Akers awarded contract despite not paying rent

Tom Akers and his consulting firm have enjoyed a long, lucrative relationship with Clark County.

Akers &Associates has a two-year, $227,500 county contract, the most recent in a line of business arrangements since 2007, when he was hired to teach small and dis­advantaged businesses how to navigate the county’s procurement process and secure county contracts. Under Akers’ guidance, the county’s Business Opportunity and Workforce Development Program also offers classes on fundamental business practices such as cash-flow management.

But while paying Akers to teach others how to run their businesses and work with the county, the county has sued its favored consultant over his own business practices.

In 2013, Akers rented a 5,154-square-foot office suite from Clark County in a building at 1845 E. Russell Road, on the perimeter of McCarran International Airport. Missed rent payments, bounced checks and penalties quickly started piling up. He now owes the county $57,874.

Yet last July, the County Commission renewed its relationship with Akers, awarding his company a no-bid deal worth $227,550 over two years.

State law allows governments to enter into professional service contracts without seeking bids, but it’s unclear why the county wanted to keep using its deadbeat tenant to teach sound business practices to others hoping to also get county contracts.

It’s not that the county didn’t know Akers had problems: The commission vote came six days after county attorneys sent Akers a final demand for payment.

And public records show Akers and Associates has had major financial difficulties throughout its relationship with the county, including lawsuits filed by other landlords seeking unpaid rent and pending liens and judgments of more than $15,000 by the IRS and the state of Nevada for failure to file business-related unemployment taxes.

All of that was apparent well before McCarran International Airport officials even agreed to rent to Akers.

County officials don’t offer much explanation for their loyalty to Akers, other than saying he has provided a good service through the years. But all parties acknowledge they could have done things differently.

“This is a very unfortunate situation,” County Manager Don Burnette told the Review-Journal last week.

Akers said Thursday he intends to make things right and pay his county debt, a promise he has made in the past — and broken.

AKERS ON THE JOB

Akers was at work for the county Thursday, meeting with about two dozen members of the business community in the conference room at his new offices on Sunset Road.

His seminars include 12 classes over several months focusing on topics such as best practices for businesses, government purchasing laws, insurance and project management. The program culminates in May with an exposition where graduates pitch their goods and services to county agencies.

He doesn’t work alone — county staffers and others were also on hand to explain the procurement process and how to submit competitive bids.

With a gregarious style, Akers encouraged the group to applaud classmates as they introduced themselves.

“Show some love,” he told the group.

Akers went on to explain the importance of building relationships. He stressed that he doesn’t decide who gets county contracts — he just provides education and a connecting point for meeting county purchasing staffers.

“I’m not it,” he said. “I’m not the one that’s going to make it work for you.”

Introducing Clark County Purchasing Administrator Adleen Stidhum, Akers stressed that personal relationships matter most.

“When the dust settles on Tom Akers, this is the person you need,” he said.

In an interview, he said he’s a small-business owner who, like many others, has experienced financial struggles.

According to court papers, Akers was hit with a $64,000 judgment in July 2013 after he failed to pay office rent to a previous landlord. In court papers filed in July 2014, that landlord complained that Akers wasn’t keeping up with his court-ordered repayment plan.

Akers said he also has a repayment plan with the IRS. He said he plans to pay all of his debts and blamed his money problems on difficulties related to shifting his software company into his current county-focused consultancy, which he hopes to expand to government agencies in other states.

His company has just two other employees. He readily admits he’s no financial expert, isn’t rich and doesn’t purport to know everything.

He also notes that other people participate in the program and lend expertise and guidance.

“I can’t tell people how to avoid my financial issues,” he said.

THE COUNTY DEBT

How Akers came to owe Clark County $57,874 is complicated.

In July 2013 Akers moved into the Marnell Airport Center, in an office building on Russell Road owned by real estate development company Marnell Properties but leased to the county’s Department of Aviation.

Aviation Department spokesman Chris Jones said Marnell Properties gave Akers an early-occupancy agreement, but after it was determined that Marnell could not directly sublease to another party the county became the lessor. A Marnell official was unavailable for comment Friday.

Akers’ rental was accomplished under a six-month temporary space use permit signed in October 2013, county records show. The county uses the short-term permits for things like leasing vacant land for truck storage.

Jones said the county was aware of Akers’ checkered financial history because Marnell had done due diligence. Any concerns about finances were overridden by the county’s “long-standing business relationship” with the firm, its services and the fact that it had stable revenue from a two-year contract with the county, Jones said.

Jones refused to describe the county’s typical vetting practices and polices for other tenants, saying only that the “due diligence process will vary.”

The Review-Journal requested all county records related to the permit application, but the Department of Aviation said it has none.

Under county code, six-month permits may be issued at the discretion of either the County Commission or the aviation director. There’s no set application process in county code. County records show Airport Director Rosemary Vassiliadis, who was unavailable for comment for this article, signed off on that first permit and another issued months later.

Akers said he moved into the county-managed office suite intending to sub-lease some of the space to another company to cover his costs. Things went bad when that deal fell through, he said.

County records show Akers had paid only $3,687 in rent and was $39,558 in arrears when the county issued him a second six-month permit in January 2014. That deal included a repayment plan, which fell through.

In June 2014, Vassiliadis notified the consultant that he wouldn’t get a third permit and told him to have his things removed by July 11. Later that month he had a new business address — just in time for the County Commission to unanimously award him that new contract.

“Communication’s always a challenge here, and there’s always room for improvement,” Burnette said.

Commissioners weren’t informed of the situation by any county administrators or attorneys when the contract came up for a vote in July 2014.

“I was not aware of that at that time,” County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said. “Obviously, I like as much information as possible. At the same time, I understand they were trying to work it out.”

But Vassiliadis was aware of both the debt and that Akers was a county consultant. In August she sent Akers a letter rejecting a repayment plan he had proposed, with a reminder that county attorneys are pursuing collection.

“…There is no supporting evidence that Akers &Associates, Inc. is willing to honor a payment plan even though it has a contract with Clark County that provides the financial means to satisfy the amount due,” the aviation director wrote.

In October, the county filed suit in Clark County District Court, but it’s still willing to work with Akers and to give him some slack.

On Tuesday, Akers was offered still another repayment plan: He can still get paid for his services, in $9,500-a-month installments, but each month he has to report to the county business office to sign over the check until he squares his debt.

That offer came one day after the Review-Journal asked to interview county purchasing staff about Akers’ program.

Akers signed the agreement Friday. Burnette had threatened to terminate Akers’ consulting contract if he didn’t.

“While he’s done a good job of teaching small and disadvantaged businesses here in Clark County about the local government procurement process, he has not set a good example for local businesses that have gone through the program in terms of living up to your contractual agreements,” Burnette said.

Officials say the business opportunity program has flourished under Akers: disadvantaged small businesses received an estimated $3.74 million in discretionary awards from the county in 2014, up from $3.36 million in 2013.

But Burnette said there are limits.

“He has not been a good partner as it relates to his own business dealings with the county,” Burnette said. “I’m dis­appointed that it’s come to this.”

A LONG RELATIONSHIP

Akers and Clark County have been together a long time.

In the 1990s, he had a contract to help produce television shows for the county and was on the county payroll for a year while overseeing a business development center. Later he developed a computer program that helps small businesses make connections with larger companies needing subcontractors.

In 1994, Akers had a county contract to do a regional economic study of disparity trends. He also has produced a television show for the Regional Transportation Commission and administered a Nevada Department of Transportation program.

Akers said that in 2007 he approached Clark County with the idea of starting a pilot program for what is now the Business Opportunity and Workforce Development Program. The county hired his firm without seeking other proposals in December of that year. A second no-bid contract followed in 2009.

In 2010, the county applied for a federal Economic Development Administration grant to cover the program. In the application, the county cited his software program in saying it wanted to stick with Akers and Associates without seeking other proposals — something the feds don’t allow. Clark County won the $400,000 grant, but it came with a required competitive bidding process.

Four firms applied in 2012. Each was evaluated by a team drawn from other public agencies. Only one evaluater, an airport staffer, was a county employee.

Akers and Associates again won the contract.

County officials said the competition was fair.

“I believe it was a good recommendation,” Burnette said. “There’s nothing to suggest it was bad. Again, I think he’s provided a good service under the contract.”

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.