A special four-member Orange County legislative committee tasked with reviewing a controversial IT contract concluded 10 interviews with involved parties on Nov. 21.
The $800,000-plus contract with StarCIO was brought into the limelight by New York state Democratic Sen. James Skoufis and four Democratic county legislators, who alleged at a Nov. 8 press conference that the deal was mired in a corruption scheme involving high-level officials.
In the wake of the allegations, the county legislature formed the bipartisan review committee, chaired by Kevin Hines and comprised of Thomas Faggione, Robert Sassi, and Kevindaryán Luján.
Interviewees include County Executive Steve Neuhaus, Deputy County Executive Harry Porr, County Attorney Richard Golden, County Director of Operations Alicia D’Amico, and four county legislators alleging corruption: Mike Paduch, Mike Anagnostakis, Genesis Ramos, and Laurie Tautel.
During the interview, Ms. Ramos, the Democratic lawmaker who took the initiative to look into the contract, said the tip came to her from Mr. Skoufis, who had gotten wind of it from a whistleblower.
Ms. Ramos declined to disclose the whistleblower over concern of retaliation.
StarCIO’s single proprietary owner, Issac Sacolick, is the brother-in-law of Langdon Chapman, the county human resources commissioner and former county attorney.
“Having a relationship isn’t the main issue, but rather the obscene amount of money this contract is for, by way of connection,” Ms. Ramos said at the interview, adding that as the contract bloomed to over $800,000 over several short months, no competitive bidding was ever done.
Several county officials disputed any misconduct in the contract and said the procurement was done in accordance with the state law and county policy governing professional services.
For the original StarCIO contract of $65,000, county policy requires a solicitation of three quotes, which did happen; the following contract extensions and amendments were not subject to competitive bidding under the continuity exemption, according to Mr. Golden at the interview.
