Post #97 Baltimore City facing more ethical issues costing taxpayers money
Hiring a company owned by the Deputy Mayor’s husband smells bad from the start.
Hiring a competent website developer shouldn't be this hard but Baltimore City has figured out a way to do that. Sometime taxpayers have low expectations of the government for a variety of reasons. One of the big reasons is how government spends money. One person angry with the government spending money on a wasteful program is someone else who sees that program as critical.
Recently we have seen in Baltimore City the issue of a city awarding a large contract to a website developer. The website hasn't been completed costing taxpayers over $2,000,000. The reason this contract was done is because if you've ever navigated the city website, it was somewhat old and outdated, and needed a reboot.
From the OIG report: In February 2024, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) received a complaint regarding the professional services contract for the Baltimore City Website Redesign Project. Specifically, the complaint alleged that the Baltimore City Office of Information Technology (BCIT) requested quotes from six companies. Only two companies responded with proposals. Vendor 1 (Fearless Solutions) was awarded a one-year contract for $1,078,847.40, while Vendor 2’s (Vendor 2) proposed project costs was $306,250.00. The lowest bidder was not selected. Two contract amendments were later approved, adding $887,843.95 and $250,000 to Vendor 1’s contract.
This from the report explains why it was not opened to bidding on this vital job. BCIT and other City agencies utilize “professional services” contracts. According to the Board of Estimates Regulations on Procurement, Protests, Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise, and Debarment/Suspension, professional services are “services that are predominantly mental or intellectual, rather than physical or manual, and require the application of the special knowledge, technical skill, and the experience that comes from instruction, training, and the exercise of mental facilities.” The City has an approved list of recognized professional services known as the De Facto Professional Services List (the De Facto List). According to the De Facto List, “an information technology consultant providing strategic direction, insight, and/or recommendations related to the City’s IT assets and infrastructure” is designated as a professional service. Once approved as a professional service, the agency may solicit vendors directly without competitive public bid solicitations or procurement by the BOP. A Chief Solicitor with the Law Department’s Contracts Division (Chief Solicitor) stated that professional services do not have the same governing rules as procurement solicitations, which require competition. If the service is deemed a professional service, the agency can select the vendor.
The ethics behind this are bad from the start. The contract was awarded to a company called Fearless Solutions. The owner of the company Delali Dzirasa is the husband of the current deputy mayor of Baltimore Letitia Dzirasa. That alone should have set off some ethical red flags. This contract process comes off as somewhat rigged. It should have been opened to more companies maybe companies with some actual experience and results in being able to get something like this done instead of picking the company that is owned by the deputy mayor’s husband.
Isabel Cumming, the Baltimore City Inspector General issue an 11 page report citing the city for failing to open up the bidding process for competitive bids. The city only sent letters to six companies to bid on this job and only two companies responded. If you want to hire a certain company/employee and you don't know if that company/employee will pass through various boards and screenings there's a simple way to get around it. You put other companies out there who aren't as good as the company you want up for the job. A clever way to rig a hiring process and I've seen that done before.
Not only did the company fail to complete a website, Fearless stopped working for the city over a year ago. While Brandon Scott has been busy firing a lot of people over the last few months, when will a head roll on this one.
I got a chance last Tuesday to talk to Isabel Cumming on WBAL Radio about this she said the city of San Diego which was recently named the top big city website in the country only spent $646,000 on its redesign.
Maybe the city should consider suing the company that didn't complete the work to try to recoup the money they blew away hiring them in the first place. This would definitely send a message to the future possible city vendors about accepting and completing a job with taxpayer dollars. The deputy mayor may not like this, but this is the taxpayer’s money.
Balt. City Inspector General reveals concerns over unfinished $2.2 million website project