Workers who built the Southmost Hike and Bike Trail in Brownsville claim they haven’t been paid.
Jorge Contla said he worked on the hike and bike trail project as a subcontractor for ARRCO General Construction Group. The city of Brownsville, though, provided documents to CBS 4 News showing Contla presented himself as a representative of ARRCO.
Contla and other workers claim ARRCO hasn’t paid them in months. ARRCO didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.
“The city says ‘Yes, you are going to get paid’ but we haven’t seen any results,” Contla said.
When ARRCO submitted a bid for the project, the company included standard paperwork for what’s called a performance bond.
A performance bond is basically an insurance contract for the construction project. If ARRCO couldn’t complete the job, the insurance company would hire a new contractor to complete the work.
ARRCO submitted records to the city showing a performance bond from a company called Texas Indemnity Contractor.
CBS 4 News called the Texas Department of Insurance, which couldn’t find any record of a company called Texas Indemnity Contractor.
In response to questions from CBS 4 News, the city of Brownsville released a statement about ARRCO and Contla:
The city provided CBS 4 News a business card that identifies Contla as a project manager for ARRCO, a photo showing Contla wearing an ARRCO hard hat, and a sign-in sheet where Contla listed himself as a representative of ARRCO.
Contla said he worked as a subcontractor for ARRCO; he flatly denied ever working directly for ARRCO.
To document his claim, Contla provided a subcontractor agreement between a company called Ziur Corporation and ARRCO.
Brownsville referred the matter to the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office for investigation.
