Orange County attorney Richard Golden told a special legislative committee on Dec. 11 that a review of procurement policy and contract administration practices was underway with a goal to improve both.
“The executive branch certainly has been clear from this committee’s work and some of the questions that our procurement policy can be improved upon and that our contracts administration, including payments of invoices, needs to be further addressed,” Mr. Golden said.
The committee, formerly called the Committee to Review Information Technology Contracts, was formed on Nov. 2 to look into corruption allegations surrounding a hefty county contract with StarCIO.
Mr. Golden told The Epoch Times that the policy and practice review by the county government didn’t negate its earlier stance that the StarCIO contract was legally acted upon.
“As with any policy, there can always be improvements in approach and substance,” he said. “The County Executive Steve Neuhaus has directed that a fresh look at these policies be undertaken to try to produce the best possible procurement policy and contracts administration procedures going forward.”
“The residents of Orange County deserve no less.”
The small group charged with policy review includes Mr. Golden, finance commissioner Kerry Gallagher, general services commissioner Samantha Sweikata, and budget director Deborah Slensinski.
On Nov. 8, Democratic state Sen. James Skoufis and several county Democratic lawmakers claimed that the $800,000-plus StarCIO contract for temporary chief information officer services was improperly initiated to enrich a relative of a high-ranking county official.
In the ensuing interviews conducted by the special legislative committee, county officials maintained that the professional service contract was properly acted upon based on the procurement policy.
Contracts of more than $100,000 generally require competitive bidding in the county; however, professional service contracts are subject to different rules and exemptions, given their unique nature.
At the heart of the contention was whether a professional service contract that started small at $65,000 could snowball to $816,400 in a few short months via mechanisms such as auto-renewals, extensions, and amendments without ever triggering competitive bidding.
“If this is part of our policy, and it is correct—which I don’t feel it is—then that is something we as a legislative body need to look at,” Democratic county lawmaker Laurie Tautel said during an interview with the special committee on Nov. 21.
“A procurement policy should be clear in all respects to ensure its proper and consistent application,” Mr. Golden told The Epoch Times. “However, it became apparent during the legislative committee hearings that the procurement policy was not clear enough in both wording and organization for everyone to fully understand and appreciate its provisions.”
Special legislative committee Chairman Kevin Hines told The Epoch Times that the interviews with county officials led to the discovery of several concerns, including the disclosure of sensitive county information to StarCIO before a formal contractual relationship was formed.
A New Whistleblower
Last week, a new whistleblower came forward to county Legislature Chairwoman Katherine Bonelli with information about a county IT contractor, whose failed performance had directly led to the county’s searching for a new provider and eventually signing up with StarCIO, according to Mr. Hines.“This falls under the purview of the committee, and we have requested a significant number of documentation from the county government as to the failed contractor,” he told The Epoch Times, adding that the committee would need months before a final report could be produced.
The committee hasn’t set a date for the next meeting.
The StarCIO contract was first brought to the attention of Mr. Skoufis by a whistleblower, according to an interview session by the special legislative committee.
