One year to the day after allegations became public that a Facilities Management employee may have improperly accepted gifts from a painting contractor, the University's investigation continues, according to officials.
The allegations centered around L.T. "Spike" Weeks, a contracts manager in Facilities Management, who allegedly accepted gifts from John Sandalis, who at the time owned Dalis Painting, a painting company that contracts with the University.
Documents obtained by The Cavalier Daily last January indicate that Weeks accepted from Sandalis a Western Union money transfer of $300 and a piece of merchandise worth $374.37 from Davis T.V. and Appliance.
Both documents dated from 1992, at which time Weeks worked for Facilities Management and Sandalis was contracting with the University. Sandalis no longer owns Dalis Painting, but according to University spokesperson Carol Wood, Weeks is still employed by the University.
Theodore Doolittle, an attorney who prosecuted Sandalis in a tax evasion trial, said last year that Sandalis also treated Weeks to seafood dinners.
Such gifts violate the rules of purchasing ethics.
Director of Audits Barbara Deily, who is responsible for investigating Weeks, directed inquiries to Wood.
"The investigation is ongoing," Wood said.
The current investigation is not the first inquiry officials have reportedly made into inappropriate behavior by Weeks or Sandalis.
According to a source who asked not to be identified by name, the University investigated during the mid-90s whether Sandalis bribed building inspectors. The source said he was unsure of the result of the investigation.
Questions about Sandalis reemerged in 2002 when Ed Kirby, owner of Rainbow Painting, said he unfairly lost a contract to paint Maury Hall and was replaced by Sandalis and Dalis Painting.
In November 2002 Kirby sent a letter to Director of Procurement Services Eric Denby, complaining that Facilities Management officials unfairly blamed him for a fire at Maury Hall and used it as an excuse to terminate his contract. He also said Dalis Painting received the contract after he was removed because of the relationship between Weeks and Sandalis.
In a December 2002 letter obtained by The Cavalier Daily, Denby responded, calling Kirby's allegations "mistaken, without basis or false."
In January 2003, however, Denby said he knew nothing of the allegations against Weeks and Sandalis until they became public January 21, 2003.
Besides Weeks and Denby, Kirby said other University employees were involved in improper conduct, saying Facilities Management workers destroyed and rewrote work logs in order to blame him for the Maury fire.
Wood said she and Deily could not discuss whether anyone other than Weeks was the subject of the investigation, saying that to do so could possibly jeopardize the inquiry.
"I don't think she would get into that," Wood said. "Our stance is very similar to when there's a police investigation."
Kirby said Monday that no one from the University has contacted him for the current investigation and that as a result he has been "kinda waiting," while continuing to operate his painting business.
Wood said she did not know why Kirby had not been contacted.
"I'm not privy to that information," she said.
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