b'ettcrtotheEditor~ - - - - ~ j-\'7 September 28, 2001 Mr. John Stephenson, President Midwest Roofing Contractors Association 4840 West 15th St. 000 Suite 1Lawrence, Kansas66049-3876 Dear Mr. Stephenson: Here atwe read your "President\'s Article" inc issue of theRoofing C tractors AssoTremcotheurrentMidwestonciation ("MRCA") publication Midwest Roofer, and no also its previo p ication of a letter last tall from teusubl our company to the Dayton Daily News. We appreciate that our replythe n rpublished, but we are most toewspape was ring curious and gravely concerned that a far more extensive and detailed response sent du August by Tremco to MRCAnewspaper; MRCA Executive Director James T. Knight has not appeared in Midwest Roofer. Theis not ait is a trade association in our ownd of which Tremco hasamber instanding for decades.ly in ustry,beenme goodSurewe deserve, and youto everyone inindustry,mo complete record and complete response on these oweourthest issues. So torwe have two requests. Enclosed please find aof our August correspondence to Mr. Knight. starterscopy We ask that it be p inentirety inn t issue of Midwest Rooferfurther that copies beided to ublisheditstheex andprova those who will attend thean al Conven onTrade Show in Oc r. It MRCA c \'t, ors llMRCAnu ti andtobe an\'t, won doenot p it to all those attending, Tremco believes itand will do so.ondrequest that this letter arovidemust,Sec welso be published in its e in the next issue of Midwest Rooter, and that it too betributed to a atenual ntiretydis llth anmeeting. Anything short of fulfillingrequests w leave us to ponder the motiv ion of the MRCA and its executive leourillat adership in apparently attach to Tremco - and virtuallyly- discu ion andiled allegations with~ ingon Tremcoss veissues.compet that.belie an regard to bid specificationOurs is aitive industry. You knowWe know that. Weveindus-try trade association has an obligation to m ntain neu playdownmiddle,not give any ai trality,ittheandappearance whatsoever of tilting in one direction or another when reviewing,o ng oron indus y-wide issues rep rti commentingtrand events. Your ar invoked andNew Jersey State Commission of Investigation ("SCI"} report on school ticlesummarized the roofing and talks about evidence of "surreptitious activities." Itextremely imp th everyone in the industry isortantat followingwh Mr.night,now understand thetacts,ich are contained in our Daily News response, our letter toK and again here. To the degree that Tremco was involved in thematter the involvement had to do with the comm o examSCIissi n\'s ination of bid specification issues. These areand p ic policy issues. T are not law enforcement businessubl hey issues. Th are, as you note, many instances reported and examinedSCIirregularities orilleereby theconcerningeven gal acts. None~ n bear on Tremco. You advise your readers to read the SCI repo We think that\'s a go idea. onert.od findactsothers They willthat the commission\'s grave concerns about irregularities and possibly illegalbear onin the industry, but in no way on Tremco. Our company and our people coo fully withSCI. No one from Tremco was required or need totesperatedtheed tify at the SCI hearings. T providedcommissionall documentsother materials itq We remcothewithandre uested. open our files to th on an absolu ly volun basis. Tremco was at all times open, above board and fully c pedemte taryooerative with the New Jersey SCI. everTre artSo please refrain fromagain from using the words surreptitious andmco in the sameicle. Youralso discusses two entities, Weatherproofing Techn ies, Inc. ("WTI") and the AssociationEduarticleolog of cational Purchasing("AgentsAEPA"}. First, WTI is,report, aion management firm.is T ser ceand we anot as youconstruct WTIremco\'svi businessre more than glad and really quite proud to acknowledge it becau itd excellent service tocustomers seprovi esTremco in general contracting,repair and other roofing related services. roof Continued on next page'