Skoufis led a group of Orange County Democrats in accusing county officials of corruption and nepotism for hiring StarCIO earlier this year. The owner of StarCIO, Isaac Sacolick, is the brother-in-law of county Human Resources Commissioner Langdon Chapman, and what initially started out as a $65,000 contract for two months' work in January has ballooned to a maximum of about $800,000.
A special committee of the Orange County legislature, spawned by the Democrats' allegations, has been investigating the procurement in recent weeks. A meeting to discuss a draft version of its report was partially derailed earlier this month when Skoufis released his own report on the matter. In his findings, Skoufis not only accused county officials of skirting procurement policy, but questioned the quality of StarCIO's work.
"Over the course of roughly 10 months, high-ranking Orange County officials effectively handed information technology company StarCIO a blank check for ‘transitional’ services, with virtually no procedural oversight and a complete disregard for established procurement policy," he concludes.
In their letter Monday, Sacolick's attorneys maintain the company was legally hired, and that county officials are "very happy" with StarCIO's services.
"[Senator Skoufis has] defamed, and [is] continuing to defame, a highly regarded and experienced digital transformation expert, whose performance on the contract with Orange County has been exceptional and extremely well-received," the letter adds.
Sacolick's attorneys go on to call Skoufis' investigation a "sham," and accuse the senator of intentionally lying and abusing his position as chair of the Senate Investigations Committee to defame Sacolick and promote himself. The letter warns Skoufis to preserve all documents and correspondence in which he mentions StarCIO.
No charges have been filed, although Skoufis has referred the matter to both the New York Attorney General's Office and the FBI. In a statement to WAMC, Skoufis appeared to dismiss the StarCIO letter:
"Anyone and everyone can plainly see the corrupt nature of the county’s sweetheart deal with StarCIO," he writes. "I referred this matter to law enforcement so, to the extent the company wants to twist themselves in knots trying to explain away the alleged criminality, they should do so to the authorities, not my office."
You can read Skoufis' report in full below:
