CLAYTON 鈥 The chief executive of a tech firm that won a no-bid contract under former County Executive Steve Stenger鈥檚 administration in 2017 said Tuesday that after signing the contract, she donated $10,000 to Stenger鈥檚 campaign at the request of business leaders who supported the Better Together city-county merger effort.
The comments from Lisa Nichols, chief executive of Chesterfield-based , came during questioning from County Council members at a hearing of the council鈥檚 Government and Efficiency Committee to investigate spending on information technology.
The hearing was scheduled after the county鈥檚 acting director of information technology, Charles Henderson, told council members last month the county had wasted about $1 million on various tech contracts under Stenger.
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The county paid Technology Partners $548,000 to build the 鈥淕ateway 311鈥 mobile and web app for summoning nonemergency services, and to build a web 鈥減ermit portal鈥 for filing documents. Henderson told the council in November the county had ended the agreement and had 鈥渘o intention of giving them another dollar.鈥
On Tuesday, Nichols and her husband, company president Greg Nichols, emphasized the donations of $5,000 in December 2017 and $5,000 in June 2018 were not in exchange for their firm being hired. And they said that, despite Henderson鈥檚 earlier assertions, their company delivered high-quality work to the county鈥檚 specifications at a cost much lower than what other urban areas have paid for similar services.
Lisa Nichols said she could remember only three names from the group of 15 to 20 business leaders who made the request to her company in December 2017.
鈥淭here were some very prominent business people who believed in Better Together, and this group of people asked us,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 never even talked to Steve Stenger.鈥 She described the group as 鈥渢his group of business people that were standing behind him, some people that we very well respect.鈥
Those included Danny Ludeman, the former president and CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors; Suzanne Sitherwood, president and CEO of Spire, and a third name that was inaudible. In an interview with a reporter about four hours after the hearing, she clarified that only Ludeman contacted her but that he conveyed the wishes of the other business leaders and that she had not spoken to the others about it.
Ludeman and Sitherwood could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Technology Partners signed the contract with the county in August 2017. Greg Nichols told council members that Ludeman subsequently emailed them asking them for $10,000. Greg Nichols said he asked his wife to ask several of their business contacts to see if they should support Stenger.
鈥淪he asked, and vetted his name, and I said, 鈥業f their opinions of him are good, then I think it鈥檚 a safe enough investment for us.鈥欌
Lisa Nichols gave the campaign $5,000 in December 2017, and her husband said he got another email from Ludeman 鈥渁sking could you help us with that second part.鈥 Lisa Nichols gave the Stenger campaign another $5,000 in June.
Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, asked how the Nicholses thought giving money to Stenger鈥檚 campaign would help the city-county merger effort. Greg Nichols answered: 鈥淚 just know he was in favor of it and that was something he wanted to promote.鈥
After the hearing, Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, said in an interview: 鈥淲hat it means is they worked out this deal with 50度灰视频 County for this contract for these services with the complete intention of taking some of these funds they would get from taxpayers and gave it to the Stenger campaign.鈥
Lisa Nichols told the council she would provide a copy of the Ludeman email, but the council had not received it by late Tuesday and she would not share a copy with a reporter who asked for it.
50度灰视频 County hired Technology Partners without a normal competitive bid process or a request for proposal. The county鈥檚 chief information officer at the time was Rick Nolle, whom Stenger had hired in February 2017.
Lisa Nichols said she had worked with Nolle for more than 20 years via his jobs with other organizations. She said they met in 2017 to discuss the county鈥檚 needs and drew up a scope of work together for the two projects.
There was no evidence that another firm was considered. Because Technology Partners participates in a U.S. government technology purchasing program known as Schedule 70, it could certify that its rates were competitive, she said.
Winston Calvert, chief of staff to County Executive Sam Page, said in a text on Tuesday that 鈥減rocurement decisions like this led 鈥 Page and the rest of the Council to reform the County鈥檚 procurement laws in 2018. We鈥檙e still piecing this story together. This certainly isn鈥檛 the way we handle contracts now. We鈥檙e exploring our options.鈥
In comments to the council, Lisa and Greg Nichols used the strongest terms to defend their firm鈥檚 work, dismissing a claim by Henderson that the county could not update the 311 app because its in-house IT staff could not decipher the code. Henderson said his staff planned to scrap the 311 app and site and replace them with functions within an overhauled county website.
Lisa Nichols said the app was written in a variation of the language C# developed by Microsoft and that by being a large government client of the software giant, the county had plenty of opportunities to train its staff. And she it would be a waste to throw away an app in which the county had invested so much.