Jackson Free Press

The State of Mississippi wants Hinds County Chancery Court Judge William Singletary to dismiss a suit launched against it by multi-national corporation Utility Management Corp. UMC, which has a branch in Jackson, is alleging that the state—at the behest of Gov. Haley Barbour—mismanaged $3.75 million in federal stimulus funds by knowingly passing over the lowest and best bidder to hand a contract to "green" public buildings to Jackson company SmartSynch.

Harold Pizzetta III, who represents state agencies Mississippi Development Authority and the Department of Finance and Administration via the Attorney General's office, argued that chancery court is not the correct location to dispute the issue of whether the state was playing favorites in a contract bid, because state statute already accommodates disputes between private entities vying for state contracts in the Department of Administration and Finance.

"The Department of Finance and Administration is statutorily charged with administrating these state purchasing laws and enforcing and correcting and remedying any violation of those state purchasing laws, particularly statute 31-7-11," Pizzetta said.

Pizzetta said all the plaintiff's arguments, from the state's failure to advertise bids correctly to allegations of favoritism, fall under the auspices of the DFA. Specifically, the DFA's Procurement Review Board reviews any and all suspected violations regarding public/private contracts.

UMC's allegations of a SmartSynch-favoring conspiracy within the MDA were not grounds for leap-frogging the DFA's procurement review board, Pizzetta said: "Every individual who feels aggrieved by an agency argues that the agency not only did it, but did it on purpose. If that was the test to get around this step, then it doesn't make much of a doctrine."

The state also argues that UMC's demand that the state pull all contractual rights from SmartSynch and acknowledge UMC as the lowest and best bidder is moot because the MDA issued a decision to begin the RFP process anew three days after receiving Utility Management Corp.'s complaint.

UMC attorney Brad Pigott called the administrative remedies offered by Pizzetta "inadequate."

Pigott said that what his client truly wanted was a chance to review subpoenaed company information to prove their suspicions of a hidden agreement. "It's not our claim that MDA's practices need reforming. It's our claim that they need to start following state law, not … what the governor has told them to do."

UMC also requested copies of SmartSynch's bid proposal, but the company convinced Singletary to seal the document in September. Jeanni Atkins, a professor with the University of Mississippi Department of Journalism and the executive director of the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information, said the standard procedure in protecting sensitive company information submitted to a taxpayer-funded agency is to make necessary adjustments to the material, rather than removing it entirely from public scrutiny.

"It would seem that they could redact whatever information from (the proposal) that could prove sensitive," Atkins said. "That would seem the thing to do."

SmartSynch attorney Ryan Beckett urged Singletary to keep the entire package under wraps because to protect company information and trade secrets.

Pigott told Singletary that his client suspects a hidden agreement between SmartSynch and two different gubernatorial-appointed agencies of state government. He called it "an ongoing, currently existing, agreement entered to get SmartSynch the contract before the state even began its proposal RFP, and continuing until now."

"Under our complaint, they are still engaged in an active deal to get SmartSynch this money. We're asking the court to reserve jurisdiction, allow us to do discovery to see what more we can find about this pattern of state law violations," Pigott said.

"This is federal stimulus money designed to create jobs and economic activity. The DFA and the governor can't re-appropriate this to another purpose."

SmartSynch has considerable ties to Gov. Haley Barbour, who picks the agency heads at the Mississippi Development Authority and the DFA. Among other ties, SmartSynch executives donated liberally to Barbour's two gubernatorial races between 2003 and 2008, with SmartSynch CEO Stephen Johnston and two others giving a combined total of $54,700 to the "Barbour for Governor" campaign.

Pigott said he is particularly interested in a collection of e-mails exchanged between SmartSynch and the MDA—e-mails that could only be retrieved through court order. "This is a world of e-mails and we look forward to seeing those e-mails," Pigott said following the hearing. Singletary, who confessed trepidation at the slew of accusations, said he would consider the arguments for a future, unscheduled hearing.

"I wish (county procedure) could make sure there were people smarter than me who can figure out these kinds of issues …. But they didn't. We elect our judges, so you get what you get," Singletary said. "It does require me to look at stuff a little more carefully than I have, in light of your arguments. I'll look at my notes and I'll get back to you."

Previous Comments

ID

154393

Comment

I would like to know more about UMC in general. I would be interested to see who they donate to. I'm sure that a 'multi-national corporation' has some political connections as well. Could you put some information in your next update? Not too surprising to see that a wealthy Mississippi businessman would give money to republicans.

Author

jrt

Date

2009-12-18T23:45:29-06:00