Orange County Attorney Richard Golden told The Epoch Times that the county’s contract and following amended agreements with information technology services provider StarCIO were legally acted upon.
His comment came after New York state Sen. James Skoufis referred an alleged corrupt scheme involving the vendor to state and federal law enforcement agencies on Oct. 30.
The procurement of StarCIO services, with a yearly contract value of more than $800,000, is considered a professional services contract and thus exempt from competitive bidding under state law and the county’s procurement policy, according to Mr. Golden.
Professional services involve specialized skills and professional judgment, and in selecting such vendors, cost is only one element that a local government unit should consider, according to a report on such services by the New York State Comptroller’s Office in 2018.
The state law generally waives competitive bidding for professional services, although it does require the adoption of a written policy governing such procurements.
The initial contract with StarCIO came after a solicitation of three quotes, two of which were taken directly from the federal government’s database, Mr. Golden said.
When a government unit has secured a contract through a competitive bidding process, others are allowed to piggyback off that contract without the knowledge of the vendor, he said.
There’s no written record of the reason why StarCIO was chosen instead of the other two vendors, Mr. Golden said.
According to the contract, for an amount of $64,000, StarCIO owner Isaac Sacolick would perform fractional chief information officer services for eight days on the premises and 64 hours offsite over eight weeks for the Orange County government; additional services can be purchased at $5,000 per eight-hour day.
At the time of the contract, StarCIO’s business registration with the state had been expired for more than 10 years, according to documentation provided by Mr. Skoufis’s office.
Mr. Golden said he couldn’t comment because he hadn’t looked into StarCIO’s registration status.
Mr. Sacolick told The Epoch Times that he recently fixed the missed filings and that his business registration is now active.
On July 13 and Aug. 31, Orange County amended the initial contract with StarCIO to add new services and extend the term to early 2024, bringing the total contract amount to $816,400.
Both amendments are exempt from competitive bidding under the county policy, Mr. Golden said.
Contracts for existing projects that require the continuity of professional services are exempt from bidding, according to the Orange County procurement policy.
“Nor would it make sense to do so, as you would then have separate contractors or vendors overlapping on the same project, causing inefficiencies,” Mr. Golden wrote in an email.
As of Sept. 30, the county had paid StarCIO $432,640 for its services.
‘Accusations’
Contrary to the Orange County government’s assertions, Mr. Skoufis has maintained that the highly priced contract was signed from the outset to benefit Mr. Sacolick, a relative of Langdon Chapman, the current county human resources commissioner and former county attorney.Mr. Sacolick’s wife and Mr. Chapman’s wife are sisters.
Mr. Skoufis laid out his version of events regarding the StarCIO contract at a press conference in front of the county government building on Oct. 25, saying StarCIO was contracted to provide fractional services before a permanent chief information officer could be hired and that Mr. Chapman, as human resources commissioner, hadn’t acted to fill that position in order to financially benefit his relative.
Mr. Golden said the county ethics code didn’t forbid contracting with relatives of employees as long as the employees in question weren’t part of the decision-making process nor had supervision over those deciding such contracts, thus exempting the StarCIO case.
“I am incensed by the wrongful and false accusations by the state senator about my family, my business, and me,” Mr. Sacolick told The Epoch Times in a statement. “I run a transparent business operation with my clients and share openly about the technology community through my books, writing, and speaking.”
Mr. Skoufis made criminal referrals to the New York State Attorney General’s Office and the FBI for future investigations.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler also got a referral from Mr. Skoufis but recused his office from the case.
“It would be impossible for my office to investigate this since it involves individuals we work with on a daily basis. Regardless of the outcome, people would question,” Mr. Hoovler told The Epoch Times. “ I believe the attorney general or the comptroller would be the appropriate agency to investigate this.”
