GOSHEN- The special legislative task force investigating an IT consulting contract between Orange County and StarCIO held its final meeting on Thursday to finalize a report that will be made available to the full legislature and public next week.
According to Legislator Kevin Hines, who served as the chairman of the task force, the report will be presented to the full legislature on February 21 at the body’s rules committee meeting. Hines said that there would be no vote on the report and that it would be for presentation only.
At Thursday’s meeting, legislators spent approximately two hours in what was described as attorney-client privilege for the purpose of reviewing the report and making any necessary changes. The closed-door meeting was attended only by committee members, Legislative Chairwoman Katherine Bonelli, and the attorney for the legislature.
The committee’s work came after allegations made by Democratic members of the legislature and State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) back in October of 2023 that a contract for IT consulting services was improperly given to a company owned by the brother-in-law of county human resources commissioner Langdon Chapman. Skoufis and the Democratic legislators say that the agreement, which was supposed to be short-term totaling $65,000, was extended several times and expanded to more than $800,000 without ever having been competitively bid. In January, the FBI launched an investigation of their own into the contract and issued a subpoena for information to the county on the agreement.
County officials have maintained that the contract was above-board and that no bid was required for the services. Chapman testified before the committee that he had nothing to do with the selection of his brother-in-law’s company because IT is not a function under his supervision.
After emerging from attorney-client privilege the members of the task force approved a set of undisclosed changes and declared the report ready for presentation. Hines also thanked his colleagues and staff, including the attorney for the legislature Betsy Abraham, for their work preparing the report.
“Since we won’t be meeting again as a committee, I think we have to thank Betsy Abraham, she worked nights, weekends, you name it. She did a phenomenal job and was always available to us,” he said.
