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Lawsuit Alleges Commissioners Leaked Information to Favored Vendor April-28-07
PENNSYLVANIA -- A lawsuit filed in federal court contains an allegation that two Montgomery County Commissioners leaked information to a favored vendor during contract bidding process.
The lawsuit brought by Municipal Revenue Services (MRS), accuses New Jersey-based XSPAND, Inc, the company hired to collect from delinquent taxpayers in Montgomery County of winning government contracts through political patronage. Recent court filings point to e-mails that indicate Republican Commissioners Thomas Jay Ellis and James R. Matthews relayed a memo expressing County Treasurer Garrett D. Page's initial hesitancy to support the county's contract with XSPAND. MRS maintains the content of the memo was confidential.
The two Republicans and Democratic Commissioner Ruth S. Damsker differed strongly on both the merits of the county's contract with the company, XSPAND, Inc., and the transparency of the process by which the private vendor was hired. Damsker emphasized that she would have liked more involvement in this decision. "I was not part of the negotiation process," Damsker asserted. "I had reservations. I'm not sure if there was an open competitive process."
Former Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Mark Schweiker and Republican attorney Greg Melinson have both worked with XSPAND. These connections are the basis for allegations of GOP patronage in this case.
According to Ellis and Matthews, despite allegations that the process of selecting a contractor was insufficiently competitive, MRS was never a company Montgomery County would have considered hiring for this task. "I never ever heard of them until this," Ellis said.
The commissioner’s chair also emphasized his view that, despite much wrangling about the process of finalizing the XSPAND contract, the 2005 agreement has produced significant savings. The company was expected to recover unpaid taxes at a cost $107,000 a year less than what it had cost the county to collect those taxes on its own.
Page said it is hard to tell at this point how reputable a job XSPAND has been doing in producing savings. "I'm still actually trying to get a precise number," he said. "It's actually too early to say whether there's going to be a cost savings. Damsker has said she is eagerly awaiting Page's assessment, which Page indicated he will likely offer in October of this year, two years after the terms of the contract were implemented.
"I don't think it's a personal thing," Ellis said. "This is business."
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