The FOIA Project

There’s a story behind every FOIA lawsuit. The one behind American Management Services LLC vs. Department of the Army is a doozy, complete with allegations that tens of millions of public dollars have been diverted to fight a private company’s legal battles instead of going to housing for soldiers and their families.

One of the Clark Pinnacle housing developments, this one at Fort Irwin in California.

The case has a long-but-interesting history. American Management Services, doing business at the time as Pinnacle, entered into a joint venture with Clark Realty Capital to form Clark Pinnacle Family Communities. The joint venture was formed in 2002 to pursue contracts to build and manage housing for U.S. military personnel after Congress enacted the Military Housing Privatization Initiative in 1996.

Clark Pinnacle went on to develop housing projects in six locations that included more than 11,000 homes, according to an April 2014 Government Accountability Office report. GAO valued the projects at about $2 billion. The projects were at Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Belvoir in Virginia, the Presidio at Monterey Bay in California, and three other sites collectively known as the California Military Communities: Fort Irwin, Moffett Field and Camp Parks.

In 2010, things turned nasty. Clark went to the Army with what it said was evidence of mismanagement and fraud by Pinnacle, according to court documents and the GAO report. The Army gave Clark the go-ahead to take legal action to force Pinnacle out of its management role. That has kicked off a series of lawsuits, primarily between Clark and Pinnacle. Pinnacle also brought two FOIA suits against the Army as it seeks documents to bolster its case against Clark.

The animosity runs deep. Pinnacle lawyers write in one of the complaints, “Clark has instigated a scorched-earth litigation campaign to oust Pinnacle from its property management role at each of the four housing projects. After relying on Pinnacle’s experience and reputation to win these projects, Clark is now manipulating its position as the majority partner in the joint venture to terminate Pinnacle’s interests.”

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