GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s business record in the spotlight

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and development firm proprietor Joe O’Dea’s document as an employer is drawing scrutiny to the marketing campaign path for dozens of employee security and wage violations and a number of lawsuits.

Why it issues: O’Dea — a first-time candidate with a restricted political document — is leaning on his enterprise background to attract distinction to Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who has served since his 2009 appointment.

• The Republican’s pitch is to “rebuild” Washington.

Driving the information: O’Dea’s Denver-based firm Concrete Specific Inc. — which now employs 300 folks — since its founding in 1988 has been fined $135,000 by the federal Occupational Security and Well being Administration for 28 employee security violations, the Denver Enterprise Journal reviews.

• Probably the most vital is a fantastic from 2008, after a part of a flooring collapsed at a Greenwood Village high-rise in 2007, injuring 13 staff of a subcontractor. O’Dea’s firm, which was fined $107,500, sued the subcontractor and entered into an undisclosed settlement.
• Different fines through the years assorted from $561 to $10,000.

Of word: O’Dea’s firm additionally was cited for 26 wage violations and 13 violations associated to insufficient fee of staff since its founding in 1988.

What he is saying: “I feel anyone who’d been concerned in a enterprise understands it as a result of they have been a sufferer of it,” the Republican candidate mentioned in response to questions in regards to the violations.

• “I’ve received actually tons of of staff who’ve labored right here and retired right here … I am simply going to face by that document,” he added.

Between the strains: Concrete Specific initially caught to its title, however expanded its scope to work on bridges, web site growth and water and recreation tasks.

• O’Dea mentioned 85% of the corporate’s tasks are paid for by governments. And Colorado Newsline estimates Concrete Specific has obtained $400 million from federal, state and native authorities contracts.
• Outstanding tasks embrace Coors Discipline’s parking heaps, reconstruction of the Chatfield Dam reservoir and a brand new undertaking to reconnect the Colorado River round Windy Hole Dam — the latter of which is feasible after Bennet helped safe the funding.

Of word: O’Dea started development work after highschool and dropped out of faculty a semester early to start out Concrete Specific. He launched his profession as a union contractor, however he has since dismissed unions, saying they “outlived lots of their usefulness.”

• In flip, Dennis Dougherty, govt director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, which is backing Bennet, referred to as O’Dea “a company wolf in employee’s clothes.”

The intrigue: O’Dea’s critics, who’re making an attempt to carry consideration to his management at Concrete Specific, are spotlighting two lawsuits towards the corporate.

• One concerned a human useful resource supervisor who filed a 2019 lawsuit alleging age and incapacity discrimination after leaving the corporate. The case was settled with a non-disclosure settlement and O’Dea contends the proof disputes the claims.
• One other concerned a Concrete Specific gravel truck driver who killed a Boulder bike owner in 2006 and was cited for being overloaded with faulty brakes. The corporate settled and the events signed a non-disclosure settlement.

The opposite facet: “He is extremely revered in Colorado,” the state Contractors Affiliation chief Tony Milo mentioned of O’Dea, who as soon as led the group and served on its board. “I feel anybody who’s attempting to disparage him, or his firm, is being purely political.”

What’s subsequent: ProgressNow, a liberal advocacy group, says it has recognized greater than 20 different events injured by Concrete Specific and is looking for O’Dea to launch the events from any limits on speaking in regards to the incidents.

• O’Dea’s marketing campaign declined to reply to the demand when requested by Axios Denver.