Certainly sounds like Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office fixed the bidding process in order to hand a nearly $11 million COVID “outreach” contract to a longtime Democrat operative with ties to Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Barack Obama & Adrian Garcia.
Computers, phone & other records seized during the raid by the Texas Rangers on March 11th on the offices of Hidalgo policy director, senior advisor & chief of staff shows they coordinated with Elevate Strategies CEO Felicity Pereyra, a longtime Democrat operative while also working to ensure UTHSC didn’t win the contract.
Those Hidalgo aides are Aaron Dunn, then a senior advisor for public safety and emergency management at the county, Wallis Nader, who is Hidalgo's deputy policy director, and Alex Triantaphyllis, who is Hidalgo chief of staff.
Unsealed documents suggest that the three staffers gave Pereyra inside information about the contract weeks before the proposal was open to the top public and text messages show that those staffers schemed to eliminate UT Health Service Center (UTHSC) despite offering a lower bid & rating high on evaluations
Excellent reporting on the matter being done by KHOU’s Jeremy Rogalski & ABC13’s Ted Oberg.
Staffers began communicating with Elevate Strategies CEO Felicity Pereyra about vaccine community outreach in January 2021, a month before a request for proposal on the subject became public, according to the search warrant.
Text messages and emails in the search warrant include an apparent draft of the request for proposal in January with a note from a senior staffer to “let us know your thoughts and proposed budget after you’ve had a chance to review,” adding they were “happy to discuss further if that would be helpful.”
According to the search warrant, on April 20, 2021, one staffer texted another, “‘This vaccine outreach thing is getting ridiculous. We need to slam the door shut on UT and move on.'”
In another text between the three staffers on May 7, 2021, a staffer asked another “if he could ‘make the outreach RFP meeting that's happening now?" (a staffer) replied ‘No. Take it away. And don't let UT get it.’”
"Investigators also cite a working Google document where multiple county employees helped craft language that is in line with work Pereyra could perform for the county.
Public access to information that would help organizations formulate project proposals wasn't available until Feb. 19, 2021, and closed on March 8, 2021 - months after conversations between Pereyra and county officials…
Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle, who was the sole commissioner who voted against the Elevate contract, told 13 Investigates last week that when the contract first came before commissioner's court, it "smelled wrong."
During the Aug. 24, 2021, meeting, Commissioner Jack Cagle asked for more information on who follows up with vendors who receive millions of dollars in contracts to make sure work is being performed to standards."
Oberg's report details everything chronologically and is an absolute must read and can be found HERE.