Santa Rosa Councilman Approved Construction Projects for Builders Who Utilize or Promote His Insurance Firm's Services
Councilman Jeff Okrepkie's George Petersen Insurance Agency partnered with North Coast Builders Exchange to offer workers' compensation programs for local construction companies
Since July 2011, Santa Rosa Councilman Jeff Okrepkie has been employed with George Petersen Insurance Agency as a commercial lines agent. Per his LinkedIn profile, he specializes in Commercial Liability Insurance and Workers Compensation.
The Northern California Engineering Contractors Association (ECA) published the following North Coast Builders Exchange (NCBE) Workers’ Comp Program flyer which lists Councilmember Okrepkie as the point of contact. Councilmember Okrepkie is a past Board Member for the ECA.
George Petersen’s website stated the following:
‘The North Coast Builders Exchange is receiving rave reviews on its workers' comp program, developed with their partners and agents here at George Petersen Insurance Agency. This program has the enthusiastic backing of the NCBE Board of Directors because it combines first-class service with competitive rates, only available to NCBE Members.’
The current ECA roster is shown below:
The 2023 ECA Board roster was as follows:
The NCBE’s 2024-2025 Board roster includes the following Officers and Directors:
On July 23, 2024, Councilmember Okrepkie seconded a motion to approve the following Santa Rosa City Council agenda item:
It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department that the Council, by motion, award Contract Number C02383, Roseland Pavement Maintenance 2024, in the amount of $1,999,838.90 to the lowest responsible bidder, Ghilotti Brothers of San Rafael, California, approve a 10% contract contingency, and authorize a total contract amount of $2,199,822.79.
Mr. Dale Mahoney, Area Manager at Ghilotti Construction Company serves as a 2024-2025 Director to the NCBE Board.
On January 24, 2023, Santa Rosa Council approved the following recommendation. Councilmember Okrepkie voted in favor:
It is recommended by the Fire Department, Finance Department and the Transportation and Public Works Department that the Council, by resolution: 1) award a Design-Build Contract No. C02184, Fire Station 5 Resiliency and Relocation project using the City’s standard Design Build Contract, in the amount of $15,241,753 to the best value Design-Build entity, Wright Contracting LLC of Santa Rosa, CA; 2) approve a 20% contract contingency, for a total contract amount of $18,290,103.60; and 3) amend the FY 2022-23 budget to a) increase appropriations from the General Fund reserves in the amount of $2,832,504, and b) increase appropriations in the amount of $16,939,076 from Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) federal grant funds and increase federal grant revenue estimates by $16,939,076
Ms. Lisa Freedman, Director of Project Development, Wright Contracting, serves on the 2024-2025 NCBE Board.
The NCBE 2023 IRS Form 990 indicated that Ms. Freedman served on the Board for the time period in which the Fire Station 5 Resiliency and Relocation project was approved.
Councilmember Okrepkie first ran for City Council in 2022 after serving as a Planning Commissioner. Campaign finance statements indicated that he received monetary contributions from construction companies such as Ghilotti Construction.
Councilmember Okrepkie founded Coffey Strong, a nonprofit organization that united the neighborhood and provided resources to over 1,300 homeowners during the rebuilding process. Coffey Strong worked on fundraising and management of several projects within the Coffey Park community in partnership with the City of Santa Rosa.
On September 30, 2019, the City of Santa Rosa published the following press release:
The new playground at Coffey Neighborhood Park will be nature-themed with soothing colors and pops of bright color for fun. Representatives from the Coffey Park neighborhood and Coffey Strong recommended the proposal from Ross Recreation, which is the local distributor of the national playground design company Landscape Structures. The neighborhood committee worked with City staff through a series of meetings and reviewed several playground proposals before making the recommendation.
The playground includes a tot lot for children ages two to five-years and a second play area for school age children ages five to twelve. The two play areas are next to each other but separated by a pathway. As requested, the playgrounds feature the maximum number of swings possible (9 of them), while still allowing for other play features.
On September 24th, City Council approved a $3.9 million construction contract with Team Ghilotti to rebuild the five-acre Coffey Neighborhood Park. The first order of business for Team Ghilotti will be to build the pathways and other infrastructure leading to and around the playgrounds. Meanwhile, the City is in the process of purchasing the play equipment, which will come ready to install. The goal is to have the playground equipment installed and the southwest portion of Coffey Neighborhood Park open to the public by the end of 2019. The remainder of the park is set open in Summer 2020.
“While the timeline is extremely aggressive and weather-dependent, we are all excited for the children and families of the Coffey Park neighborhood to once again enjoy their park as soon as possible,” said Deputy Director of Parks, Jen Santos.
On June 19, 2023, the ECA issued the following newsletter statements:
The ECA met with the City of Santa Rosa on June 15, 2023, to discuss how to make Public Works projects go to bid quicker, get bid and awarded faster, and get built and completed quicker. We met with Maraskeshia Smith (City Manager for Santa Rosa), Jason Nutt (Assistant City Manager for Santa Rosa), Tracy Duenas P.E. (Supervising Engineer for Santa Rosa), as well as Andrew from Material Lab and Lisa from Contracts and Lori from Capitol Projects. On our side we had comments from Team Ghilotti, and attendance from Dan Giordani of Argonaut, Dale Mahoney from Ghilotti Construction Company, Troy Simning from Ghilotti Brothers, Inc., and Josh Cleaver and Dean Soiland from BoDean. I thought the meeting went well and discussions were held as to what we felt the city does well, with some suggestions on where they might improve and get better pricing in the future. Most of the suggestions were around asking the materials lab to consider standardizing some of their requirements to conform to Caltrans specs, asking the City to name CM’s prior to bid, requesting the City speed up the timeline from bid opening to Notice to Proceed from 4 months to two months, and some consideration of letting GC’s do more of their own “means and methods” like design fit of handicap ramps simply being shown as a certain standard and allowing the GC to fit them to existing surrounding conditions. Many other items were discussed, and it was a productive meeting. Thanks to all who participated!
Is it possible that the City of Santa Rosa’s elected or appointed officials are colluding with staff throughout the request for proposal process to offer publicly-funded contracts to their network of clients and buddies?
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
-Proverbs 22:1
Selecting friends vs going through the formal bidding process is normal for California.