A reader pointed out that the hyperlinks in TOM BUTT E-FORUM: You Get What You Pay For are incorrect. Following is a correction.

Click here for a copy of the roofing report, and click here for a copy of answers to my questions posed at the City Council meeting of April 3.

Incidentally, the author of the roof investigation report and the repair specifications, John Bennett, is an employee of W.P. Hickman Systems, Inc., a respected purveyor of proprietary roofing systems. The company markets its products by building relationships with both private and government building owners, architects and engineers, and then becoming the sole source for those products.

Although I cannot ascribe motives to Mr. Bennett’s provision of free services to the City of Richmond, perhaps most plausible explanation is that his services were part of a relationship-building effort by which W.P. Hickman Systems, Inc. would hope to eventually embed itself as the sole source for roofing products for the City of Richmond.

From the W.P. Hickman Systems, Inc. website:

W.P. Hickman Systems along with our subsidiaries, Asset Management Technologies (AMT) and CDI Contractors Diversified Inc. is a one-source solution provider. Together, the W.P. Hickman family of companies offers a comprehensive portfolio of building protection products and services designed to maintain your building asset throughout its entire life cycle.