Norton to Offer Bill Barring Felons From Running Security Firms

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said yesterday that she would introduce a bill to prevent felons from running government security contractors after one such company failed to pay its guards at federal buildings in the Washington area for several weeks.

Norton (D-D.C.) spoke at a House hearing that focused on the company. The man who runs the company acknowledged that it provided him with a large salary and a bonus and paid for two luxury condominium apartments. Meanwhile, some of the company's security guards stopped going to work in recent weeks because they could no longer afford gas, employees said.

Congress has been scrutinizing the cash-strapped government agency in charge of day-to-day security at most federal buildings. That agency, the Federal Protective Service, employs about 1,150 federal police officers and staff members who oversee 15,000 contract security guards nationwide.

The Bush administration has proposed decreasing the Protective Service's full-time staff to 950 people and having it focus on such priorities as anti-terrorism planning and checking guards' credentials. The service would reduce its emphasis on such law enforcement tasks as responding to emergency calls at federal properties, shifting those responsibilities to local police.

Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) criticized the plan, adding his voice to a chorus of complaints by lawmakers in recent weeks.

"The Federal Protective Service . . . is already struggling due to a lack of adequate resources. A reduction in personnel would no doubt further undercut the agency's oversight and response abilities," Hoyer said in a statement.

Yesterday's hearing of the House subcommittee on public buildings, chaired by Norton, examined the problems surrounding a company called Startech (Systems Training and Resource Technologies).

The Springfield company, which employed about 500 guards in the Washington area, was contracted by the Protective Service to guard offices of the Department of Education and the Food and Drug Administration, among other installations.

Sharon Waites and her husband, Weldon, bought the company two years ago. He served five years in federal prison in the 1990s for bank fraud and money-laundering.

At the hearing, Weldon Waites denied any wrongdoing, saying Startech stopped paying its employees after a finance company suddenly called a loan. He blamed late payments by the government for his company's problems.

Startech's former general manager, Ann Marie Messner, offered a sharply differing view. She said Waites had used company money to pay for a luxury apartment in the District and a $530,000 apartment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"Weldon Waites sacrificed his company, his employees and your security on the altar of his greed," Messner testified.

Incredulous lawmakers listened as Waites confirmed that the company had been paying the mortgages on the two apartments, as well as providing him with an annual salary of $360,000 and a one-time bonus of $400,000. The apartments were used for Startech business, Waites said.

"Why did you purchase a beachfront condo as an office? Couldn't you have found someplace cheaper?" asked Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (D-N.Y.). Waites acknowledged that would have been possible.

The Protective Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, does criminal background checks on contract security guards but not on the owners or managers of the guards' companies.

Norton said she would introduce legislation to prevent felons from running such companies.

"A company being partially run by a felon has no responsibility [being] in charge of security guards for the federal government," she said during the hearing.

The Protective Service has said it handled the Startech problem successfully, using its own officers to fill in for absent guards. It got another company to hire the Startech guards this month.

Norton said $1.8 million in payments owed by Homeland Security to Startech had been frozen and would be used to pay the guards' overdue salaries and benefits.