CRESTVIEW — The city ollied over a pair of father-son scam artists who tried to milk taxpayers for up to $55,000 for “free” skate park equipment, according to city officials.
On Jan. 23, 2014, Anthony Hemphill approached Public Works Director Wayne Steele, offering the city $120,000 worth of “like-new” prefabricated skate park equipment, including ramps and lighting, that had been “put in place by a government agency that then didn’t want them.”
On May 10, Hemphill was sentenced in federal court to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud non-profit organizations of more than $300,000.
His father, William Hemphill, was sentenced to five years’ probation in the same case. Both are Crestview residents.
Crestview Mayor David Cadle credits Steele and then-city attorney Jerry Miller for preventing the city from being scammed.
“We certainly dodged that one,” Cadle said. “Mr. Steele was under tremendous pressure to accept their offer.”
PURCHASING PROCEDURES
The city had been considering opening a skate park as part of its recreational facilities within the Community Redevelopment District for several years.
The Hemphills offered to provide the equipment at no cost, but requested their construction company, A.F.H. Construction, be given the contract to transport and set it up, a cost they estimated between $45,000 and $55,000.
Miller counseled the council to follow city procurement protocols, which require such contracts be open to bidding.
“Be cautious, please, that a gift horse is not a Trojan horse in disguise,” Miller said.
“And he was right, wasn’t he?” Cadle said.
In an email exchange with Steele, Anthony Hemphill offered advice on circumventing the city’s $7,500 bid threshold by suggesting the city write multiple checks, breaking the installation into segments for loading, packing, transportation and storage.
PRESSURE BUILDS
As the City Council, sitting as the CRA board, requested details of previous Hemphill “beneficiaries,” the family sidestepped the requests and increased pressure to accept the bid, threatening $3,000 monthly “storage fees” for each month the city delayed.
“Let me be blunt I have watch many (cities) and others loose great opportunity because they cant see the obvious,” Anthony Hemphill wrote Steele on Feb. 3, 2014. “This is not about the city this is about the Kids.”
Finally Hemphill threatened to offer the equipment “to another city of or non profit.”
But the CRA board heeded Steele and Miller’s advice and took no action on the Hemphill offer.
“I’m usually the bearer of bad news: Follow the regulations and procedures,” Miller said in a March 2014 interview with the News Bulletin. “It’s easier to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble.”
Despite public criticism — such as a then-Crestview High School senior, who said, “Honestly, I’d be willing to install it myself if it meant we got a skate park” —the city didn’t succumb to the pressure.
“Thank goodness for Wayne Steele, who held the line against all the criticism he received,” Cadle said. “He is a valuable employee of the city.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview dodges $55,000 skate park scam