“The purpose of this (contract review) though is not to point fingers at any individual or anybody, it’s not to point blame at anybody, that’s not the goal here; the goal is actually to review the contracts in light of ‘was there legal authority to award the contracts, did they cede any legal authority, was there a product that was required, did we receive the product,’ those are the kinds of issues that the council and the public deserve a right to know.”
“…again in May, that we will not be looking to point blame or fingers at any individual, that is not the goal…”
Not surprisingly then, outside counsel/ investigator Stephanie Atigh, who is scheduled to “present the results of the investigation into City contracts” at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, states in her “Background to Contracts Review,” “The scope of my review was limited to the dollar value of each contract, the amount paid by the City, and whether the City received a deliverable (service or product). My report does not assess the "value" of the deliverables either in quality or quantity.” In other words, the “value” of the “deliverables” for contractors Mark Alcock, Public Consulting Group, Boots Road, Davies Communications, Blaze Public Relations and Richard Taverer, a necessary variable to determine accountability, was not determined.
As an example, for Contract ASD-PCS-MA-001-2013-14 between the City and Mark Alcock, Forensic Examiner, Deliverables: Consultant billed for himself and for David Alcock for services including preliminary forensic exam on two desktop computers; one "deep dive" exam on one desktop; on site visit for imaging and on site exam of one desktop; internal scan of network; analysis of network scans and preplanning of network remediation; network auditing and "infosec" scanning and firewall project; creation of laptop image. Consultant's work under this contract formed the basis for a June 5, 2013, search warrant that was served on an employee at his home.
For Contract ASD-PCS-MA-002-2013-14 between the City and Mark Alcock, Deliverables: Mark Alcock and David Alcock provided remote and onsite IT services. The following are some on site work items specified in the billings for Mark Alcock: "oversee management of IT staff; GFI and LogMeln accounts installed on city computers and server; Network/Firewall project; Fixed AD server and police network communications error; rebuilt Cops 2 raid; fixed Tracknet issues; moving user accounts onto CityBrain 2."
Off site services for David Alcock include "monitor Cops 2; troubleshooting and monitoring Tracknet; troubleshoot Tracknet hard drive issues; troubleshoot spam issues, update patches on Citybrain 2; install GFI on Cops 2." Imaged various staff's city desktop computers; David Alcock billed for help desk work while Barandas on vacation; "worked on EOC access point, created new shares." "Administrating IT personal activity" for months of January-April 2014.
And for Contract ASD-PCS-MA-Examiner-003-2013-14, Deliverables: Based on the detail shown in Consultant's invoices, Alcock performed "Cyber Lab" on 5 City staff computers; imaged 3 staff desktops and laptops; did "preliminary examinations" and "deep dive examinations on various staff computers;" ongoing network monitoring; document preparation and review to support attorney; "carving, procession and analyzing images;" document retrieval and review; image analysis; City Hall scanner image preliminary examination; preparation for testimony; file recovery.
All of the “Deliverables” for all three contracts between the City and Forensic Examiner Mark Alcock were based on Consultant’s billings and invoices; there is no evidence in the “Contracts Review” of independent corroboration confirming the “deliverables” or refutation of the alleged professional services performed by any city employee of the City, specifically Police Chief Mike Calhoun.
In sum, under the direction of City Attorney Don Freeman, outside counsel/ investigator Stephanie Atigh, purposely did not “assess the ‘value’ of the deliverables either in quality or quantity” for the express purpose of not pointing “fingers at any individual or anybody, it’s not to point blame at anybody, that’s not the goal here.”
Beyond the aforementioned accounting, the “Contract Review” provides evidence that Mayor Jason Burnett and City Council Members approved amendments to two of the three contracts between the City and Mark Alcock and three of the four contracts between the City and Public Consulting Group (PCG) for amounts substantially more than the original contracts amounts “not to exceed $25,000 and reasonable expenses” without publicly expressing skepticism about the merits of the original contracts, the amendments and the amendments amounts to the original contracts.
In conclusion, because there was no intent by the City during the “Contract Review” process to “to point blame or fingers at any individual,” the City has informed the public that the City has no intention of holding any individual(s) responsible for the betrayal of public trust as evidenced by the “Contract Review” and City Council actions of verbally praising and financially rewarding then-City Administrator Jason Stilwell. Consequently, City Attorney Don Freeman and Mayor Jason Burnett, Mayor Pro Tem Victoria Beach and City Council Members Ken Talmage, Carrie Theis and Steve Dallas, have no intention of publicly holding themselves accountable to their positions of public trust by resigning from city employment and public office.
Written & Published by L. A. Paterson
“…again in May, that we will not be looking to point blame or fingers at any individual, that is not the goal…”
Not surprisingly then, outside counsel/ investigator Stephanie Atigh, who is scheduled to “present the results of the investigation into City contracts” at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, states in her “Background to Contracts Review,” “The scope of my review was limited to the dollar value of each contract, the amount paid by the City, and whether the City received a deliverable (service or product). My report does not assess the "value" of the deliverables either in quality or quantity.” In other words, the “value” of the “deliverables” for contractors Mark Alcock, Public Consulting Group, Boots Road, Davies Communications, Blaze Public Relations and Richard Taverer, a necessary variable to determine accountability, was not determined.
As an example, for Contract ASD-PCS-MA-001-2013-14 between the City and Mark Alcock, Forensic Examiner, Deliverables: Consultant billed for himself and for David Alcock for services including preliminary forensic exam on two desktop computers; one "deep dive" exam on one desktop; on site visit for imaging and on site exam of one desktop; internal scan of network; analysis of network scans and preplanning of network remediation; network auditing and "infosec" scanning and firewall project; creation of laptop image. Consultant's work under this contract formed the basis for a June 5, 2013, search warrant that was served on an employee at his home.
For Contract ASD-PCS-MA-002-2013-14 between the City and Mark Alcock, Deliverables: Mark Alcock and David Alcock provided remote and onsite IT services. The following are some on site work items specified in the billings for Mark Alcock: "oversee management of IT staff; GFI and LogMeln accounts installed on city computers and server; Network/Firewall project; Fixed AD server and police network communications error; rebuilt Cops 2 raid; fixed Tracknet issues; moving user accounts onto CityBrain 2."
Off site services for David Alcock include "monitor Cops 2; troubleshooting and monitoring Tracknet; troubleshoot Tracknet hard drive issues; troubleshoot spam issues, update patches on Citybrain 2; install GFI on Cops 2." Imaged various staff's city desktop computers; David Alcock billed for help desk work while Barandas on vacation; "worked on EOC access point, created new shares." "Administrating IT personal activity" for months of January-April 2014.
And for Contract ASD-PCS-MA-Examiner-003-2013-14, Deliverables: Based on the detail shown in Consultant's invoices, Alcock performed "Cyber Lab" on 5 City staff computers; imaged 3 staff desktops and laptops; did "preliminary examinations" and "deep dive examinations on various staff computers;" ongoing network monitoring; document preparation and review to support attorney; "carving, procession and analyzing images;" document retrieval and review; image analysis; City Hall scanner image preliminary examination; preparation for testimony; file recovery.
All of the “Deliverables” for all three contracts between the City and Forensic Examiner Mark Alcock were based on Consultant’s billings and invoices; there is no evidence in the “Contracts Review” of independent corroboration confirming the “deliverables” or refutation of the alleged professional services performed by any city employee of the City, specifically Police Chief Mike Calhoun.
In sum, under the direction of City Attorney Don Freeman, outside counsel/ investigator Stephanie Atigh, purposely did not “assess the ‘value’ of the deliverables either in quality or quantity” for the express purpose of not pointing “fingers at any individual or anybody, it’s not to point blame at anybody, that’s not the goal here.”
Beyond the aforementioned accounting, the “Contract Review” provides evidence that Mayor Jason Burnett and City Council Members approved amendments to two of the three contracts between the City and Mark Alcock and three of the four contracts between the City and Public Consulting Group (PCG) for amounts substantially more than the original contracts amounts “not to exceed $25,000 and reasonable expenses” without publicly expressing skepticism about the merits of the original contracts, the amendments and the amendments amounts to the original contracts.
In conclusion, because there was no intent by the City during the “Contract Review” process to “to point blame or fingers at any individual,” the City has informed the public that the City has no intention of holding any individual(s) responsible for the betrayal of public trust as evidenced by the “Contract Review” and City Council actions of verbally praising and financially rewarding then-City Administrator Jason Stilwell. Consequently, City Attorney Don Freeman and Mayor Jason Burnett, Mayor Pro Tem Victoria Beach and City Council Members Ken Talmage, Carrie Theis and Steve Dallas, have no intention of publicly holding themselves accountable to their positions of public trust by resigning from city employment and public office.
Written & Published by L. A. Paterson
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