A Beaumont, Texas, electrician alleges several entities committed acts that cost him a business contract with the Beaumont school district and has filed a $22 million federal lawsuit. Calvin Gary Walker, the proprietor of Walker’s Electric, is blaming the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD), The Beaumont Enterprise and Beaumont attorney Wayne Reaud.
According to a report from the SE Texas Record, Walker explains that the defendants worked to end his professional relationship with BISD, insinuating the respondents wrongfully made light of his 2011 federal indictment for fraud. The suit also lists several defendants, including BISD employees, judges and members of the press.
The suit claims that Walker contracted with BISD to perform electrical work from 2006 to 2008. Walker succeeded IBEW 479, which previously had member companies offer the school district services for 37 years, in securing the agreement to provide with electrical maintenance and repair services. IBEW 479 invited the plaintiff to join the organization prior to when he started working for the BISD to which he declined, the suit says. Walker states IBEW and IBEW 479 threatened they would “get him one way or another.
An investigation conducted by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation into how Walker obtained his Master Electrician License at IBEW 479’s request took place and ended with the plaintiff agreeing to a fine and the relinquishment of his license with the understanding he would be able to immediately get it back without taking the test and using the same hours he had already earned for his old license. Though the complainant regained his license, the suit says, the events surrounding the TDLR’s investigation were used and re-used to harm his reputation.
The Record reported that the BISD Board of Trustees regularly discussed Walker during his stint and reportedly heard negative remarks about him from a few board members, according to the lawsuit. Walker’s contract then expired in 2008, but he was intentionally left out of the bidding process. Also according to the suit, the school district soon allowed the complainant to submit a bid, however, he was the sole bidder required to turn over proper documentation. The complaint perceives the requisite as racist since the aforementioned contract eventually went to a white union electrical contractor who was purportedly not mandated to submit invoices and receipts. Walker then became the focus of a 2011 federal indictment for fraud. Faced with 37 counts, he consented to a plea deal from the federal government and agreed to repay his alleged late taxes.
EC&M covered the original indictment last August.
