Conflict in DeKalb school role, exec post?

DeKalb school official Pat Pope worked as the vice president of her then-husband’s architecture company when she made decisions on school district construction projects that benefited the company, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The documents, obtained from a Florida school district where the company competed for architecture work, also show that Pat Pope, who recently resumed using her maiden name, Reid, signed a financial contract for Vincent Pope Architects and was listed as its chief operating officer — the same position she held for DeKalb’s school district when she ran its construction program.

The documents, from the Broward County school district in Fort Lauderdale, describe the duties that Reid performed for her then-husband Tony Vincent Pope’s company: estimating, scheduling and quality control review.

At the same time, Reid’s actions in DeKalb either gave Tony Pope’s company work or made it possible for the company to get work, even though her position with the school district precluded it from working on school projects there.

When reached by phone for comment, Reid hung up on a reporter and did not return a subsequent voice mail message. Her attorney, Manny Arora, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tony Pope referred questions to his attorney, Calvin Leipold, who released a brief statement acknowledging Reid’s connection to the company while contending she had a minimal role.

“She was not actively involved in that business and did no work on the only [Florida] school and municipality project that the company was involved in,” Leipold wrote. “She received no funds whatsoever in reference to that project.”

Leipold also wrote that Reid’s ties to her then-husband’s company — the two were recently granted an annulment — “had nothing to do with her [school district] job in Georgia.”

However, her actions at the school district helped contribute to the company’s financial success. The DeKalb school projects that Tony Pope’s company got — one of them unbeknownst to school officials — were among the largest projects his company worked on in the past decade, documents show. And Tony Pope touted his DeKalb County work when competing for the jobs in Florida.

The attorney for former Superintendent Crawford Lewis, to whom Reid reported, said it’s news to Lewis that she was working for her husband’s company at the time.

“He would not have hired her if he had known that,” attorney Mike Brown said Monday. “If he would have known about it, he would have told her to make a choice: Either to take the job or to work with her husband.”

Reid and Tony Pope have been under investigation by the district attorney’s office since February 2009. Authorities are investigating whether Reid, who has been reassigned but continues to receive her salary of nearly $200,000 a year, broke the law by allegedly steering contracts to Tony Pope’s firm and construction companies where she has connections. Several others, including Lewis, are also under investigation.

In a series of articles, the AJC has reported on numerous instances in which Reid made decisions on — or changes to — construction projects that benefited Tony Pope’s company.

But this is the first time the newspaper has obtained records outlining her involvement with the firm while she worked for the school district.

The school district declined to comment on the revelation.

Lewis hired Reid in October 2005. At the time, the DeKalb school board knew that she was married to Tucker architect Tony Pope, former board member Cassandra Anderson-Littlejohn said recently. But the board was never informed that she had been working with his company or would continue to do so, she said.

Reid’s role with Vincent Pope Architects is not listed on her school district job application, though two previous jobs she had with construction companies are cited.

But any financial interest she had in the company should not have been an issue, because the company wasn’t supposed to get work from the district while she was employed there, Anderson-Littlejohn said.

“It was irrelevant,” Anderson-Littlejohn said. “If we eliminated him from the process, then there could not be any [issues].”

However, as the AJC has reported, Tony Pope’s company found ways to get work — often aided by decisions his wife made from her school district position.

Tony Pope’s company worked on at least three multimillion-dollar construction projects while Reid ran the construction program.

One of them — the renovation of Columbia High School — began before she was hired, but Reid later extended the project, adding $677,000 to her husband’s company’s contract.

Reid altered the other two projects in a way that made it possible for Tony Pope’s company to work on them. She dismissed two architecture firms that had been hired to work on them, and later had the contractors that were building the schools hire architects directly. Both contractors hired Tony Pope.

Reid’s attorney, Arora, has said that she has done nothing wrong.

DeKalb’s school district does not prohibit such actions, but the district attorney’s office is investigating numerous possible crimes, including racketeering, bid-rigging, mail fraud, wire fraud, theft by taking, theft by deception, false writings and false swearing, according to search warrants.

Tony Pope founded his company, Vincent Pope Architects, in 1996 in Georgia.

A decade later, in August 2006, he expanded the business to Florida. At the time, Reid had been working for the school district for less than a year. Tony Pope soon began reporting that he had offices in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, public documents show.

Documents also show that Reid was involved with the company in both states.

On incorporation documents filed with the Florida Department of State, Pat and Tony Pope were listed as the company’s two officials until her name was removed from the records in July 2008 — shortly before authorities in DeKalb began investigating the couple.

Documents from the Georgia secretary of state’s office list Pat Pope as the company’s chief financial officer and secretary in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Her name was removed in 2008.

Vincent Pope Architects has tried four times to get work from the Broward County school district in Fort Lauderdale. On two of the attempts, the company was invited to give presentations to the school districts.

Documents related to both of those attempts — one was from 2007, the other from 2008 — describe Pat Pope as a top official with Vincent Pope.

In documents related to the 2007 project, Pat Pope is listed as the company’s vice president and chief operating officer. They also include a photo of Pat and Tony Pope, both smiling and standing arm in arm.

Around that time, the couple traveled to the Broward school district’s facilities and construction management division, and introduced themselves to staffers. Such visits from potential contractors are common, school official Shelley Meloni said.

In the 2008 documents, Reid is pictured on an organizational chart of Vincent Pope Architects. On it, she and Tony Pope are listed as the company’s principals.

Those documents also include a list of four references provided by Vincent Pope. One of them is the former Superintendent Lewis; another is David Moody, a Lithonia construction company owner and friend of the Popes. Lewis and Moody, both of whom gave Tony Pope’s company high marks, are also under investigation in the same case.

Tony Pope’s company ended up getting one of those projects in Broward County, the design of a 9,100-square-foot outdoor dining area at a high school in Pompano Beach.