A shed is demolished at Buzzard Point, one of the sites where a local construction company failed to win an infrastructure contract. (Photo by Francis Chung)

A former Department of General Services employee is now suing the city government over claims he was fired because he did not award contracts to a top donor of Mayor Muriel Bowser, WAMU reports.

Yinka Alao, DGS’s former director for contracting and procurement, is suing the city and City Administrator Rashad Young for $10 million, saying he was “terminated in retaliation for failing to cooperate with [the Mayor’s office’s] efforts to award the contract” to a political donor and then “publicly defam[ed] and embarass[ed].”

WAMU’s Patrick Madden first reported over the summer that the head of DGS’s sudden departure had to do with a disagreement over the procurement of two high-profile development contracts.

Fort Myers Construction, a local firm that was a top donor to a pro-Bowser political action committee before it was shut down, lost out on bids for the new soccer stadium at Buzzard Point and the basketball facility at St. Elizabeths. The decision was due, in part, to a change in the evaluation system from DGS, which gave less weight to businesses being local. Both contracts were awarded to non-D.C. companies.

WAMU reported that Young asked then-DGS Director Christopher Weaver to fire two of the staff members involved, including Alao, the person filing the suit. Shortly after Weaver stepped down on August 12, Alao and Carlos Sandoval, the other DGS employee in question were placed on administrative leave.

According to the Washington Post, Sandoval filed a complaint with the District’s Office of Employee Appeals last month, saying he was fired for resisting pressure to award the contracts to Fort Myer.

For his part, Young has said that his intervention was over DGS’s new system for determining bids in a way that could disadvantage local businesses, rather than an attempt to award a donor.

The allegations prompted a closed-door D.C. Council inquiry that began last week.

The initial scheduling conference for the suit against the city is set for March 10, 2017, per D.C. Courts.

Yinka Alao Lawsuit Against D.C. by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd