Neil Albert, the District of Columbia’s chief development official, lobbied a D.C. Council member to give a $57 million contract to an educational consulting company he founded. Albert founded EdBuild in 2005, when he was briefly out of government.

The company has been lobbying for the contract with the D.C. Board of Education for months. Company officials hope the contract is the first step toward becoming a major player in the $2.3 billion school modernization plan.

Albert is now the deputy mayor for planning and economic development, which makes him Mayor Adrian Fenty’s chief construction official.

Albert told The Examiner that he sat down with Council Chair Vincent Gray and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso, and that EdBuild’s contract was “one of several issues” discussed at a meeting in Gray’s office earlier this month.

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The council must ratify any contract worth more than $1 million.

Albert said there was “absolutely no conflict” in his urging Gray to support EdBuild. He no longer has a stake in the company, Albert said.

“I’m actually very proud of the work that EdBuild has done and will continue to do in this city,” he said. “Their work speaks for itself.”

The school board is scheduled to vote on EdBuild’s contract today. EdBuild’s proposal has many detractors on the board, including member William Lockridge.

“There are concerns about what value they bring,” Lockridge told The Examiner.

In two years, the company has raised only $2 million for what school officials had hoped would be a 50-50 partnership, Lockridge said. And EdBuild would charge the city a 9 percent fee for managing the contract. Most management contracts award 2 percent to 3 percent to management firms, Lockridge said.

EdBuild’s CEO, Jacquelyn Lendsey, said her group has a combined 25 years of experience in the education construction business.

“We may raise more money after the contract is signed,” she said.

Lockridge said he is not impressed.

“We’ve dumped a lot of money into this,” he said. “At the end of the day, everybody gets paid — and our children still can’t read and do math.”

EdBuild has told officials that it will subcontract with The Jair Lynch Companies, sources told The Examiner on condition of anonymity because they fear retribution. The Examiner already has reported that Albert recommended Jair Lynch to Victor Reinoso in private conversation.

Last month, Gray urged the council not to support EdBuild’s contract. His meeting with Albert and Reinoso took place shortly after that. Sources familiar with the meeting said a member of EdBuild’s board sat in on it; Albert denied it vehemently.

Albert said that he has often discussed EdBuild with Fenty. He hasn’t checked with the attorney general’s ethics office about the conversations because “I’m no longer on the board of EdBuild,” he said.

“I’m pretty confident that the conversations I’ve had about EdBuild are legitimate and ethical conversations,” he said.

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bmyers@dcexaminer.com