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More Questions In Dixon Contract Controversy

BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) ― City Council President Sheila Dixon has suspended her deputy chief of staff and reprimanded her chief of staff in response to revelations that her former campaign chairman received government work worth at least $600,000, much of it without a written contract.

Since becoming council president in December 1999, Dixon has continually authorized Dale Clark to manage the council's computer system. But records obtained by The (Baltimore) Sun show that Clark has worked without a contract since the lapse of his first no-bid deal in March 2001.

"Dale Clark did not have a contract to perform this work," Dixon's spokesman, Chris Williams, told The Sun Friday. "It's embarrassing, but it's not a willful act of influence-peddling. ... We can't say there's any excuse for our not drafting a contract."

City procurement rules require that all contracts over $5,000 be approved by the five-member Board of Estimates, which is chaired by Dixon and controlled by Mayor Martin O'Malley.

Williams said Dixon's deputy chief of staff, Carolyn Blakeney, is responsible for overseeing the council computer contract. Blakeney was suspended for one week without pay, and Dixon also "severely reprimanded" her chief of staff, Beatrice Tripps, Williams said.

Dixon, meanwhile, is also facing scrutiny from the city's ethics board for her participation in city contracts awarded to a firm that employs her sister.

Clark was Dixon's campaign chairman from early 1996 to April 6, 2001.

Dixon acknowledged in 2001 that she had been wrong to give Clark's company, Ultimate Network Integration, the initial contract a year earlier without seeking competitive bids. But Clark's employment continued.

Four times, the city sought bids for the council computer contract, only to reject all bidders for various technical reasons.

The city's fifth attempt to bid the work finally succeeded in May, when the Board of Estimates rejected a proposal from Clark and awarded a $47,000 council computer contract to Early Morning Software of Baltimore.

Clark's company, however, remained on the city payroll. It has earned $84,000 since May -- nearly doubling the authorized spending for Early Morning Software -- to do the same work. Clark's job in the council president's office ended Feb. 28.

"It smells very, very, very bad," said Bobbie Walton, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan advocacy group. "Maybe Dixon should be sent to her room to write 500 times, 'I will not violate procurement laws.'"

The first 12-month contract for Clark's company was approved in March 2000 for $39,900, according to city finance officials and Board of Estimates minutes. The board authorized an increase eight months later but did not alter the deal's length.

Today Walton told WJZ's Pat Warren the case is particularly alarming because Dixon will take over as mayor if O'Malley wins the governor's seat in November.

"If her judgement isn't better than it seems to be there will be rboader implications because she will have more power," said Walton.

Since March 2001, when the contract ended, the company has received $525,000 in work without a contract, according to city finance records.

"We would prefer to have a contract, obviously," said Baltimore finance director Edward Gallagher.

Williams, Dixon's spokesman, called the lack of a contract a "major oversight." He said the council president's staff continued to authorize Clark's services for the pats five years without a contract for "expedience."

Williams said Ultimate Network Integration was kept on last year, despite losing its bid for the work, to ease the transition for winning bidder Early Morning Software. Clark "had the institutional understanding" from having worked with the council "for a long time," Williams said.

But Early Morning Software President Donna Stevenson said Clark's presence was a costly distraction, and she accused him of trying to sabotage her firm. Clark denied Stevenson's accusations.

Early Morning Software was fired by city purchasing officials in December. Williams said the firm's contract was terminated because the council's computer system was crashing frequently.

The company "was brought in and spoken to, and they were not able to help us get through the day," Williams said.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)