Launched in 2018, the county’s partnership with IBM was supposed to revolutionize the way county staff provide and coordinate services to people experiencing homelessness, mental health and drug abuse issues.
Seven years later, the $13 million IBM contract for ACCESS Sonoma has been dragged into the spotlight. Barbie Robinson, the former Sonoma County health services director who first negotiated the contract, is facing felony bid-rigging charges for a similar IBM contract she championed in Harris County, Texas.
Local officials have yet to investigate how Sonoma County’s IBM contract was rolled out, even as charges in Texas mount against Robinson.
However, Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore and former Supervisor Susan Gorin say county officials should look into it, and a third, Chris Coursey, says the county should find out exactly what taxpayers got for their $13 million.
ACCESS Sonoma was spearheaded by Robinson, who left for Houston in the spring of 2021 to become public health director in Harris County, where she immediately sought a similar contract with IBM.
In November, Harris County’s district attorney, Kim Ogg, charged Robinson with a felony, alleging she provided inside information to IBM during the competitive bidding process for the $31 million contract for data-hosting services and case management software.
On Dec. 23, the DA filed additional felony charges against Robinson for violating the contract bidding process with an unrelated Sonoma County company and failing to report a conflict of interest in the IBM deal. Robinson is accused of giving IBM an advantage in the public procurement process after her attempt to sign the company without competitive bidding was rejected by the county’s purchasing department.
SONOMA PROGRAM A MODEL
Sonoma County’s IBM program, ACCESS Sonoma, is cited in the Harris County case as a model that Robinson intended to replicate in Texas.
Harris County charging documents describe email communications among Robinson, IBM employee Kenneth Wolsey and others connected to Sonoma County, including Carolyn Staats, who leads the Innovation Division in the Information Systems Department and helped launch ACCESS Sonoma.
In a Nov. 2, 2021, email to Robinson and Staats, Wolsey said he shared a list of project manager duties based on similar roles in Sonoma, Orange and San Diego counties “in case you want to shape” a job description for Harris County.
“I’ll forward anything else that Carrie provides, but this should give you a good starting place to create a job descriptions for Harris County,” Wolsey wrote.
The Texas DA, according to charging documents, alleges the email demonstrates how IBM helped develop Harris County’s ACCESS program “for which it is making a competitive bid later in the same month.”
In a Nov. 15, 2021, email, four days before Harris County issued its request for proposals, Wolsey informed Robinson and Staats that he would “be watching for the RFP or other instructions needed for the Harris County proposal …”
“The team is working on items they’re able to do in advance,” he added.
The exchange is evidence that IBM “was aware of the details of the RFP before it was made public,” the DA said in the charging documents.
Staats did not respond to an email requesting an interview, and county officials declined requests to interview Staats.
Gore, the Sonoma County supervisor, said he has asked County Executive Christina Rivera to review the contract.
“Any time there’s an allegation of a contracting issue that includes our employees, that’s an area of concern in need of following up,” Gore told The Press Democrat.
Gorin, who retired from the board last week, agreed.
“I think the first order of business is that the county executive and the interim [health services] director will have to maybe do some investigation about how the ACCESS program rolled out in Sonoma County and if there are any parallels,” she said.
Gorin said that news of what is unfolding in Harris County had her “wondering if the same thing was happening in Sonoma County.” But the board has not had the opportunity to discuss any concerns, she said.
SONOMA PROCESS WAS ‘COMPETITIVE’
Rolled out over the last six years, ACCESS Sonoma uses IBM technology to enable previously siloed agencies, including human services, probation and health services, to share information more easily. Sheri Cardo, a spokeswoman for the Sonoma County Health Services Department, said the local contract resulted from a “competitive process” through the National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance, a government purchasing cooperative.
The program has had 3,154 unique clients enter the system, according to the county’s Health Services Department. That includes outreach services to 1,277 people and 1,465 people who have been enrolled in various county programs including behavioral health services and court diversion. Another 412 have yet to be enrolled.
Paul Gullixson, the county’s communications manager, said in a statement that the county “does not have any indication that this contract was not made in conformance with county procurement policies.”
Sonoma County health officials defended Staats’ participation.
“There are no concerns about Carolyn Staats’ involvement,” Cardo said in a statement, adding that county employees often help other counties “procure technology” that has been successfully implemented in Sonoma County.
“This is common practice and, as such, the county is not looking into Carolyn’s involvement,” Cardo wrote.
Robinson, reached by phone, declined to comment on the Sonoma County or Harris County contracts.
OTHER CONTRACTING ISSUES
The Harris County investigation grew out of scrutiny over the county’s work with a Sonoma County company, DEMA, which Robinson recruited to Houston. The additional December conflict-of-interest charges against Robinson are related to hear dealings with DEMA in Harris County.
DEMA was the subject of a Press Democrat investigation into its billing irregularities, which triggered an auditor’s report that revealed the company could not account for as much as $11 million in taxpayer money billed to Sonoma County.
Sonoma County’s handling of other contracts, including its delay in paying numerous nonprofit social services providers, has also come under fire.
Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said via text message that she is concerned “generally” about the county’s procurement process “from funding availability through to implementation of the contract.”
“If there are any questions from the community or law enforcement about a particular procurement process, we should always review that process,” she said.
Coursey said he has not heard any indication of wrongdoing regarding Sonoma County’s IBM contract but will be following the Harris County case.
“Certainly, if the investigation in Texas turns up evidence of any criminal activity with connection to Sonoma County, I would want them to pursue that,” Coursey said.
THE HARRIS-SONOMA CONNECTION
The Harris County charging documents indicate Robinson worked with Staats, IBM employee Wolsey and Rohish Lal, a former Sonoma County employee, to bring IBM’s software to Harris County a month after she was hired there and while she was still working for Sonoma County. Harris County hired Robinson in March 2021, and she left her Sonoma County post in mid-May.
The documents cited an April 2, 2021, email exchange among the four discussing the ACCESS program. Those emails continued through November as IBM was preparing to bid for the Harris County contract.
Public contracting regulations prohibit government officials from sharing certain details about a request for proposals before it’s made public. The Texas DA alleges that Robinson fed Wolsey information about the bidding in advance and that Wolsey helped Robinson and her department develop the ACCESS Harris program.
The new Harris County charging documents further detail accusations that Robinson tried to skew the public bidding process in favor of IBM, including her failure to disclose that she had worked with Wolsey ahead of bidding. Robinson was a member of the selection committee that reviewed contractors’ bids and attempted to sway other stakeholders, including another committee member, in favor of IBM.
Before being named to the review committee, Robinson signed a document stating she did not have any conflicts of interest, according to the charging documents.
The Texas Ranger in charge of investigating the case wrote in the charging documents that “Robinson knew that her attestation of compliance with the conflict of interest statement was false when she submitted it in order to be a scoring member of the RFP.”
Wolsey, when reached by phone for comment, directed Press Democrat reporters to IBM’s corporate communications.
“I certainly hope that Barbie is being treated fairly, that’s about all I can say,” Wolsey said. “The program there in Sonoma County has done a lot of good, and in fact, it’s done a lot of good in Harris County as well,” he added.
An IBM spokesperson did not respond to Press Democrat requests for comment.
WHAT IS ACCESS WORTH?
Gorin and Gore, who were in office when the IBM contract was approved in 2018, recalled ACCESS Sonoma being described as a powerful, state-of-the-art tool that would transform the delivery of vital health and social services. Robinson and other county officials have repeatedly said ACCESS Sonoma is valuable.
Different agencies serving the same client are better able to coordinate care, using the ACCESS system, James Alexander, director of the county Homelessness Services Division, said in a statement. He cited an example where probation department staff can cancel an arrest warrant for a missing client after using the system to locate the client at the county’s psychiatric emergency department.
“The collaboration between agencies that occurs with the ACCESS program and [interdepartmental] meetings cuts through everyone’s bureaucracy and enables the finding of answers in real time to provide rapid service delivery to our high-need, high-utilizing population in Sonoma County,” Alexander said.
But specific details demonstrating how the county’s investment is paying off are scant. Gorin said she recalls a presentation given by Robinson and other county staff about the program that did not have “a lot of detail.” Similarly, Gore said he also has not seen a thorough evaluation of the program’s “efficacy.”
A “few dozen different types of reports” have been generated about the program, Cardo said in an email. “Executive leadership” has reviewed those reports, which have also been used to develop presentations for county supervisors, county executives, city leaders and various homeless services agencies, she added.
Coursey, who joined the board after the program launched, said department heads have described the program as “a great tool for case management” but he has not seen any reports detailing its performance.
“I’ve been told it is valuable,” Coursey said. “I can’t judge if it’s [$13 million] valuable.” He added that the cost of the program “raised my eyebrows” when he first joined the board.
“It has great potential but is a costly endeavor, and yes, I want to be assured that our processes were followed,” Board Chair David Rabbitt said in a text. “At this time, I have not heard that they were not followed.”
During a Nov. 19 press conference, Ogg, the Harris County district attorney, questioned the value of IBM’s software and the ACCESS program, which was introduced during the pandemic.
“The public is left to question what value did they receive from the ACCESS program implemented here in Harris County by Miss Robinson,” Ogg said. “How were Harris County residents actually helped — were they helped? What we do know is that IBM was helped.”
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