A special committee of the Orange County legislature has found that an IT contract was not properly procured according to county policy.
The task force had been reviewing whether there was any misconduct involving the choice of StarCIO to temporarily lead the county's IT department last year. The task force released its report Wednesday.
State Senator James Skoufis has led a group of county Democrats in accusing county officials of skirting a proper bidding process, because the owner of StarCIO is the brother-in-law of Human Resources Commissioner Langdon Chapman. What started out as a $65,000 deal for two-months work has ballooned into multiple contracts worth up to roughly $800,000. Skoufis said Wednesday he is proud to have exposed the “wrongdoing.”
“I am pleased the county legislature’s investigative committee’s central finding confirmed what has been obvious from the start: ‘The StarCIO contract was not properly procured,'" Skoufis said in a statement. "From soliciting fake quotes to illicitly escalating the contract's cost to taxpayers, the report’s findings make clear the county administration has been lying to the public for months."
County officials have maintained StarCIO was legally procured in accordance with county policy.
The FBI has served Orange County with a subpoena for documents related to its hiring of StarCIO.
