GOSHEN – The Orange County Legislature’s special task force looking into the contract procurement policies related to the assignment of an extended contract to the brother-in-law of Human Resources Commissioner Landon Chapman convened on Monday only to go behind closed doors for an hour to further discuss issues with their attorney.
County Attorney Rick Golden has been adamant about the way the contract and extensions were given to IT consultant StarCIO, maintaining they were done totally above board.
However, addressing the special committee on Monday, he appeared to walk back his stance.
“The executive branch has certainly been clear from this committee’s work and some of the questions that our procurement policy can be improved upon,” he said. “Contract administration and payment of invoices, etc., needs to be further addressed, and so, the county executive has pulled together a small group of people to begin working on that in earnest so we can in short order try to come up with suggested changes that we would implement in addition to any that the committee would like to recommend that we would consider.”
Golden said he had not reviewed the entire report from Senator James Skoufis’ Investigations Committee, but from what he has read, some of the information is incorrect.
Committee Chairman Kevin Hines also revealed that the attorney for StarCIO has sent the county a letter. He did not reveal its contents.
He also said a whistleblower came forward to legislature Chairwoman Katherine Bonelli last week with additional information about contract procurement.
Hines said his committee has yet to complete its report.
