Former President Obama and the Obama Presidential Center under construction. An engineering firm working on the project says that claims it racially discriminated against a Black-owned subcontractor on the project are baseless and amount to smears. ( Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
Thornton Tomasetti previously told the Obama Foundation, the non-profit which oversees the project, that a multitude of issues, including cracked concrete and exposed rebar by the subcontractor, led to corrective work and that the subcontracting firm was inexperienced and "questionably qualified."
The subcontracting firm, II In One Concrete, said the criticism amounted to racial bias and filed the $40.75 million lawsuit to recoup the cost of the extra work it had to carry out following requests by Thornton Tomasetti.
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In a motion to dismiss filed on Tuesday, Thornton Tomasetti said the lawsuit smeared it as racist "without a shred of factual support" and said that II In One Concrete leaned on its minority status to make the claims.
The center set out DEI goals for its construction contracts, with 35% of subcontractors required to be minority-owned. II In One was one of three firms that together made up a 51% minority-led joint-venture team.
"Plaintiffs… are not immune from having their work scrutinized simply because they are minority-owned, or because the project prioritizes using the services of minority-owned businesses," attorneys for Thornton Tomasetti wrote. "Instead, they are entitled to be treated like any other subcontractor, with all the run-of-the-mill disagreements and disputes that accompany enormous projects like this one."
"Professional criticism, without more, is not racism."
An aerial long shot of the Obama Presidential Center. (Fox News Digital)
II In One Concrete’s owner, Robert McGee, who is Black, argues II In One was discriminated against "on the basis of race" and that plaintiffs were "subjected to unjustified and discriminatory conduct… which directly undermined the Obama Foundation’s DEI goals and commitments."
McGee claims Thornton Tomasetti falsely accused II in One of lacking sufficient qualifications and experience to perform its work, while stating that non-minority-owned contractors were sufficiently qualified.
McGee's lawsuit points to II in One’s 40-year track record in the industry and its completion of major Chicagoland projects. McGee claims that Thornton Tomasetti changed standards and imposed new rules around rebar spacing and tolerance requirements that differed from industry standards.
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In Tuesday’s motion to dismiss, Thornton Tomasetti argued that the rebar spacing requirements were part of the bid documents and contract specifications. Additionally, Thornton Tomasetti said that there were a wide range of other issues it had identified in the memo which the lawsuit did not address.
"And while plaintiffs’ allegations fixate on the rebar splice specifications, they ignore the broader picture – TT (Thornton Tomasetti) flagged numerous other critical work deficiencies in the memo, none of which plaintiffs acknowledge, let alone refute," Tuesday’s filing reads. "Plaintiffs cannot simply pluck one of TT’s many criticisms of their work and hoist it up as self-evident discrimination, while staying silent on the panoply of other problems TT set forth in the memo."
Thornton Tomasetti wrote that the complaint — accusing it of racial bias, libel and tortious interference with contract — is "fatally flawed" and must be dismissed.
From left to right, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker joins former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Sept. 28, 2021 in Chicago. ( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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The Obama Presidential Library is expected to open some time next year and will also house digitized documents from former President Obama’s time in office, a gymnasium and a regulation-sized NBA court. It will also house the Obama Foundation.
The center is privately funded and will not be considered an official presidential library like other presidential libraries run by the National Archives and Records Administration system. The move gives the foundation greater flexibility around its size, designs and public spaces.
The Obama Presidential Library is currently located in Hoffman Estates in northwest Chicago. The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has terminated the lease at the site, although it is already expected to close later this year and move to College Park in Maryland.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-presidential-center-dei-linked-firms-racial-lawsuit-blasted-baseless-smears