“It seems to me it was purposefully planned to go around the council, probably figuring we’d ask too many questions like we did last year,” he told the Post-Dispatch last week. “I think the council deserves an explanation as to how this happened and who was involved in making these decisions.”
Council Chair Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, said she didn’t question the merits of the jail’s new phone and tablet service but said the contract should have been put out to bid.
“It seems to me that we didn’t get what we wanted through the RFP process but then you went through the state cooperative,” she said. “You’ve obviously gone ahead and awarded the contract without council input. That seems a little disingenuous.”
Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-5th District, who as council chair in 2020 dropped the Securus contract at procurement officials’ recommendation, said she was “pleased” to see jail inmates get access to the tablets and that there was “no evidence that anything was done to secure this new contract that was improper.”
Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, said that putting the service out to bid would have subjected it to council politics and delays.
“Given the vetting that this contract got before, and the fact that this is legal in the way it went forward now, I have no problems,” he said.
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Originally Appeared Here