What is going with the North Texas Fusion Center contract?

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

There's a rotten smell beginning to come from this whole deal.

Over the last several years, the Collin County Commissioners Court has awarded "no bid" contracts in excess of $1.2 million to ADB Consulting of Santa Fe, New Mexico. ADB is owned and operated by Dr. Bob Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller. Dr. Johnson is the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson of Plano.

These "no bid" contracts awarded federal and state grant funds to ADB for construction and operation of the North Texas Fusion System.

The Fusion Center is a high-tech data center that collects, analyzes, and distributes data on possible terror and environmental threats. It is operated by Collin County, but mostly funded with federal homeland security grants.

Stung by criticism of insider dealings for not requiring ADB to submit competitive bids, the commissioners court in February put the contract for running the Fusion Center out for bid. WFAA's Brett Shipp reported that the county's Homeland Security Director, Kelley Stone, acknowledged that Dr. Bob Johnson helped to write the bid specifications, even though ADB planned to submit a proposal.

The closing date, when all bids were required to be submitted, was March 19, 2009.

Yet almost four months later, no contract has been awarded.

Two months ago, I asked the county's purchasing agent, Frank Ybarbo, what was holding up the award. "Were any qualified bids received?," I asked. Ybarbo told me that the county had indeed received five qualified bids. He confirmed that one of the five bidders was ADB Consulting.

Ybarbo told me that when bids are opened, the affected county department managers analyze them, and may take an option to further negotiate with one or more of the bidders. Nevertheless, Ybarbo thought that the bid would be ready for the Commissioners Court to make an award in late June.

The affected department head is Kelley Stone, who was the one who brought ADB and Dr. Bob into the Fusion Center. Stone has admitted that before now, no other vendor had been given an opportunity to quote work for the Fusion Center.

In fact, back in 2007 when another vendor, Sypherlink, attempted to bid on subcontracted work for ADB at the Fusion Center, its bid was thrown out in favor of another insider deal -- this time for a company headed by Dr. Johnson's brother-in-law. Sypherlink wrote a letter to Kelley Stone and Frank Ybarbo, but the county took no action to enforce or report the alleged federal nepotism violations.

Federal grant money however, keeps rolling in. Recently, Congressman Ralph Hall submitted an earmark that would evade normal grant writing procedures and give the Fusion Center another $500,000 in federal funds for "Completion of the North Central Texas Fusion System."

After having a history of insider dealings with one politically well connected vendor (ADB) who actually helped write the bid specifications, the county has spent over 100 days "negotiating" rather than making an award.

There's a rotten smell beginning to come from this whole deal.

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