Espada trial focuses on contract bids

Two witnesses who bid for janitorial contracts controlled by former Senate majority leader Pedro Espada at the nonprofit Bronx health clinic he founded testified Wednesday that they were given inflated specifications to make their bids too high so Espada could hang on to the business.

"I thought it was overkill," said Thomas D'Andrea, an official at Capital Contractors, who described the specs he received in testimony at Espada's corruption trial in Brooklyn federal court. "Too many people and too many hours for the amount of cleaning. I thought it could be done for less."

Christine Ostendorf, a saleswoman at Coverall Cleaning Concepts, testified that she was asked by Espada's son to put in a bid that covered Soundview's main facility and five satellite clinics -- even though Soundview only operates four clinics, and the bid covered both the old and new location of a clinic that was moving.

"He didn't tell you that you had too many facilities?" asked prosecutor Roger Burlingame.

"No," answered Ostendorf.

Espada and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, are accused of looting more than $500,000 from government-subsidized Soundview through schemes that included hefty personal charges on a corporate credit card, collecting rent from tenants of Soundview through companies they controlled, and using their for-profit janitorial company to charge Soundview excessive fees.

Prosecutors allege that in 2007, when Soundview's board insisted on putting the janitorial contract out to bid, it became a sham exercise because the requirements for custodial work were inflated, and then the Espada company was allowed to simply underbid all the other bidders.Pedro Gautier Espada stopped returning calls and never tried to negotiate the price down after she submitted her bid, Ostendorf testified. Defense lawyers say the bidding was never intended to replace the Espadas' company, only to test the market to make sure the price they were charging Soundview was fair.