Serious questions are swirling today about the fishy nature of a $300 million electrical re-construction and repair contract awarded to Whitefish energy, a tiny Montana-based firm from the 6,000-resident town of Whitefish, which is coincidentally home to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. These questions come on an already terrible news day for Zinke, who is the subject of an extended investigation from POLITICO over his connections to questionable PACs: Zinke funneled millions to questionable PACs.
On the day hurricane Maria made landfall, Whitefish energy was a “two-year-old company from Montana that had just two full-time employees,” according to the Washington Post. The Post reports that “The [Puerto Rico] power authority, also known as PREPA, opted to hire Whitefish rather than activate the ‘mutual aid’ arrangements it has with other utilities. For many years, such agreements have helped U.S. utilities — including those in Florida and Texas recently — to recover quickly after natural disasters.”
According to Slate, "The $300 million Whitefish contract sets hourly rates at $330 for site supervisors and $227 for journeyman linemen, with rates even higher for subcontractors: $462 per hour for supervisors and $319 for linemen. It also includes $332 nightly fees for each worker and $80 a day for food."
Luis Vega-Ramos, a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, expressed outraged in an interview with The Daily Beast, saying: “Whitefish seems to be nothing more than a glorified middleman to get the real providers of the services, with which PREPA [the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] could have contracted directly,” Vega-Ramos said. “It is a cozy sweetheart deal in which Whitefish gets a gratuity for subcontracting the actual providers” … "It is reprehensible that shameless profiteering is going on literally on the back of the devastated people of Puerto Rico. It is beyond contempt and people should answer for it."
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WHITEFISH AND SECRETARY ZINKE?
Despite public denials from Zinke and Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski that the two had been in contact around the contract, multiple signs point to a close relationship that raises serious questions.
These connections also cut strongly against the characterization of the relationship from Zinke’s office. According to the Post, “chief executive, Andy Techmanski, and Zinke acknowledge knowing one another — but only, Zinke's office said in an email, because Whitefish is a small town where "everybody knows everybody."
That’s a rather thin explanation considering that:
- Zinke’s son had previously worked for Whitefish Energy at one of Techmanski’s construction sites.
- NBC Montana quoted Techmanski in a report Oct. 1 as saying he had asked Zinke for help in getting personnel and equipment to Puerto Rico. A Whitefish spokesman confirmed that "Once the company got the go-ahead from PREPA on September 26 to begin work, company executives did reach out to contacts in case they could help expedite getting qualified linesmen to the island."
- In December of 2016, then-Congressman Rep. Zinke’s office reached out to local officials in Montana about a Whitefish Energy project according to Montana’s Hungry Horse News.
- According to The Daily Beast, "the private-equity firm that finances Whitefish, HBC Investments, was founded by Joe Colonnetta, who serves as its general partner. Federal Elections Commission data compiled by The Daily Beast shows Colonnetta contributed $20,000 to the Trump Victory PAC during the general election, $2,700 to Trump’s primary election campaign (then the maximum amount permitted), $2,700 to Trump’s general election campaign (also the maximum), and a total of $30,700 to the Republican National Committee in 2016 alone."
What’s clear now is that there are many outstanding and serious questions looming in the Whitefish matter. When will they be answered?