Todd Bensman & Robert Riggs

ETHICS QUESTIONS SURROUND DALLAS CONTRACT TO OVERHAUL EMERGENCY 911 SYSTEM

INTERNAL INVESTIGATION TARGETS DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF

Jun 22, 2005 7:13 pm US/Central
By Todd Bensman and Robert Riggs, The Investigators, CBS-11 News

A top Dallas Fire Department official who helped decide a neck and neck contest for a $5.2 million contract to overhaul the city?s 911 system is under internal investigation for improperly meeting with the vendor who won, CBS-11 News has learned.

The Dallas City Council voted unanimously June 8 to approve the contract selected by a committee made up of police and fire department officials, including the fire department's Deputy Chief of Communications Joseph Kay. but CBS-11 has learned that before its vote the council was not informed of the unresolved ethics questions that have swirled around Chief Kay, nor that he had been removed from the committee over the matter several months ago.

Deputy Chief Kay is formally accused in an internal affairs complaint of ?accepting a gratuity.? But sources say the allegation more precisely involves whether Chief Kay violated a rule that strictly forbids unauthorized contact between contract selection committee members and prospective vendors.

Chief Kay served on a seven-member 911 selection committee that in February decided a dead heat between Tritech and North Carolina-based InterAct. Records show that Chief Kay and Lt. John Kincaid, a department subordinate who also served on the committee, gave Tritech scores so high they overshadowed the scores of all five of the other committee members, who preferred InterAct. Chief Kay?s scores for InterAct were the lowest of the seven committee members. Tritech won by two points.

The next month, as the committee and Tritech were preparing to start contract negotiations, Chief Kay accepted at least one meal from sales representatives of Tritech. Chief Kay told CBS-11 in a brief telephone interview that he accepte d the meal at a Mexican food restaurant but did nothing wrong because the selection had already been made and he was not directly involved in the next phase of contract negotiations.

Christopher Maloney, President of Tritech, echoed Chief Kay. He said the invitation to dinner was a friendly get together, ?just out having a dinner? with a Tritech salesman and director of sales.

?Considering that the chief wasn?t involved at all in the negotiation of the contract, I?m not sure what this is about,? Maloney said.

Another member of the 911 selection committee says TriTech also invited him to dinner. But the committee member, who requested anonymity, said he did not accept Tritech?s invitation because it would be clearly improper during contract negotiations. Lt. Kincaid, who did not attend the dinner, declined an interview request.

Questioned about Chief Kay?s contact with Tritech during negotiations, Assistant City Manager Ramon Miguez called the meal ?inappropriate? and said Chief Kay was quickly removed from the committee to avert the appearance of any conflict of interest.

Miguez conceded that he and other top city officials sent the contract to the City Council for approval with Chief Kay?s high scores intact and before a full investigation might determine the extent of Chief Kay?s relationship with Tritech. In fact, Miguel said he was unaware an internal investigation had even been initiated until CBS-11 told him earlier this week.

Asked whether the contract should have been delayed until it was clear Chief Kay?s score could be used, Miguez said he was satisfied that the selection of Tritech had been fair because other officials not on the committee later reviewed the choice.

?There are an awful lot off checks and balances in this process that give me the sense of we?ve made the right selection,? Miguez said. ?If my memory serves me right there were a total of about 16 people involved in making that recommendation. So if one were to conclude that one individual selection or decision was tainted, you?ve got 15 others that have been involved.?

But purchasing officials tell CBS-11 only the seven authorized members of the committee are empowered to select contracts. Also, a number of vendors who bid for the 911 overhaul project tell CBS-11 that they were guaranteed that an objective impartial decision would be made only by the 7-member selection committee.

One City Council member said he was dismayed that no one mentioned the ethics issue of a possibly tainted score that proved pivotal in Tritech?s favor.

?I think it would have been helpful information to us. I think I would like to have known,? said Councilmember Gary Griffith who also is vice chairman of the council?s public safety committee. ?If in fact there were parts that said it might have impacted the results we might have wanted to stop and again taken corrective action at that point in time.?

Key questions about the episode remain to be answered by the internal affairs investigation. Among them is whether the dinner in March was the only contact between fire department officials on the committee and Tritech during the 8-month process, and whether a previous relationship might have existed.

Chief Kay and Tritech?s Maloney say no other dinners or contact occurred during the selection process or after. But CBS-11 News has learned that Chief Kay and some of the same Tritech officials involved in the company?s Dallas bid did know each other from the past.

For instance, Chief Kay, Lt. Kincaid and Tritech?s sales representatives attended a 3-day software conference at the posh, beachside Hotel Del Coronado near San Diego a year before the Dallas selection process began. The 2003 event was a users ?training? conference for a 911 software that is sold by Tritech. The city of Dallas uses the software.

A web brochure for the event reads, in part: ?This year, for our spousal event, we have a fun-filled day planned at the world famous San Diego Zoo with a behind-the-scenes tou r?and a Friday evening dinner cruise with live Jazz music on board the historic paddle boat William D. Evans.?

Chief Kay and Maloney say there have been other interactions at various conferences.

Also, it remains unclear why the Dallas Fire Department waited two months before initiating an internal affairs investigation of Chief Kay?s contact with Tritech officials.

On the day the City Council unanimously voted to approve the contract, Tritech sales representatives ? and a fire department captain ? were spotted together on the landing above the public galley in council chambers. They watched as council members praised the contract selection.

Councilwoman Maxine Thornton-Reese, who moved to pass the measure, remarked: ?All of our questions are pretty much answered.?

Seconds after the vote, the Tritech officials and fire department captain smiled and quickly slipped out of the galley together. They walked to an elevator, smiling, and got on together. Later, according to several sources, Tritech extended a celebratory offer of dinner to police and fire officials who had served during the process.

To comment on this story, email: Todd Bensman or Robert Riggs