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Orange County task force investigating StarCIO contracts wraps testimony

Orange County Legislator Genesis Ramos was one of four county Democrats to take questions from the task force Monday.
YouTube: Orange County New York
Orange County Legislator Genesis Ramos was one of four county Democrats to take questions from the task force Monday.

A special committee of the Orange County legislature investigating the county’s hiring of an IT company wrapped its final interviews this week.

The task force is looking into whether there was any misconduct in the procurement of StarCIO to consult and temporarily lead the county’s IT department earlier this year. State Senator James Skoufis and some Orange County Democrats have accused the county of inflating StarCIO’s agreements and hiring it without a proper bidding process because the company’s owner is the brother-in-law of Human Resources Commissioner Langdon Chapman.

On Monday, the Democrats, minus Skoufis, were brought in to testify. County Legislator Genesis Ramos started off by saying she was skeptical of the committee’s decision to question those who brought the allegations forward, adding she had no new information to present to the committee. Ramos said she feels more could have been done to review other candidates for the job — and that, as she put it, “the fix was in.”

"Here's the thing: having a relationship isn’t the main issue, but rather the obscene amount of money this contact is for, by way of connection," said Ramos. "Yes, other folks have relatives that work in county government. But here’s the main difference: they are civil-service or appointed positions of which we know their pay scales, and their pay scales are pubic.”

StarCIO was initially hired for two months’ work in January with a contract worth roughly $65,000 — but months and multiple deals later, the county has spent more than half a million dollars. General Services Commissioner Samantha Swaikata, who oversaw much of the procurement, puts the maximum value of the agreements at $800,000. Skoufis alleges it’s worth even more than that, and referred the matter to both the New York Attorney General’s Office and the FBI.

Last week’s testimony ended with Chapman returning fire at the Democrats, saying they jumped to conclusions and aired their suspicions in a press conference for political clout. He contends Skoufis particularly wants to get back at him for hiring the senator’s political opponent, Dorey Houle, after the 2022 election.

"The conspiracy theory that there's some connection to Dorey? I fully reject it," Ramos said Monday. "James [Skoufis] is a big boy and can handle his own political battles. I am not his hitwoman, nor anyone else's, as I have other aspirations in my life which do not include climbing a political ladder."  

The group of Democrats, which also included Minority Leader Michael Paduch, Legislator Laurie Tautel, and Legislator Michael Anagnostakis, said they were tipped off to the StarCIO procurement by a whistleblower, and only took the matter to the press after the county executive’s office failed to acknowledge a request for additional information for more than 24 hours. When they eventually did receive documentation from County Attorney Rick Golden days later, they felt there were still a lot of questions.

For his part, Paduch testified that none of this came as a surprise to him, as he’s heard of multiple cases of nepotism in the county over the course of his career.

"[Having] the press conference really makes you take action. That's exactly what happened here," said Paduch.

Asked whether they filed a Freedom of Information Law request or confronted Chapman, Swaikata, or Golden before making their concerns public, the Democrats said they did not.

County officials have denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that StarCIO was properly procured in accordance with state law and county policy. County Attorney Golden testified that Orange County does not need to make a formal request for bids when hiring professional services, but it still “piggybacked” at least two other quotes from past procurements when doing its research.

While Skoufis has said that the no-bid policy doesn’t apply when a contract is worth more than $100,000, Golden argued that isn’t the case here: the initial contract for StarCIO was only $65,000.

Saying it's an important difference in terminology, Golden was careful to classify StarCIO’s agreements as not “three separate contracts,” but one contract — the initial two-month, $65,000 deal — and two “amendments” extending it.

“That’s what we did. The initial one was procured in a certain way, and because of the substance of it — professional services — there is specific provision in the procurement code that says, if we need to keep these same types of services, potentially related services to this, that that doesn’t need to go through any type of procurement whatsoever," said Golden.

Chapman has said he did not play a role in the hiring process, but he admitted to recommending StarCIO to County Operations Director Alicia D’Amico — without mentioning his family ties — about a year ago.

In her interview Monday, D’Amico said Orange County was struggling with “failing vendors” at the time, and desperately needed someone to review its fledgling IT department, which separated from the Department of General Services late last year. D’Amico said she was especially impressed by the credentials of StarCIO owner Isaac Sacolick, and the fact that he was willing to work two months at a time.

D’Amico faced scrutiny from Republican Legislator Kevin Hines, one of four members on the special committee. Hines questioned D’Amico over her decision to provide sensitive metrics to Sacolick before a contract had even been signed — something other candidates didn’t get, and members of the task force weren’t even allowed to see.

"So county legislators can’t see it, but someone you’ve never met can have it?" asked Hines.

"Well, we gave it to him because I needed him to have a solid quote, that came back," said D'Amico. "It’s not something we wanted to put public."

"How do you know it’s not going to go public if you’ve never met the individual?" Hines followed, with no rebuttal.

County Executive Steve Neuhaus testified separately on Tuesday that he felt StarCIO was legally procured — but he’s been voicing his displeasure over the cost of the agreements for months. The Republican chalked the ballooning cost up to a lack of IT knowledge among county management, and the haphazard makeup of the IT department. He said he hopes that can be remedied with the hiring of a new, permanent CIO. The Personnel and Compensation Committee recently approved his pick for the job, the current Dutchess County IT Commissioner, Glen Marchi.

As for the political fallout, Neuhaus also accused the Democrats of being trigger-happy. He said the group might have been more in-the-know about the situation if they had made more of an effort to speak with him or show up to work: Neuhaus accused the group of missing about a third of its meetings.

“We had a key budget meeting in this room — no show from the leader of the Democrats. We've known that these issues were coming on. If you show up to work, you’ll know about it," said Neuhaus. "The fact that this wasn’t a political inside job is B.S. I totally think it’s an inside job because the senator does not like his opponent working for county government. And that’s their problem.”

Ramos testified that she’s only missed six of her 55 scheduled meetings this year.

The task force’s next meeting is scheduled for December 11 at 2 p.m. There, the committee plans to discuss a draft of its report.

Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."