The world of big-dollar school construction in D.C. is pretty cozy.

From Loose Lips (Alan Suderman) at the City Paper.

The world of big-dollar school construction in D.C. is pretty cozy.

How cozy? Two private firms are effectively awarding school contracts to their partners on other construction projects. That’s like two judges on American Idol having side-gig bands with some of the contestants.

For the next six years, the city is set to spend about $300 million a year on school renovation and construction projects. Two private construction management firms, McKissack & McKissack and Brailsford & Dunlavey, are helping the District government oversee all that spending. The firms’ responsibilities includes evaluating proposals and picking winners for city contracts with construction companies and architecture firms.

The two firms have had this job since 2007, when they won a contract ultimately worth tens of millions from the newly created Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization. That office, headed by Allen Lew, had a virtual blank check to fix up the city’s broken schools. When Vince Gray was elected mayor, he made Lew his city administrator and Lew created the Department of General Services, where McKissack and Brailsford continue in their role as contract pickers.

How does that role work? In one instance last December, a three-member panel met in private to decide how to dole out more than $50 million in school renovation projects. The panel, according to records filed with the D.C. Council, included Philip Artin, a senior vice president at McKissack who is a close friend of Lew’s; Will Mangrum, a senior vice president from Brailsford; and a District government project manager, Eupert Braithwaite.

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