ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Now to the follow-through. This is our commitment to staying on top of stories that matter to you and our community.
In January, the I-Team introduced you to customers of GLK Construction Company who contacted us after they endured months of delays, failed inspections and requests for payment ahead of schedule.
Now, we’re hearing from employees who say they didn't get paid, and we're uncovering other evidence about the company’s financial issues.
“There’s delays that happen in construction,” GLK Construction Company owner Jermiah Klotz said in an interview with the I-Team in January.
At the time, we were talking to Klotz about delays in his construction and renovation projects.
Multiple customers contacted us complaining that his projects had workmanship issues and dragged on for months past their estimated completion dates.
“It’s aggravating”
David Crane was one customer we interviewed.
He said he hired GLK Construction Company to build a nursery for his son, who was on the way.
“He’s eight months old now. And this was started back in May,” he said.
Crane’s newborn son spent his first weeks in the intensive care unit as Crane tried to get GLK to finish what was estimated to be a 12-to-16-week project.
“It’s just stressful. It’s aggravating. Some people don’t make 50,000 in a year, and that’s what I spent to have this done,” Crane said.
Since our original story in January, GLK received a certificate of completion for Crane’s project 11 months after the contract was signed.
But during that time, the company also racked up five new complaints with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.
“On 22 jobs, he was 90% paid out on, and not even half the work was completed,” said former GLK Construction project manager Alyx Cassidy.
Workers claim GLK wrote bad checks, failed to pay
Cassidy was among five former employees who reached out to us, saying Klotz owes them money.
“He’s hurt a lot of people. A lot of contractors,” former employee Robert Pallen said.
The employees include three former project managers, who say Klotz owes them thousands of dollars.
Bob Bumiller said he couldn’t cash his last check because of insufficient funds in GLK’s account.
“He wrote me a check for $1,193 that still has not cleared, and from my understanding, they’ve closed that account,” Bumiller said. “I'm actually having to sell my work truck to get out from under all the bills that I've incurred.”
The St. Petersburg Police Department confirmed receiving reports involving worthless checks from GLK but would not release records detailing how many were written and to whom, saying the case is under investigation.
Jim Barnes said when he complained about not getting paid, the Klotzs took legal action.
“His wife had a restraining order put on me when I dropped off some blueprints one day to mention about my pay,” Barnes said.
The case was dismissed when Klotz didn’t show up for the court hearing.
“We all work week to week, like most people in the country. And if you don’t get a paycheck, how do you feed your children? How do you pay your rent and your mortgage and your insurance and all of that stuff? “ said Robert Pallan.
Pallen said when he confronted Klotz about the money, Klotz promised he would get it within days but he said he was never paid.
Robert Peterson said Klotz owes money to him and several contractors he brought onto jobs.
“I closed out three jobs within my first month-and-a-half there. And then money started to dwindle away. And it was ‘we can only do this much today. This much tomorrow’. We'd have to do little bits on each job,” Peterson said.
In a text to Peterson, Klotz wrote, “I’m trying the best I can to get everyone paid” and “I’m taking stuff now from house to see if I can pawn it.”
Court records allege financial issues
A trucking company sued GLK Construction in March for more than $17,000 for unpaid construction waste removal bills.
A contractor sued him for $880 in unpaid wages and received a judgment.
And the I-Team has learned Klotz's financial issue may extend beyond his construction business.
In his divorce case, his attorney stated in a filing, “The parties are spending completely unreasonable outrageous amounts of funds that they don't really have.”
That document indicated the Klotz’s were responsible for $24,500 dollars in monthly payments for a Seminole condo, a waterfront home in Redington Shores and a Gulf-front condo on Indian Rocks Beach.
We asked Klotz about those financial obligations in January, but he didn’t respond.
Jeremiah Klotz’s lawyer recently made a motion to withdraw from the case, writing that Klotz owed him $12,989 in unpaid legal fees.
Klotz’s former employees say they hope the county construction regulators or law enforcement will act before others are affected.
“The last week, I was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I ran my truck out of gas. I said that’s it. How can I go to work if I don’t have gas money?” Pallen said.
We requested an interview with Klotz, but he didn’t respond.
We sent a detailed list of items we were reporting to Klotz’s attorney and she didn’t respond by our deadline.
If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email us at adam@abcactionnews.com
