The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is taking its case against Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. to the state Supreme Court.
PennDOT is seeking to ban Hawbaker from bidding on projects for three years after the State College based contractor pleaded no contest to wage theft charges in August.
In January the Commonwealth Court prohibited PennDOT’s ban and granted Hawbaker’s request for a preliminary injunction.
On Feb. 15, PennDOT filed an appeal of that ruling in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Hawbaker was charged by the Attorney General’s Office in April 2021 with four felony counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds following a three-year investigation into the company’s prevailing wage practices. After pleading no contest in August, the company agreed to pay nearly $21 million in restitution to former and current workers, and serve five years of probation.
The plea of no contest meant the defendant does not admit guilt, but agrees to accept the penalties. No contest plea agreements cannot be used in civil or administrative proceedings.
It was in September when PennDOT announced that because of the wage theft, it wanted to prevent Hawbaker, one of the county’s largest employers, from conducting state work for three years.
A 22-page opinion by Judge Patricia McCullough on Jan. 19 granted a preliminary injunction on the matter and PennDOT was “enjoined from proceeding with any debarment action arising out of the Office of Attorney General’s criminal charges” against Hawbaker.
The 70-year-old, family-owned company is one of the largest construction contractors in Pennsylvania and between 2003 and 2018, it was awarded $1.7 billion in contracts from PennDOT alone.
After the charges were first announced by the attorney general in April, PennDOT announced a three-month suspension for Hawbaker for bidding on new state highway project.
That suspension was overturned by McCullough, mainly because it came before a PennDOT hearing.
PennDOT does not comment on pending litigation. A Hawbaker representative did not respond to a request for a comment.
This story appears in the Feb. 24-March 2, 2022 edition of the Centre County Gazette.
