to award a long-term contract by the end of June. By the numbers --
$850,000 Annual cost of original contract -- $1.3 million Approximate
cost of temporary contracts -- 53 percent increase The board decided in
February to open a fourth round of bidding for the food-service contract
and extended the temporary contract through May 31. The new extension
runs through Aug. 31, but McMahon said the matter should be settled well
before then. A’viands, a Minnesota-based company, has been serving food
at the jail under a temporary contract since last June. The contract has
been under dispute since May 2007, when it was put out for bidding.
A’viands was originally awarded the contract, but it was voided after
another bidder, Philadelphia-based ARAMARK, objected that A’viands’ bid
did not meet nutritional requirements. The original contract with
A’viands would have cost the county about $850,000 for a year of food
service. The new temporary contract will total about $1.3 million if a
long-term deal is not reached before Aug. 31. “Simply put, the County
Board can’t make up their mind on (the contract),” Schillerstrom said.
“It should have been done a long time ago. There’s no reason for this to
have dragged on for so long.” After a second round of bidding, bids by
both companies were thrown out because they failed to meet nutritional
requirements. For the third round, the county hired a nutritionist to
create a menu with which all bidders were required to comply. ARAMARK’s
bid of 91.9 cents per meal was slightly lower than A’viands’ bid of 92.5
cents, but county staff members recommended the contract be awarded to
A’viands because ARAMARK strayed from the menu, county officials said.
To avoid the confusion over nutritional requirements, the county is
taking a new approach for the fourth round of bidding, McMahon said.
Rather than requiring bidders to conform to a set menu, each company
will be allowed to submit up to three menus, he said. A dietitian hired
by the county will then review each menu and determine if it meets
nutritional standards. The companies will then be allowed to bid on any
of the approved menus, including those submitted by their competitors,
and the contract will be awarded to the lowest bidder, McMahon said. “I
think this is going to prove to be a good approach,” he said. “It should
all be over within the next month.” May 8, 2008 Naperville Sun
Maybe DuPage County Board members got it right the first time they
opened competition for a contract to serve food to some 850 County Jail
inmates. They approved a fourth round of bidding Tuesday that is almost
identical to the original bid more than a year ago. While board members
hope this bid will end a long feud between companies Aramark and
A'viands over the contract, some say it will lead to even more
contention. This time, bidding companies may submit up to three menus to
the county, which will then be either approved or rejected by a
certified nutritionist. The bidders may then submit prices on any of the
approved menus and the lowest bidder will be chosen. The Judicial and
Public Safety Committee has conducted and thrown out three bids during
the past year. As members tried adding more specific nutrition
requirements and then specific menu requirements, Aramark and A'viands
either failed to meet standards or raised objections to each other. But
committee member Jim Healy of Naperville said allowing bidders to select
from a pool of approved menus may just lead to more conflict. "Then you
have two parties arguing about fish cakes versus fish patties, orange
juice versus orange drink," Healy said. But the county could save money
by allowing bidders to select from a pool of approved menus, said DuPage
CFO Fred Backfield. "(This) allows a vendor to choose another menu they
could make cheaper," Backfield said. As the bidding process drags on,
A'viands continues to feed inmates under an extended temporary contract
that was first awarded last July. Before that contract, Aramark had
serviced the jail for 21 years. February 24, 2008 Naperville Sun
A company hoping to win another contract at the DuPage County Jail has
donated thousands of dollars to elected county officials. Aramark, a
Philadelphia-based company that has provided the jail's food service for
21 years, has poured $14,770 into campaign coffers of State's Attorney
Joe Birkett, Sheriff John Zaruba, County Board Chairman Bob
Schillerstrom and others since 1999, according to the Illinois State
Board of Elections. County Board members Brien Sheahan, Debra Olson and
Mike McMahon have received several hundred dollars each. In a bidding
process fraught with ambiguity and conflict, Aramark has been fighting
for more than a year to continue serving food to jail inmates. When the
bid was redone for the third time in December, the company submitted a
$949,616 bid that was $6,000 lower than that of its competitor,
Minnesota-based A'viands. But after the state's attorney's office said
Aramark submitted a menu that didn't meet requirements, officials
recommended the bid be awarded to A'viands. Aramark's menu diverged
slightly by offering breaded fish patties rather than the specified fish
fillets and 12-ounce instead of 8-ounce oatmeal servings, Assistant
State's Attorney Tom Downing said. Potential savings -- However, County
Board members are giving Aramark another shot at the contract, opting
for a fourth bid instead of awarding the contract to A'viands. They say
the county can save thousands of dollars by changing bidding
requirements. Instead of stipulating a specific menu, board members want
to mandate only certain nutritional requirements, as was done during the
second round of bidding. Allowing bidders to submit their own menu
resulted in a bid from Aramark that was $120,000 less than when it
followed a menu mandated by the county. That cost difference is enough
to justify yet another bid, said Sheahan, calling the whole process
"ridiculous." "We're basically having a $120,000 argument over whether
milk and oatmeal will fit on a tray, and I think we owe it to taxpayers
to make sure we are getting the best value for their money," he said.
"We're not interested in spending extra every year so people at the
County Jail can eat fish fillets instead of fish sticks." Nothing to
hide -- Sheahan said a $500 contribution from Aramark to his primary
campaign had nothing to do with his support for a fourth bid. "I really
don't care whether Aramark gets it or not," he said. "I want the lowest
bid to get it. I think the interest of the committee is just to get the
best value for taxpayers." Saying she believes Aramark has submitted
responsible bids, Olson, of Wheaton, said she supports a fourth bid to
potentially save the $120,000. "This is about saving taxpayers money,"
said Olson, who noted that she has supported extending the temporary
contracts to A'viands. "Any implications that my motivations are other
than in the best interests of taxpayers is insulting." Birkett, who has
received $3,600 from Aramark, said the campaign contributions played no
role in the opinion rendered by his office, which ruled Aramark's bid
noncompliant. "If I'm asked for opinion or legal guidance, I give it,
free from any political support I've received," Birkett said. The
recipient of $4,500 from Aramark, Schillerstrom sided with the state's
attorney, saying Aramark failed to meet the menu requirements. "I
believe A'viands is the lowest responsible bidder," he said. "I think
it's clear that Aramark did not comply with the bid." Zaruba did not
return a phone call seeking comment. Nutrition requirements -- Disputes
about nutrition requirements have plagued the bidding process, which
began last March. After the county declared A'viands the winner of the
first bid, Aramark filed a lawsuit claiming its submitted menus were
deficient. Schillerstrom upheld the protest, finding that both companies
failed to meet requirements and declared a second round of bidding. For
the second bid, the county outlined more specific nutrition standards.
But both companies fell short, saying it was impossible to meet sodium
requirements. In the third bid, the county hired a nutritionist to
create a specific menu. While A'viands said the menu gave clear and
specific requirements, Aramark disagreed. "It was crystal clear to us
that we were to submit a menu that exactly met those requirements, and
that's what we did," said Perry Rynders, CEO of A'viands. Rynders
expressed "significant disappointment" at the county's decision to hold
another bid, saying no one had disputed that A'viands did meet
requirements. Temporary contract -- To keep prison inmates fed, the
county has issued a string of temporary contracts to A'viands since
July. But it's difficult to attract and hire good workers at the jail
while the contract remains in limbo, Rynders said. "It's very difficult
for us to find staff to work on a temporary basis," he said. "Each time
this comes up, they're wondering if their job is on the line. I don't
think the County Board understands how difficult this is on us." Aramark
spokesman Tim Elliot said the county should return to a nutrition-based
bid instead of one based on a menu. That is standard procedure for most
of the 700 correctional facilities the company services worldwide, he
said. Aramark is a private company that is the 19th-largest employer on
the Fortune 500, employing 240,000 workers in 19 countries. Hospitals,
eldercare centers, schools, corporations and sports stadiums are among
the company's clients. Board member Jim Healy of Naperville agreed with
Aramark that the county's "ambiguous" menu should be thrown out in favor
of nutritional requirements. "We don't care what you serve as long as
you meet the nutritional standards," he said. The county should have
stuck with very basic nutritional requirements as it had done until last
year, said board member Jim Zay. "This is insane ... the more people we
get involved, the worse it gets," Zay said. "This has been costing us
hundreds of thousands more because we've been screwing around with it."
Durham County, Durham, North Carolina
September 13, 2005 The
Herald-Sun
A report from the county finance office shows that more than half the
contractors required to comply with Durham's "living wage"
policy have failed to submit payroll records that would show whether
they're doing so. The report, forwarded recently to County Manager Mike
Ruffin, also alleges that three contractors violated the policy by
paying workers less than the required minimum salary, which now stands
at $10 an hour. The others on the list are: -- The Aramark Corp., which
had two contracts worth $33,429 from the county General Services
Department and the Sheriff's Office. -- Carter Goble Associates Inc.,
which had a $17,000 contract to provide staff to the county jail.
East Carolina University, Greenville, North
Carolina
March 10, 2005 The East Carolinian
An ARAMARK cashier working on campus was arrested when found with two
financial cards belonging to members of the ECU community. Police said
Lawanda Patrice Draughn, 22, worked at Java City in Wright Place when
she allegedly kept credit cards from two of her customers. "The two
individuals went to Java City and purchased coffee ... and then they
walked away without their cards," said Major Frank Knight with the
ECU Police Department. Once the victims realized they did not have their
cards, they called the credit card company. The company representatives
told them purchases had been made since the cards were lost. More than
$200 was spent on one card and more than $1,000 on the other. ECU Police
went to the stores where the cards were used, spoke with cashiers and
viewed store videotapes. "It was good leg work by the police
officers," Knight said.
El Paso County, Colorado
August 11, 2005 Colorado
Springs Independent
Deputies at the El Paso County jail are in a food
fight of sorts and giving inmates the bird. A Sheriff's Office press
release of Aug. 3, defending the jail's meals in the wake of a brief
hunger strike by inmates, is the latest development in what has become a
jail food saga. The release says that on July 30 inmates were served
turkey for a fifth consecutive meal, despite protests, and it promises
more turkey is to come.
The episode comes as the
Sheriff's Office faces numerous internal complaints and at least 10
lawsuits filed by disgruntled inmates over jail food. One suit, filed by
former inmate Mark Compton, describes the jail fare as substandard. He
alleges that each meal was cut back by 25 percent as of March, and that
some inmates have reacted by eating scraps from the trash, begging or
intimidating fellow inmates for food. Yet
complaint forms attached to Compton's lawsuit raise doubts about food
quality. Inmate Darius Pinkney wrote that some peaches served in June
were "four different colors (i.e. black, green, red and orange).
"Some were mushy, some were rock hard," he wrote. "They
were in my opinion not fit for human consumption." Other inmates
complained about the peaches, too, but were instructed by a deputy not
to consume them. "In your handbook, it states to eat around
anything not to your liking," the deputy wrote in the official
complaint form. Michael Holmes, another inmate, accuses Sheriff Terry
Maketa of standing idly by as the jail's food contractor, Aramark
Correctional Services, shirks its responsibilities by serving
"unhealthy disease causing garbage." Former
inmate Mark Compton claims portion sizes at the El Paso County jail were
cut by 25 percent per meal.
July 18, 2005 The
Gazette
Spoiled milk, rotten fruit and watered-down soup that tastes like
dishwater. Those are some of the items on recent menus at the El
Paso County Criminal Justice Center, according to inmates who are suing
the jail, Sheriff Terry Maketa and the jail’s food-service contractor,
Aramark Corp. Nineteen inmates have filed separate lawsuits since
June, claiming the sheriff and jail are violating a state law that
requires jails to provide “good and sufficient” food to
prisoners. Since mid-March, food portions and quality have
decreased to 25 percent of what they were, according to the inmates’
suits filed in 4th Judicial District Court. Inmates claim they’ve been
ignored or harassed when they complained to jail officials about the
food. Some of the suits say Aramark, Maketa and the jail are “endangering
the health and safety of approximately 1,300 seemingly innocent
prisoners at this facility three times daily, seven days a week.”
Inmates are being forced to eat scraps out of trash cans or beg for
other inmates’ food, the suits say. Stronger inmates have resorted to
taking food from weaker ones, according to the suits.
Fairfax County Adult Detention Facility,
Fairfax, Virginia
July 25, 2007 The Examiner
Fairfax County Sheriff Stan Barry accepted $1,000 in food for a
campaign event from a company the county pays to feed its inmates – a
contribution one state senator blasted as an attempt to “buy friendship”
from the sheriff. Barry, a Democrat who is unopposed in the November
election, denied any impropriety in accepting the donation from Aramark
Corp. at a Fairfax City fundraiser on June 7. State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli,
however, on Tuesday called the contribution a “cause for cynicism.”
“They’re giving him money because their gravy train depends on his
position to continue their food contract,” said Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax.
“They’re just trying to buy friendship.” The Philadelphia-based company
provides food, uniforms and other services to scores of institutions
throughout the country, and won a two-year contract in July 2006 to feed
inmates and staff of the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. The
Sheriff’s Office operates the facility. Exactly how much the county has
paid to Aramark since the company started providing meals Sept. 1 was
not available Tuesday. Based on estimates in the county’s budget, the
company served 1.47 million meals in fiscal 2007, an average of 4,050 a
day costing about $1 each. Aramark was the only company to bid on the
jail food-service contract, according to Cathy Muse, director of the
Department of Purchasing and Supply Management, which oversees the
county’s contracting. The Sheriff’s Office reviewed the bid and
recommended the county approve it, after which Muse signed off on the
contract. Barry said he had no input in that process. “If I was
overseeing the contract or [was] instrumental in who got the contract,
then I can see where there would be conflict,” he said. “But I’m not
involved in those negotiations at all.” He said the fundraiser took
place before it was clear no opponents would emerge in the election. The
food, he said, included Swedish meatballs, lunch meat and chicken wings.
An Aramark spokeswoman said she was unable to find details of the
donation by early Tuesday evening and otherwise declined comment.
Fayette
County Detention Center, Lexington, Kentucky
October 5, 2007 Lexington Herald-Leader
An Aramark employee who works at the Fayette County Detention Center
is suspected of illegally bringing drugs and cigarettes into the jail.
Melda Janae Coffman, 32, was charged yesterday with promoting contraband
in the first and second degree, said Capt. Darin Kelly, jail spokesman.
The first-degree charge was for illegally bringing in drugs. It is a
Class D felony offense that can carry a sentence of at least one year in
jail. The second-degree charge for illegally bringing in cigarettes is a
class A misdemeanor with a minimum sentence of 90 days in jail. After
her arrest, Coffman was fired, said Sarah Jarvis, Aramark spokeswoman.
Coffman, who oversaw food preparation at the jail's kitchen, began
working there on July 19. Kelly said additional charges could be coming.
Florida Department of Corrections
May 12, 2008 Palm Beach Post
One of the two companies that feed state prisoners has racked up
nearly $250,000 in fines since the beginning of the year for violations
including not having enough food and staffing shortages. That brings the
total fines for Aramark to more than $864,000 since 2001 when the state
hired private companies to take over feeding the more than 92,000
inmates in Florida prisons. More than $300,000 of Aramark fines have
been rescinded by the Department of Corrections. Corrections officials
are questioning Aramark's ability to provide quality food in sufficient
quantities. The officials also say they are concerned about the
company's staffing levels. "We have certain standards regarding foods
for inmates that we're not prepared to see relaxed. We want to make sure
they jibe with our standards," Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudom
said of Aramark, which is negotiating a new contract with the state. One
recent concern was an outbreak last month at the Santa Rosa Correctional
Institution where almost 300 inmates became ill. The cause of the
illness remains under investigation and no one is blaming Aramark, but
corrections officials have not ruled out that the food caused the
illness. Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said the food was not the
cause. "There are a lot of different reasons why inmates, especially in
close quarters, can get ill," Jarvis said. "It can be close quarters. It
can be sewer systems." Corrections officials took the trays and tested
them and stool samples of inmates for food poisoning, Jarvis said, and
the results were negative. Corrections officials said Monday they have
not received the results and the investigation is ongoing. Aramark has
been fined for running out of food, not having enough staff and
diverging from the meals agreed to in its contract with the state,
according to DOC records. The department let Aramark off the hook for
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines under former Corrections
Secretary Jimmy Crosby, now in prison for taking kickbacks from
contractors.
March 29, 2008 Palm Beach Post
Mushy bland broccoli stems accompanied by a greasy mystery meat
endowed with undercooked rice is as good as it gets for inmates behind
bars. But, according to the vendor who provides the food and some
lawmakers, that's still too good. They want to cut as much as $11
million from prison food contracts as part of an effort to pare about $3
billion from next year's state budget. Prison officials fear that
cutting the food budget will lower the quality of meals that are already
bland and cause unrest among inmates. Anger about meals is the No. 1
reason for inmate uprisings, according to corrections officials, and
menu changes imperil safety for prison guards, inmates and the public in
general. "We think any reduction to (the current menu) that is not a
change for health reasons poses a risk to public safety," said
Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudhom. "It may sound
overly dramatic, but we strongly believe that." The state pays nearly
$79 million per year to two food service vendors - Philadelphia-based
Aramark and Oldsmar-based Trinity Services Group Inc. - for the bulk of
the food that is purchased for Florida's more than 92,000 inmates. The
state now pays $2.67 for three meals a day for each inmate. Lawmakers in
the House want to reduce that cost to $2.30 a day. Aramark
representatives have convinced some lawmakers that the state can save
millions by reducing calories fed to inmates. The company wants to go
back to a menu it once served that prison officials say was
unacceptable. While the current menu is better then the old one, some
inmates still complain about the food. "I don't eat it. I just come here
to give it away," Calvin Mayes, an inmate at Jefferson Correctional
Institution in Monticello, said after a lunch of Spanish rice and
broccoli. Instead, he spends about $150 a month at the prison canteen to
buy food. "The quality of the food is substandard," said a relative of
an inmate at Marion Correctional Institution in Lowell, who asked not to
be named because she feared retaliation against the prisoner. "The
preparation is haphazard. They're supposed to wear hairnets and gloves.
You find hair in your food and you find a Band-Aid in your food. Things
are so overcooked it's mush, or it's not cooked at all." Sen. Tony Hill
recently asked the legislature's Joint Auditing Committee to conduct an
investigation into the Aramark contract, and Aramark spokeswoman Sarah
Jarvis confirmed that the state auditor general is also looking into it.
"When you've got people boycotting the food altogether, that's a
problem," said Hill, D-Jacksonville. Some inmates, like Donald Jones,
say the food is the best it has ever been. But food quality is less
important to some lawmakers than saving money for taxpayers. The Senate
has proposed slicing $6 million from the current prison food budget,
while the House wants to cut $11 million. "We're talking about
substantial savings," Jarvis said. "They way the savings come about is
by making better use of the ingredients served. For instance, replace
French toast with pancakes." Jarvis said that Aramark's spending for
food has tripled since the initial contract was established in 2001.
Aramark wants to do more than change the menu. The company also is
proposing cutting back on the number of workers it provides prisons,
shifting the responsibility to corrections officials. Guards would have
to fill in, posing a problem for an already understaffed corrections
system that could lose 1,800 guards under the Senate proposal, according
to corrections officials. Since signing a contract with the state seven
years ago, Aramark has received mixed reviews. There have been questions
about food quality, quantity and potential health violations. At times,
the company has been fined by the state for failure to meet the
specifications of its contract. Critics suggest the proposed new
contract is really an attempt by Aramark to make more money by paying
less for food. The company is paid not by the number of meals consumed
but by the number of inmates. If fewer inmates eat the food, Aramark can
save money by providing less food. In February, Aramark-served
institutions had an 85 percent participation rate of inmates eating the
company's meals. Trinity, which serves food to about one quarter of the
state's inmates, had a 97 percent participation rate. A state audit of
the Aramark contract last year found that the participation rates
equated to a "windfall for the vendor" and that Aramark substituted
low-cost foods, such as turkey instead of beef, without passing the
savings on to the state. Aramark representatives and corrections
officials both say those problems have been resolved. Trinity this month
canceled its contract with the state, giving it until August to
renegotiate because, the company claims, it is losing money on the deal.
Corrections officials said they will meet with Trinity and Aramark next
week to discuss their contracts.
February 16, 2008 Miami Herald
Sweat dripping from his brow, union representative Bruce Raynor promised
a crowd nearing 100, including two state lawmakers, that he wouldn't
rest until food service provider Aramark is stripped of its contract
with the Florida Department of Corrections. At the sidewalk rally
outside downtown Miami government buildings Friday, Raynor, the
president of the Unite Here union that represents more than 20,000
Aramark employees nationwide, accused the company of collecting millions
of dollars of taxpayer money by charging for meals that were never
served and using substandard ingredients in food preparation. ''We are
sick and tired of hard workers and taxpayers having their pockets picked
by greedy corporations,'' Raynor said. ``We want to call on the
attention of state officials.'' The allegations are based on a January
2007 Department of Corrections internal audit that states Aramark's
practice of charging the state per inmate and not per meal served
resulted in ''a windfall for the vendor,'' which reduced Aramarks costs
by $4.9 million per year. However, Department of Corrections and Aramark
officials claim the unions are using the audit to push a labor-related
agenda, and that the issues in the report have been resolved. 'As far as
Aramark getting a windfall profit, we don't believe that's the case,''
said DOC spokesperson Gretl Plessinger. ``The contract is now a really
good deal.'' According to the audit, the company was being paid for more
than 6,000 meals per day that it didn't serve. Still, Plessinger said
the DOC renewed its contract with Aramark last year, with changes
partially based on the audit's findings. In a Jan. 30 letter to Tim
Campbell, Aramark's president, DOC secretary James McDonough wrote: ``It
is our department's position that Aramark has acted faithfully to abide
by both its former and its current contract with the department.'' While
union representatives claim Aramark used cheaper meat products to cut
corners, McDonough said in the letter all food changes were approved by
a DOC committee, and inmate meals in Florida meet ``minimum health
standards.'' Kristine Grow, an Aramark spokesperson, said the unions'
accusations are based on ulterior motives: ``This is more about
allegations to get us to agree to their demands than it is about our
clients or taxpayers.'' At the rally, State Sen. Tony Hill and State
Rep. Luis Garcia said they would explore starting a state probe into
DOC's contract with Aramark.
Florida officials are gambling with
prison safety by continuing to employ Aramark Corp. as the principal
food service provider for the state's correctional facilities. Since the
company took over prison kitchens last year, it has continually violated
regulations designed to promote sanitation and safety within the
facilities. Their five-year contract, part of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to
reduce payroll by privatizing many state operations, is expected to cut
prison food costs by $8-million in its first year. But quality has been
one of the first ingredients sacrificed by Aramark's cost-cutting
measures. State officials have yet to push the company to comply with
prison regulations or to find a food service provider that will. The
Times' Thomas Tobin recently reported that, under Aramark, daily logs
kept by corrections officers across the state have described filthy
kitchens, frequent meal delays, attempts to serve spoiled, watered down
or undercooked food and a chronic inability to follow a state rule
requiring all inmates to receive the same meal -- a security measure to
prevent petty food jealousies from escalating into fights. Florida has
already assessed $110,000 in fines against Aramark. But compared with
the profit the company will earn in its first year, that's hardly the
crackdown needed to force the company to mend its reckless ways. If the
company cannot live up to its promises, the state needs to find a food
service provider that can. Florida inmates deserve better service and
corrections officers deserve to work in as safe an environment as
possible. Gov. Bush and corrections secretary Michael Moore have been
warned repeatedly about Aramark's unsafe practices. If a food riot
breaks out and someone is killed, state officials will have some
explaining to do. (St. Petersburg Times, July 2, 2002)
Hiring Aramark to feed prisoners has saved the state millions, but the
company faces fines and fears over guard safety. Take any cross-section
of Floridians and poll them about prisons. Few would care that, one day
last February, lunch at the Madison Correctional Institution featured a
particularly soupy batch of sloppy joes. But corrections Capt. Hugh
Poppell took notice right away. He saw the prison's new civilian food
service staff dilute the entree even more, adding ketchup and tomato
paste to make it stretch among the 700-plus inmates still lined up to be
fed. Poppell reported what he saw to warden Joe Thompson, who quickly
investigated and found the workers had shorted the recipe by 70 pounds
of ground beef and turkey. The warden also noted: "The other
ingredients such as onions, celery and green peppers in the entree were
not observed." Far from a show of concern over the inmate palate,
the officers were heeding an age-old canon of prison administration: A
hungry, discontented inmate is often a problem inmate -- and a potential
threat. The culprit in the sloppy joe episode and scores of other recent
food foibles across Florida was Aramark Corp., the cost-conscious
Philadelphia company hired last year to feed inmates in 126 of Florida's
133 corrections facilities. The contract is part of Gov. Jeb Bush's push
to reduce payroll by privatizing many state operations. But a rocky
first year has prompted the state to assess $110,000 in fines against
Aramark. Though the company has saved money for Florida, its stewardship
over the state's prison kitchens has created a new set of concerns for
frontline corrections officials, including: dirty kitchens that in one
county produced maggots, frequent cooking delays that throw off prison
schedules, food quality that often falls beneath expectations and a
chronic inability to follow a state rule that requires every inmate to
receive the same meal. So vigilant is Aramark's cost-cutting that a
supervisor ordered workers to scoop food from pans in a way that
wouldn't jam too much into the ladle, said Norma Schamens, 33, an
Aramark employee for three months in Gulf County before she was fired in
May. "There were some decent meals," she said. "But they
were few and far between." "Any corrections officer will tell
you that when inmates don't get fed right, that's where the riots
start," said Al Shopp, a former corrections officer who monitors
working conditions in prisons for the Florida Police Benevolent
Association. "It's an officer safety issue . . . It's just a
situation that I'm afraid will eventually go awry." Before Aramark,
Florida corrections officers cooked meals. "It was like a military
operation. You got them in, you got them fed and you got them out,"
Shopp said. "There were bumps in the road, but nothing like it is
today." (St. Petersburg Times, June 17, 2002)
Fresno County Juvenile Hall,
Fresno, California
June 28, 2006 KFSN
An investigation is underway into a troubling discovery at Fresno
County's juvenile hall, where a rodent head was found inside a dinner
meal. The current juvenile hall in southeast Fresno has been plagued
with concerns about overcrowding and other unsafe conditions. A new $142
million facility is set to open south of Fresno to take its place.
Juvenile hall officials are confirming a rodent head was found in a meal
served there. They are investigating just how the foreign object got
into the dinner meal served to a young offender. Chief Probation Officer
Linda Penner tells Action News, "It looked to be like a small mouse head
between bread that was served to a minor at the facility." Environmental
health officials are investigating how the rodent head may have gotten
into a dinner meal served on Sunday, June 18th. Meals are prepared at
the Fresno County central kitchen by a company named Aramark. The county
memo sent to employees says, "There have been no similar allegations
from the jail facilities ... and the county regularly inspects the
operation to ensure proper handling of food."
Fulton County, Fulton, Georgia
March 22, 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County will take a step back and ask more companies to bid on
a contract to feed inmates at the Fulton County Jail. Fulton's County
Commission voted unanimously Wednesday for a 90-day deferral on a vote
to hire a food service provider for the jail and satellite facilities.
County purchasing officials are to use the delay to advertise the
contract in national publications that cater to the corrections
industry. Commissioners weren't pleased by a staff recommendation to
hire Gourmet-ARAMARK Correctional Services, which the county fired two
years ago. Some commissioners drilled into the county's purchasing
guidelines because they give a big bonus to companies that have an
office in Fulton County. Commissioner Robb Pitts said Gourmet-ARAMARK
would have won the contract even if all three bidders had scored the
same in every category but one — location. For the sole reason that it
was the only company with a physical address in Fulton County, the
company outscored its competition and won the staff's recommendation,
Pitts said. Chairman John Eaves said he didn't understand why
Gourmet-ARAMARK got the nod when its $4 million bid was the highest of
the three that were submitted. It was about $1 million higher than the
low bidder. Eaves made the motion to defer the vote. Felicia
Strong-Whitaker, a deputy director of the county's purchasing
department, said the county's purchasing guidelines state that cost
makes up 25 points of the formula used to recommend a company for this
type of contract. A company gets an automatic 10 points if it has an
office in Fulton County, she said.
February 21, 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amid allegations of bid rigging and corruption, Fulton County commissioners
agreed Wednesday to rebid a lucrative food service contract at the county jail.
County Attorney O.V. Brantley said Wednesday she's launched a probe into the
allegations, but Commissioner Robb Pitts said any investigation should be turned
over to state or federal agents. "Someone seems hell bent on giving the contract
to this firm," Pitts said. "I'm going to find out why.... This is serious
stuff...This needs to be investigated, not in house but by someone outside." The
Trinity Services Group won the original contract in 2005, but it expired more
than a year ago. When it was rebid in December, Trinity received the
recommendation, even though it was the highest bidder of the three, according to
county records. One of the firms that was rejected filed a formal protest with
the county, and the other filed a letter, also with the county, claiming
employees were pressured to change bid evaluations to ensure that the deal
stayed with Trinity. Charles Mathis Jr. said his client, Meat Masters Inc., was
the rightful winner of the contract with a bid that was $850,000 lower than
Trinity's $4.1 million offer. They only failed, Mathis said in his letter,
because county employees were pressured to doctor the bid evaluations. "Meat
Masters should legitimately be awarded the contract," Mathis wrote. Two county
employees, Sgt. Chandra Hall and former Chief Jailer Charles Felton, provided
written statements to Meat Masters that they had been directed to change the
contract evaluations to boost the results for Trinity. The Board of
Commissioners has copies of the letters, which were also obtained by the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. Both said they were threatened that if they went before
commissioners with Meat Masters as the bidder they would be hammered. The other
bidder, Gourmet-Aramark Correctional Services, has alleged collusion involving
the other two bidders since Meat Masters was included as a subcontractor on the
winning bid by Trinity. Lawyer Michael Coleman, who served as hearing officer
for the complaint, issued a ruling on Feb. 16 that recommended Fulton rebid the
deal. "Due to the questions raised by the county's rejection of
Gourmet-ARAMARK's proposal and the collusion claims involving Trinity and Meat
Masters, the appropriate remedy is to cancel the current RFP and re-issue a new
RFP," Coleman found.
A company accused of serving bad food to
senior citizens is moving on. Aramark has voluntarily given up a
$700,000 contract to prepare food for seniors and the homebound in
Fulton County. An 11Alive News investigation last month revealed
numerous complaints about the company’s services ranging from spoiled
and outdated milk to deliveries of fish that were not fully cooked,
clumps of grease on food and one report of a roach found embedded in
meat. Earnestine Yarborough, a senior citizen, said she got
chicken that was badly undercooked. "It was pink water running out
of it and pink next to the bone,” Yarborough said. (11alive.com,
August 4, 2004)
Giants Stadium, New Jersey
October 25, 2007 The Record
On a fall Sunday eight years ago, Antonia Verni of Cliffside Park
was sent to a harsh prison, probably for the rest of her life. Her
incarceration does not include steel bars, stone walls and stern guards,
though. Antonia's prison is far more merciless. On that Sunday, a man
who later said he was "beyond drunk," drove his pickup truck head-on
into the Verni family's Toyota Corolla. Antonia was paralyzed from the
neck down. She was only 2 years old and was returning with her mother
and father from a trip to pick pumpkins. Antonia now spends her days in
a wheelchair, hooked to a breathing machine and monitored by a nurse.
Over the course of her life, her parents, who quit their jobs to care
for her, may have to come up with as much as $32 million to pay all of
Antonia's medical bills. The fiery crash on Terrace Avenue in Hasbrouck
Heights, which also left Antonia's mother partially blind, galvanized
national attention to the dangers of drunken drivers. But it raised
other questions, too: What about those who serve booze to drunks? Are
servers guilty? If not, why not? The drunken driver, Daniel Lanzaro, a
Cresskill carpenter and father of two young sons, spent that tragic day
swilling the equivalent of three six-packs of beer, mostly inside Giants
Stadium. When he rammed his truck into the Verni car, his blood alcohol
level was more than three times the legal limit. Didn't anyone who sold
beer at Giants Stadium or at area bars later visited by Lanzaro notice
that he was blind drunk? As you might expect, this tragedy landed in
court. Lanzaro pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of vehicular assault
and was sentenced to five years in prison. The Verni family filed a
lawsuit, and won a historic $135 million judgment, with $105 million of
it to come from the stadium beer vendor, Aramark Corp. Aramark appealed
– no surprise there. Nor was it surprising that lawyers for Antonia's
family and Aramark privately worked out a settlement, approved last week
by a Bergen County judge. What's surprising – and sad -- is that the
judge sealed the records. This pivotal chapter of Antonia's story needs
to be told, not locked in a judicial file drawer. We've heard many times
how drunken driving wrecks innocent lives. Indeed, such stories are
important. But we also need to explore other, wide-ranging implications
of drunken driving, especially for those who sell booze in taverns or at
public sporting events. Our government issues liquor licenses to these
vendors. Why shouldn't taxpayers know more about them? Sealing records
in such an important court case does not add to constructive discourse.
It puts a damper on it. In reaching an agreement with Antonia's family,
Aramark issued a statement claiming it "settled the litigation without
any admission of wrongdoing." It merely paid Antonia's family – as if
that means nothing. Antonia's parents seem satisfied that the settlement
will cover their daughter's medical bills. That's good news. But why not
disclose the amount? Knowing the size of the judgment might be a warning
to vendors to be careful. And why allow Aramark to avoid admitting any
responsibility? Or was that question dropped from discussions? More
important, was Giants Stadium required to take additional steps to make
sure tipsy fans are not served at future events? Open those records.
It's the only way to be sure.
September 7, 2006 Star-Ledger
Lawyers for a Bergen County girl paralyzed in a drunken-driving accident
have asked the state Supreme Court to review her case against the beer
vendor at Giants Stadium, claiming the issues could affect
drunken-driving policies in New Jersey. The attorneys argue that a state
appeals court erred in August when it overturned a landmark $135 million
jury verdict against the stadium vendor, Aramark Corp., and a fan whose
drunken-driving accident left 2-year-old Antonia Verni of Cliffside Park
paralyzed. The appeals court ordered a new trial, ruling that testimony
about the "culture of intoxication" at the stadium should not have been
presented to the jury. Antonia's attorneys disagree. "If this decision
is allowed to stand, it will emasculate the ability of victims of drunk
driving to go after liquor establishments that serve visibly intoxicated
patrons, by eliminating certain evidence that can go before a jury, and
that's not what the law ... intended," said Antonia's attorney, David
Mazie, who filed a 25-page petition to the state Supreme Court on
Tuesday.
August 3, 2006 AP
A New Jersey appeals court on Thursday overturned a landmark $105
million verdict against a Giants Stadium concessionaire that sold beer
to a drunken football fan who later caused an auto accident, leaving a
girl paralyzed. The three-judge appeals panel ruled that the trial court
erred by improperly allowing testimony about the “drinking environment
at the stadium” and ordered a new trial should be held. “The admission
of this evidence cannot be considered harmless. A central theme of
plaintiffs’ case was the culture of intoxication at the stadium,” the
court wrote in its 65-page ruling. Last year, a state judge in
Hackensack rejected an effort by Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. to
throw out or reduce the verdict. Its vendors sold beer to Daniel Lanzaro,
of Cresskill, during a 1999 New York Giants game just hours before he
caused a car crash that left then-2-year-old Antonia Verni paralyzed
from the neck down. In January 2005, a Bergen County jury said Lanzaro
and Aramark should pay a total of $135 million in damages. At the time,
legal experts said it was the largest alcohol liability award in the
United States in at least the last 25 years. Aramark’s portion of that
award included $30 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in
punitive damages.
May 31, 2006 NewJersey.com
Lawyers for a food-service giant that was ordered to pay $105 million to
the family of a Cliffside Park girl paralyzed in a drunken-driving crash
argued Tuesday that the victim's father shares responsibility for her
condition. Antonia Verni was 2 years old when a truck driven by a
drunken Cresskill man slammed head-on into her family's sedan on Terrace
Avenue in Hasbrouck Heights on Oct. 29, 1999. A Bergen County jury in
January 2005 ruled that employees of Aramark Corp. irresponsibly sold
beer to the drunken driver, Daniel Lanzaro, contributing to the crash.
The jurors awarded more than $135 million in compensatory and punitive
damages – an amount many lawyers believe is the largest ever in such a
lawsuit. Aramark is liable for $105 million and Lanzaro the rest.
Arguing before a state appellate panel in Trenton on Tuesday, Aramark
attorneys lambasted Superior Court Judge Richard Donohue for dismissing
evidence that they said should have been admitted during the civil case
in Hackensack. For one thing, they contended, Ronald Verni had strapped
Antonia in an adult seat belt instead of a child restraint. The impact
jolted her head forward, breaking her neck and causing the paralysis,
they said. Antonia's mother, Fazila Baksh Verni, was the only other
person seriously injured in the crash. The woman, who the lawyers said
wasn't wearing a seat belt, was hospitalized for two months and left
partially blinded. "Everyone walked away from the accident, except
Antonia and her mother," said Aramark lawyer Michael Rodburg. However,
he said, the jurors in Hackensack were never allowed to review that
evidence during the trial. "This was a smear case against Aramark," he
said. "And the judge allowed it."January 26, 2006 Star-Ledger
A lawyer for an 8-year-old paralyzed car crash victim has filed a motion
to expedite the appeal of a $135 million jury verdict, most of it
against the beer service company at Giants Stadium. Attorney David Mazie
of Roseland said the state appellate court should speed up the case
because his client, Antonia Verni, is ventilator-dependent and has been
unable to get the 24-hour nursing care that experts on both sides of the
case recommend. Neither Antonia nor her mother, Fazila, has been able to
collect the money while the case is pending, Mazie said. "It's very
unusual to file an appeal to expedite," Mazie said. "It's only done in
the gravest of cases. We think her situation is one such case. This is
to prevent something catastrophic from happening." Last January, Antonia
and her mother were awarded $135 million in compensatory and punitive
damages, most of it against Aramark Corp., the concessionaire at Giants
Stadium. A jury determined there was a "culture of intoxication" at the
stadium and found Aramark guilty of serving a visibly drunk fan who
later caused the car crash that left the Cliffside Park girl injured.
Aramark appealed, but a state appellate court could take until September
to hear arguments. Antonia's court-appointed legal guardian for the
case, Albert Burstein, said the second-grader can't wait that long to
collect her award. He said the family only has limited access to about
$500,000 collected in settlements from third parties. "There's not
enough money to match the daily costs of taking care of Antonia,"
Burstein said. "If we were to do the job we would like to do on her
behalf, which means round-the-clock care by professionals, it adds up
very rapidly." Antonia has a nurse during school hours, paid for by the
school district. Her mother, who has no formal medical training, cares
for Antonia at home.
September 25, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
Fans who drive after drinking excessively at 49ers or Raiders games, or
any other sporting event, would be well advised to consider the plight
of an 8-year-old New Jersey girl. And a vendor who sells an intoxicated
fan another beer should think not only about the little girl but about
the multimillion-dollar judgment a jury ruled she and her family were
entitled to receive earlier this year from the New York Giants'
concessionaire. "Concessionaires throughout the country are well
aware of that case," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. In January, a
jury awarded $135 million to the family of Antonia Verni, who was
paralyzed from the neck down in a car wreck caused by a drunken football
fan. The fan is serving a five-year prison sentence, and the
concessionaire whose employees sold him beers when he was already
clearly intoxicated will pay the family $110 million unless the verdict,
currently on appeal, is reduced or reversed. The NFL, the 49ers and the
Raiders say the Verni case was a wakeup call for the league and the
people who serve fans millions of dollars worth of beer and other
alcoholic beverages each season. Like other pro sports leagues, the NFL
is heavily intertwined with beer companies. Their signage is as much a
part of stadiums as the goalposts, and their commercials form the
backbone of the league's TV sponsorship. Attorney David Mazie said from
his office in Roseland, N.J., "Quite frankly, I haven't heard
anything that demonstrates the NFL and teams have changed their policies
on serving alcohol -- other than paying lip service. I haven't seen
anything at all." Mazie called the verdict against Aramark "a
milestone" in holding a concessionaire accountable. "There may
have been settlements before, but I'm not aware of any verdicts.
Clearly, it's a landmark, not only because of its size but because of
the punitive damages."Lanzaro "was trashed" when the
accident occurred, Mazie said. "I'm sure there were 5,000 others in
the same condition (driving away from the game)." "As long as
you're not falling down, they'll serve you," Mazie said of Aramark
employees. "The person who trained them said that. But by the time
you're slurring your speech or stumbling, your blood-alcohol is between
.10 and .15. Anything above .08 is drunk driving, so what they're saying
is they'll still serve people when they're at twice the legal
limit." "There are a series of signs -- slurring of speech,
talking a lot, not being able to hold themselves up straight,"
spokesman David Freireich said from the firm's headquarters in
Philadelphia. Aramark is a founding member of the Techniques for
Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) Coalition, a nonprofit group that
advises pro sports leagues and sponsors designated-driver programs at
McAfee Coliseum and other parks, Freireich pointed out.
March 4, 2005 USA Today
A state judge on
Friday upheld a $105 million verdict against a Giants Stadium
concessionaire for selling beer to a drunken football fan who later
caused an auto accident, leaving a girl paralyzed. State Superior Court
Judge Richard J. Donohue in Hackensack rejected an effort by
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. to throw out or reduce the verdict. Its
vendors sold beer to Daniel Lanzaro of Cresskill during a 1999 New York
Giants game hours before he caused a car crash that left then 2-year-old
Antonia Verni paralyzed from the neck down. "It sends a message to
Aramark and other beer concessions around the state that they have to
change their ways," said David Mazie, a Roseland lawyer
representing Verni's family. Aramark's portion of that award included
$30 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages.
Interest accruing daily has brought the company's total to nearly $110
million, according to Mazie. The family claimed Aramark vendors sold
beers to Lanzaro at the stadium in East Rutherford even though he was
clearly drunk. The company, they said, fostered an atmosphere in which
intoxicated patrons were able to buy more.
January 21,
2005 Reuters
The family of a girl
paralyzed in a car crash caused by a drunken football fan won $105
million in damages from the concessionaire that sold him beer, and the
girl's father said on Thursday the case should have far-reaching
effects. The
Superior Court jury in Hackensack, New Jersey, assessed punitive damages
on Wednesday against Giants Stadium concessionaire Aramark Corp., for
its role in the October 1999 accident that left Antonia Verni, then 2
years old, paralyzed from the neck down.
January 18,
2005 AP
A jury awarded $60 million
Tuesday to the family of a girl paralyzed in a car wreck caused by a
drunken football fan. Ronald and Fazila Verni were headed home from a
pumpkin-picking trip in 1999 with their 2-year-old daughter, Antonia,
when their car was hit by a truck driven by Daniel Lanzaro, 34. Antonia
was paralyzed from the neck down. The family sued Aramark, the Giants
Stadium concessionaire, claiming vendors sold beers to Lanzaro even
though he was clearly drunk and that Aramark fostered an atmosphere in
which intoxicated patrons were served. The stadium also mandates that
fans can only buy two beers at a time -- a rule Lanzaro sidestepped by
tipping the vendor $10, allowing him to buy six beers.
January 14, 2005 WNBC
News
Jury deliberations have begun in a civil lawsuit filed by the family
of a 7-year-old girl who was paralyzed when a drunken football fan on
his way home from a New York Giants game crashed into the family's car. The
family claims Aramark, the Giants Stadium concessionaire that sold beers
to the fan, was partly responsible for the crash in Hasbrouck Heights.
The family claims Aramark vendors sold beers to Daniel Lanzaro at the
stadium even though the Cresskill man was clearly drunk and that Aramark
"fostered" an atmosphere where intoxicated patrons were
served, which is against the law.
January 12,
2005 NewJersey.com
An admitted alcoholic who
slammed his truck into a Cliffside Park family's car, paralyzing their
2-year-old daughter, wasn't visibly drunk when he bought beer at Giants
Stadium earlier that day, an alcohol expert told jurors Tuesday. Robert
J. Pandina, a psychology professor and director of the Center of Alcohol
Studies at Rutgers University, said Daniel Lanzaro of Cresskill couldn't
have had more than five or six beers inside the stadium. The
parents of the injured girl are suing Aramark, the food-service company
that holds the liquor license at the stadium, saying it sold alcohol
irresponsibly to Lanzaro. Lanzaro, a 35-year-old carpenter and father of
two, left a Giants game on Oct. 24, 1999, and crashed his truck head-on
into the car of Ronald and Fazila Baksh Verni in Hasbrouck Heights. The
crash seriously injured Baksh Verni and left the Vernis' daughter,
Antonia, a paraplegic. The family is suing Aramark under a state law
that holds vendors liable for damages caused by patrons who were served
alcohol while visibly intoxicated.
December 9,
2004 Star-Ledger
Sitting in her wheelchair
with a stuffed doll propping her head, unable to move her arms or legs,
7-year-old Antonia Verni told a jury yesterday what she wants to be when
she grows up. "I want to be a singer, a rock star, a kindergarten
teacher and a ballerina," Verni said, her melodic voice filling the
tiny courtroom. Two jurors cried. Others shifted in their seats. Doctors
say the Cliffside Park girl will never be able to walk as a result of a
car accident when she was 2 years old, when a drunken football fan
rammed his truck into her family's car as they were driving home from
pumpkin picking. Verni testified on the second day of a civil trial in
Superior Court in Bergen County in a case against Aramark, the Giants
Stadium concessionaire that sold beers to the fan who crashed into the
Vernis, Daniel Lanzaro.
December 9,
2004 NorthJersey.com
A drunken driver who
rammed his truck into a young family's car in Hasbrouck Heights -
paralyzing a 2-year-old girl for life and landing himself in prison for
five years - openly admits that he was "beyond drunk" in the
1999 accident. But the buck doesn't stop there, lawyers for the
Cliffside Park family contend. Aramark's beer servers, who sold more
than a dozen beers to the driver at Giants Stadium during a game, are
equally responsible, say the lawyers, who have taken the battle to the
multinational food-service conglomerate. As a civil trial opened
Wednesday in Superior Court in Hackensack, the first witness for the
Verni family was Daniel Lanzaro, the drunken driver, who is still in
prison. Lanzaro is a defendant, but is penniless and is testifying
willingly. He testified that Aramark concession stands - contrary to
state law and the company's internal rules - sold alcohol at the stadium
to visibly intoxicated patrons. Aramark's lawyer, Brian Harris, told the
jury during his opening statement that Lanzaro was a seasoned drinker
who didn't display signs of intoxication when he was drunk. Even though
Aramark's beer sellers are trained in identifying intoxicated people,
Lanzaro fooled them, he said.
Hendry Correctional Institute, Immokalee, Florida
A 35-year-old woman authorities say bought cocaine from an undercover
sheriff's deputy to take inside the walls of the Hendry Correctional
Institute was arrested Wednesday night. On Wednesday, Collier County
deputies received a tip from the state Inspector General's Office in the
corrections department about a cocaine delivery involving Quashie, who
worked for Aramark Food Service. She was trying to get some cocaine to
take into the prison for an inmate. (Naples Daily News, October 5, 2001)
Hutchinson Correctional Facility, Hutchinson,
Kansas
December 9, 2006 Hutchinson News
A former Aramark Services employee who worked inside the Hutchinson
Correctional Facility was sentenced to one year, three months in prison
Friday for trying to bring methamphetamine inside the prison. Joseph L.
Delancy of South Hutchinson pleaded guilty to trafficking in contraband
in a correctional facility, possession of methamphetamine with intent to
sell and unlawfully arranging a drug sale by a commercial device. He
faced up to four years, 11 months in prison. Delancy's attorney, Kerry
Granger, asked for a lesser sentence and cited his client's drug use
starting as "a misguided attempt to deal with the death of his son."
June 24, 2006 Hutchinson News
Drug detectives arrested a South Hutchinson man employed in the
Hutchinson Correctional Facility dining hall for allegedly purchasing
drugs he planned to sell to prison inmates. Joseph Lamont Delancy, 33,
worked for Aramark Services, which provides food service for part of the
prison. According to police reports, Delancy made phone contact with a
drug enforcement detective about buying an ounce of "Ice"
methamphetamine. The detective set up the drop, and Delancy allegedly
arrived and accepted the drugs from the detective. The report indicates
Delancy said he planned to sell the drugs in the correctional institute
and attempted to set up another buy with the detective. Delancy is being
held on $25,000 bond on suspicion for possession of meth with the intent
to sell, a drug tax stamp violation and unlawfully arranging a sale by a
commercial service.
Illinois
Legislature
September 15, 2004 Sun
Times
Scott Fawell, once a golden
boy of Illinois politics, cut a deal with federal prosecutors Tuesday
that put his lover's fate over the future of former Gov. George Ryan, a
man once like a father to Fawell. Fawell,
a former top aide to Ryan, pleaded guilty to a bid-rigging scheme and is
already providing prosecutors substantial assistance in their corruption
case against Ryan, the Sun-Times has learned. Fawell is also giving
information on Ryan's friend, Republican businessman Lawrence Warner,
and other potentially high-profile investigations not yet made public.
On Tuesday, Fawell pleaded guilty to leaking inside bid information in
2001 on an $11.5 million contract to oversee expansion at McCormick
Place. The company that got the contract was Jacobs Facilities Inc., a
client of Fawell's friend, Ronan. Fawell ordered his girlfriend,
Coutretsis, to give the details to an employee of Ronan's. In Fawell's
plea agreement, he admitted providing inside information to help two
other Ronan clients while Fawell oversaw McCormick Place and Navy Pier
-- food service giant Aramark, and LaSalle Bank, which wanted the ATM
contract at Navy Pier, according to the plea and sources.
Indiana State
Prison,
Michigan City, Michigan
June 25, 2008 The News-Dispatch
A contractual food service employee was arrested for trafficking
early Sunday morning at the Indiana State Prison when he allegedly
brought marijuana into work. Thomas Fly, 25, was seen with marijuana,
wrapped in plastic, falling out of his pants leg while reporting to work
at 3 a.m., said Barry Nothstine, spokesman for the prison. Prison staff
recovered the drug, which weighed two ounces. Indiana State Police took
Fly to the La Porte County jail, where he was charged with attempting to
traffic with an offender, a Class C felony, and possession of marijuana,
a Class D felony. Nothstine said he did not know how long Fly had been
assigned to the facility. He has been employed by ARAMARK Correctional
Services since 2000. The prison has been contracted with ARAMARK for the
past 18 to 24 months, he said. Nothstine said there is no indication so
far as part of the investigation that Fly has brought drugs to the
prison in the past. "The investigation report that I have seen does not
indicate that," he said.
Jackson County Adult Detention Center,
Pascagoula, Mississippi
September 27, 2006 The Mississippi Press
Overcrowding at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center should
ease in the near future. The Jackson County Board of Supervisors
approved an additional steel fabricated facility on the ADC grounds in
Pascagoula. The $1.2 million facility will house 116 inmates. It is
expected to be ready in five months. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd
said relief from overcrowding is a critical issue. "We're just doing
what we have to do to maintain what we have. It's very stressful. We
have done shakedowns where we have found weapons which is very dangerous
to officers. We had a contract employee with Aramark, we just caught her
last week bringing drugs into the facility. Everyday is a challenge just
to maintain things on a day to day basis," Byrd said.
Kane
County Jail, Kane, Illinois
January 10, 2008 The Daily Herald
Aramark, the Kane County jail's longtime food service vendor, has
come under fire by a union-affiliated group. Four representatives of the
Campaign for Quality Services, a group formed by two labor
organizations, on Tuesday asked the Kane County Board to examine its
contract with Aramark in light of complaints against the company filed
across the country. Aramark is accused of billing the Florida Department
of Corrections for meals that were never prepared or eaten and failing
to pass on the cost savings for serving less expensive food items to
inmates, according to an analysis conducted by Florida's inspector
general last year. Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez said he is aware of
those and other complaints against Philadelphia-based Aramark, which has
provided food to county jail inmates since at least 1996. Perez said he
and his staff are evaluating Aramark and other vendors in light of the
jail's pending relocation from Geneva to a new building in St. Charles
Township. "Obviously moving into the new facility, we're reviewing all
of our operations. The kitchen is one of them," Perez said. "It's
entirely possible that we're going to open this up to bid. … This may be
an opportunity for us to look and see could we get better service and
could we get it for a better price." An Aramark spokeswoman dismissed
the Campaign for Quality Services' concerns, saying the group is
interested only in increasing union membership.
Keller School Board,
Keller, Texas
September 20, 2005 Star-Telegram
Keller school trustees voted unanimously Monday to fire Aramark
Management Corp., a company paid more than $1 million annually to
supervise custodians, grounds and maintenance in the district. Aramark
has 30 days to leave the district, and district employees will take
over, Assistant Superintedent Bill Stone said moments after the vote.
The company was hired in September 1999 to oversee district employees,
including custodians, groundskeepers and maintenance workers. Their
five-year contract was renewed for another five years in 2004. But in
recent months, complaints from district employees and trustees have
grown. And on Aug. 17, Veitenheimer sent a letter to the company saying
the district "is considering termination of the agreement." According
to the letter, about one-third of the money paid to Aramark does not
cover anything tangible, but is for an "added value" the
company will bring to all tasks. That value has not been realized,
officials say. Custodians voice "an almost constant
complaint" that they do not have the supplies and materials they
need to keep buildings clean. And district officials are not certain
they are getting what they pay for. The district paid Aramark just over
$25,000 to furnish cleaning equipment needed at Liberty Elementary
School, the district's newest campus. But guidelines suggest the typical
cost for equipping a new elementary school runs $5,000 to $10,000 less,
according to the letter.
Lee County Jail,
Sanford, North Carolina
November 3, 2005 Sanford Herald
District Attorney Tom Lock will not pursue charges against a former Lee
County Jail kitchen employee, who was under investigation for allegedly
buying food with jail funds and using them in his private catering
business. Lock asked the State Bureau of Investigation to conduct a
probe into the issue after it was brought to him in March by Herb Hincks,
the chairman of the Lee County Board of Commissioners, who told Lock
that he'd heard that the chief cook at the jail was diverting jail food
to his own business. "After reviewing the SBI's report, I have
concluded that there is no credible evidence upon which to lodge any
criminal charges against the suspect," Lock said in a press release
on Tuesday. Lock said the SBI reviewed a number of
"suspicious" receipts and invoices for food purchases from
various food vendors, interviewed Hincks, as well as county
commissioners Amy Stevens and Ed Paschal, Lee County Finance Director
Lisa Minter and finally the suspect. There was at least some evidence
that Hincks' concerns were shared by others: n Both Stevens and Paschal
told the SBI they'd heard similar allegations against the suspect on a
second-hand basis. n Minter told the SBI that she had concerns about
what the county was paying for meals in the jail compared to other
counties. But Lock said that there was "no substance" to the
allegations. Lock said some of the most compelling evidence came from
the suspect himself, whom neither Lock nor sheriff's department
officials would identify other than by his title, "chief
cook." Lock's press release indicates the cook "denied
stealing any food from the Lee County Jail or diverting any food
products for the jail to his personal catering business." Lock also
said the suspect submitted to an SBI polygraph test in August and passed
it. The suspect still works in the jail's kitchen, but not as a county
employee. In the summer, the board of commissioners voted to contract
all kitchen duties to Aramark, a private company. Bryant said he's not
sure if it saves the county money, but he likes the arrangement.
October 2, 2005 Sanford Herald
District Attorney Tom Lock says his review of the investigation into
whether an employee with the Lee County Jail illegally diverted food to
his own catering business is nearly finished. The allegation is that the
jail kitchen employee, who runs a private catering business, was
ordering food through the jail and taking it to use at his own business.
The employee, who has not been named publicly by either the sheriff's
department or by Lock, still works at the jail but not as a county
employee, according to Kevin Bryant, chief deputy of the Lee County
Sheriff's Office. Rather, he now works for Aramark, a company the county
began contracting with for food services in the spring.
September 5, 2005 Sanford Herald
State Bureau of Investigation officials are promising to deliver a
report about the possi |