By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
Wendy Collins’ husband and father-in-law went looking for work Sunday, applying for jobs with a construction company promising three years of guaranteed, good-paying work on projects at Navy bases around Puget Sound, including Naval Station Everett.
They filled out their applications, showed Social Security cards to prove their identities, then forked over $45 for pre-employment drug tests. Then they went home to wait for instructions on when and where to take the drug tests.
The calls never came. The company, Mallard Construction, doesn’t have a contract to do work at Naval Station Everett, a spokeswoman said. The contractor Mallard claims to be working for denies any connection to the company. And Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the company to see if it defrauded construction workers looking for good jobs in bad times.
"We don’t know what to do," Collins said. "Not only has this guy got our money, he’s also got our Social Security numbers."
The ads, which appeared in The Herald over the past several days, sound almost too good to be true. Pay ranging from $26.67 to $47.37 an hour. Steady work for three years. Immediate jobs for 350 laborers, carpenters, concrete workers, electricians and others in the building trades, no matter their experience or criminal history.
People who called the number listed with the ad were told to bring $45 and their IDs to meetings around Puget Sound, including one at a restaurant in Arlington. The $45 was to cover drug testing.
Those who passed the test were told they’d get the money back, according to Collins and Doug Weber, an Everett man who also called about the jobs but, suspicious about the fee, didn’t apply.
That’s not the usual process for construction jobs, said Ed Treizenberg, with Carpenters &Millwrights Local 562 in Everett. "The company pays for the drug test, not the employee."
Those who attended the meeting were told Mallard Construction was a subcontractor working for Wade Perrot on retirement housing being built at Navy bases in Everett, Bremerton and Oak Harbor.
Wade Perrot does have a construction contract with the Navy, but it is to build an aquatic center at Everett, said Dan McKinney, the president of the Gig Harbor construction company. Mallard is not one of their subcontractors.
Mallard does have a history with the company, and it’s not a good one, McKinney said. Wade Perrot ended up under a federal investigation after Mallard, which was based in Hoquiam, failed to pay its employees, he said.
Wade Perrot is not working with Mallard now, he said.
Mallard is history, according to state records. Both the state Department of Licensing and Department of Labor and Industries show that its operating licenses lapsed at least three years ago.
McKinney said he hasn’t been able to contact Mallard. "All the phone numbers and addresses we know are not valid. The phone numbers are disconnected."
The phone numbers Mallard used in its weekend advertisements and its ad on Wednesday are not the same. The first number has been disconnected.
The number listed in the ad in Wednesday’s Herald worked Thursday. However, no one from the company returned a reporter’s call.
Several people said they had talked to law enforcement investigators about Mallard Construction, and Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen confirmed the office is investigating. Beyond that, she couldn’t comment, she said.
Naval Station Everett spokeswoman Jeannie Kitchens said several people have called the base looking for help contacting the company.
They’ve received bad news, Kitchens said. Mallard Construction isn’t working for the Navy. "It looks like it’s false advertising," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454 or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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