Local firm under scrutiny for contributions to Reid

A local architecture firm that recently won an $8.3 million federal contract to redesign a U.S. border crossing in California is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is up for re-election next year.

Henderson resident Randy Spitzmesser prompted the FEC probe of his former employer, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects.

On behalf of the architecture firm, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by fax last month, "We do not believe that anything was intentionally done wrong" regarding campaign finances.

Spitzmesser also thinks Henderson-based Tate Snyder Kimsey did not adequately disclose its recent history of legal disputes to the agency that awarded the border-crossing job.

His FEC complaint alleges the architecture firm illegally forced him to donate $1,000 to Reid in February and then covertly repaid him after he complained he didn't have the money to spare. The firm hid the transaction, he said, by adding an extra $1,000 to a check that was also his reimbursement for legitimate business expenses. Federal laws prohibit campaign contributions that come from corporations, disguise the true donor's identity or involve coercion.

"We should not force our political will" in the workplace, is how Spitzmesser explained his resistance to supporting Reid. He said he voiced his opposition directly to Windom Kimsey, a firm principal. Spitzmesser said Kimsey responded that individuals who did not support Reid "will not have any work for the upcoming year."

In late June, the firm laid off Spitzmesser, citing a lack of work. Less than a month later, it won a huge assignment from the U.S. General Services Administration to modernize and expand the land port of entry in Otay Mesa, Calif. Federal stimulus dollars will pay for the project.

Reid and his re-election staff are aware of the FEC probe, campaign manager Brandon Hall said Friday.

"The allegation is against the company, not the Reid campaign," Hall said. "It's an issue for the firm."

Reid discarded Spitzmesser's contribution last month, shortly after the FEC notified his campaign of the complaint. Reid's staff sent $1,000 to the U.S. Treasury, which is "how you get rid of contributions made from improper sources, as (Spitzmesser) alleges it was," Hall said.

Tate Snyder Kimsey is downplaying the FEC review.

Its statement from Hunterton also said Tate Snyder Kimsey will respond "at the appropriate time to the (Federal Election) Commission. ... We will have no further comment until the matter is resolved."

Hunterton, Kimsey and William Snyder -- one of the architecture firm's founders -- are all longtime financial supporters of Reid, according to the FEC.

Hall said the Reid campaign has until Dec. 3 to respond to the FEC. To prepare, he said, it sent a letter to all donors who attended a February fundraiser sponsored by Tate Snyder Kimsey. The letter asks each to verify the donation was voluntary and came from personal funds.

Spitzmesser said that in early 2009, he saw partner Windom Kimsey going desk to desk soliciting Reid contributions. He said that he objected to Kimsey and that Kimsey had mentioned not having collected "enough" contributions. Spitzmesser said he heard Kimsey and Kimsey's personal assistant say other employees were going to be reimbursed, too.

Four other Reid donors contacted by the Review-Journal -- two employees of Tate Snyder Kimsey and two from other companies that do business with it -- have either declined to respond or characterized their donations as voluntary.

To make the case that he was coerced and reimbursed, Spitzmesser showed the Review-Journal photocopies of his Feb. 5 expense report for $1,476.59, his Feb. 17 check to Reid's campaign and his Feb. 17 reimbursement check for $2,476.59 -- $1,000 more than his expenses.

Tate Snyder Kimsey sponsored a fundraiser luncheon for the Senate majority leader on Feb. 17 at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. Spitzmesser had served as the firm's lead designer for two of the buildings at the preserve.

The event raised "just over $20,000," Hall said. The senator attended but was not involved in its planning. Hall declined to identify who had coordinated it from the campaign's side.

When Tate Snyder Kimsey laid off Spitzmesser, it retained architects with less experience, he contends. "Termination due to lack of work" was the reason cited in a company document dated June 23.

Besides his own paperwork, Spitzmesser produced a copy of a June 2008 letter about Tate Snyder Kimsey, written to Reid by the GSA, the procurement agency that divvies up the work on most federal construction projects. The letter came from the man who was then the GSA's highest official.

"Thank you for your letter of Feb. 8, 2008 on behalf of ... Tate Snyder Kimsey," David Bibb, then acting administrator of the GSA, wrote to Reid. Bibb's letter went on to explain that contrary to Reid's understanding, the Nevada firm was not the only prequalified company -- in a pool of 18 firms -- that had won no GSA work in a round of assignments that was just ending.

The Nevada firm was one of nine in the pool that went without.

But the official promised to give "due consideration" if Tate Snyder Kimsey submitted a new proposal in the next round of GSA assignments, which is now under way and includes the Otay Mesa job.

Reid's prior letter had talked about a "potential oversight" that might have caused Tate Snyder Kimsey to be the only firm to get no GSA work.

In the letter, he described the firm as one of the nation's "premier design firms," whose accomplishments include a terminal at McCarran International Airport, buildings at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve and the Clark County Regional Justice Center. The last, the senator described as "one of the largest and most technologically advanced courthouses in the United States."

Reid's letter predates the firm's settlement with Clark County in December over alleged design flaws in the justice center. The county agreed not to sue the firm in exchange for $1.8 million that came from an insurance policy bought by the firm.

Snyder is a member of the Nevada State Board of Architecture, which makes decisions about the integrity of architects who do business in the state. In September, UNLV inducted Snyder into its Nevada Entertainer/Artist Hall of Fame.

After the architecture firm laid off Spitzmesser, he opened a solo design practice in California.

Washington, D.C., lawyer Kenneth Gross, former counsel to the FEC, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it is difficult to prove a quid pro quo when a politician or candidate receives a campaign contribution and then later performs a service that benefits the donor.

Gross was not familiar with the specific Nevada situation.

But as a rule, he said, "Helping a constituent out is the nature of the job."

Contact reporter Joan Whitely at jwhitely@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0268.