Thursday, September 28, 2017

State Auditor busts MDE for sweetheart deals

State Auditor Stacey Pickering blasted the Mississippi Department of Education for awarding contracts while trying to get around public purchasing laws in a report. +.  In other words, the State Auditor accused the Superintendent of repeatedly giving sweetheart deals to her friends while the Board sat back and watched.  Payments were made for hundreds of thousands of dollars with no documentation while numerous contracts were structured to avoid bidding and any review by outside parties.


The most egregious example were the payments made to the Kyles Company.  The company is owned by Joseph Kyles, a community activist in Memphis.  MDE paid $214,470 to Kyles in 2015 yet could not produce a contract for the company.  MDE did not have any documents such a a procurement packet for Kyles.  The only records are the actual payments.  However, every payment was under $50,000:

▪     October 2014 – $49,300
▪     October 2014 - $49,950
▪     December 2014 – $28,994
▪     March 2015 - $36,700
▪     May 2015 - $49,525


Each payment is below $50,000- the threshold for competitive bidding for such contracts.  MDE could not even say which districts received anything from Kyles nor what they received.  The State Auditor couldn't even determine if the items purchased were even delivered to MDE.

Our old friend Dr. John Q. Porter was mentioned throughout the report.  JJ reported in June 2016 that Dr. Porter and his friends got nearly $600,000 in sweet deals after they followed Dr. Wright to Mississippi.  Dr. Wright came to Mississippi in the fall of 2013 to start her new gig as State Superintendent of Education. Dr. John Q. Porter followed her to Mississippi six months later and began to get consulting gigs for his company and himself from MDE.  MDE also put his employee, Elton Stokes, Jr., on the consulting payroll.  Dr. Porter became the Deputy Superintendent/Chief Information Officer, and later approved contracts for Mr. Stokes in his capacity as Deputy Superintendent. All three individuals worked together at one time, in the Montgomery County Public School District administration.   Dr. Porter's generosity even extended to Mrs. Stokes as she got a consulting contract as well.

Dr. Porter owns  Blue Sky Innovative Solutions, LLC  which is based in Maryland. Dr. Porter has a somewhat checkered past, as he was run out of Oklahoma City and Montgomery County (Md) amid accusations of poor job performance and financial misconduct.

MDE used a "pool method" of awarding contracts instead of allowing contractors to submit competitive bids.  Under the pool method, a list is compiled of vendors who can provide goods or services for similar prices.  The agency selects a contractor for the list and doesn't have to require bids.  The report states that MDE repeatedly used the pool method to award contracts to a favored few.  Sometimes only one vendor received multiple contracts even though others were available on the list.  Think monopoly contractor.

The Mississippi Board of Education approved a contract to hire Blue Sky to review the Office of Information Management Systems. The contract amount was $29,050.  The contract's term began on March 11, 2014, and ended on June 30, 2014.  The contract was approved on a 7-0 vote in open session. Board member Rosemary Aultman made the motion to retain Blue Sky.  The contract amount ensured it did not have to be subjected to bidding nor review by the Contract Review Board.  MDE inserted Blue Sky into the provider pool less than one month before it got its first contract.  The board later approved a contract modification that tripled the compensation to Blue Sky from $29,050 to $98,500  without increasing the work or extending the term.  The board approved the contract in open session on a 7-0 vote.  The dates of the contract did not change. 

 Blue Sky landed a $98,500 contract in 2014 to develop an "IT governance strategy".  The contract's term ran from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015.  However, the contract was reduced to $48,500 in October The contract was identical to the first one awarded to Blue Sky for the services provided. The State Auditor stated:

In  the  aggregate,  MDE  contracted with Blue  Sky Innovations for a total of $197,000 for the oversight of the MIS office at MDE over a two year period.  It appears that MDE artificially divided the  contract to circumvent the competitive bid process as required by PSCRB.

However, Blue Sky was not done gaming the system. MDE hired  Dr. Porter for consulting services to review the Office of Technology and Strategic Services, and conduct a nationwide search for a Chief Information Officer for $96,454.  Dr. Porter conducted the search and hired himself.  Dr. Porter's salary was $195,000 but was reduced to $183,000 when the State Auditor told MDE that the salary violated state law.

MDE paid Dr. Porter individually and his company Blue Sky Innovative Solutions, LLC, $333,319 from May, 2014 to June, 2015.   The contracts ended when the board voted 7-0 to hire Dr. Porter as Deputy Superintendent/Chief Information Officer.

However, Dr. Wright and Dr. Porter brought in a hatchet man, Elton Stokes, from Virginia to do more work without scrutiny.   Mr. Stokes is an employee at Blue Sky Innovative Solutions, LLC.  It is hard to find this information, but JJ discovered a LinkedIn page and a video posted one year ago that shows Mr. Stokes admitting he works for Blue Sky and works in Mississippi on behalf of the company.  The LinkedIn page has been removed, but stated last month he was the "Chief Solutions Strategist". (Yes, that is an actual job title.)  Mr. Stokes said in the interview that he is a "technologist" who was "brought in to restructure the types of services the department of education can provide at the local level." He once worked at the Montgomery County School District.

 Mr. Stokes got his first consulting gig at MDE in  August, 2014.  Dr. Wright signed a $48,000 contract for Mr. Stokes and his company, Dataone to review data management.  The contract expired at the end of the year.

The board awarded in January 2015 a $93,009 contract to Mr. Stokes for consulting services. The contract expired on June 30, 2015.   Mr. Stokes stated his address was 2228 Harford Court, Waldorf, Maryland (remember that address).

MDE awarded a $48,054 contract to Mr. Stokes in June, 2015, to "implement an IT governance strategy" but the contract did not appear in the board minutes (although its payments undoubtedly appeared in claims dockets).  However, Dr. Porter approved and signed the contract in his capacity as MDE Chief Information Officer on June 30.  The term of the contract ran from July 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, but the expiration was extended by Dr. Porter to June 30, 2016.   Dr. Porter approved a  $25,577  increase to the contract on October 16, 2015. The new contract amount was $73,632.  (See p. 28 below).   Dr. Porter signed the modification. 

The report states:

 The  contracts are not concurrent but  rather the  second  one  begins  the  month  after  the  first  contract  ends;  thereby contracting Mr. Stokes from August 2014 until June 2015 without significant gaps. For fiscal year  2015, Elton Stokes Jr. was paid  $134,400.  Each contract, individually, fell beneath the $100,000 threshold for competitive bids and PSCRB approval; however, in the aggregate, the contracts exceeding the threshold....

The  contract  periods  and  similarities between  contract  scopes indicate that  MDE  was artificially dividing the services into three separate contracts in order to circumvent the competitive bid process and approval of the PSCRB....

The contracts were again awarded via the pool method and below thresholds that triggered bidding or reviews. 

Payment records state MDE paid Stokes $214,002 from September 2014 to November 2015.  

Mr. Pickering also busted MDE and Dr. Porter for hiring Stokes's wife to get around purchasing requirements:


During the period of January 2016 to June 2016, Sharon Semper dba DataOne IT Solutions LLC was awarded a contract in the amount of $48,240 for work on IT Governance strategy. This contract ran concurrently with Mr. Stokes contract referenced above for the same scope of services. It is important to note that Sharon Semper is the wife of Elton Stokes Jr. Additionally, contract solicitations for the State of Maryland list Elton Stokes Jr. as the main contact for DataOne IT Solutions LLC. Therefore, it appears that Mr. Stokes was awarded two contracts under two separate names for duplicative work at the Department of Education.   It is also important to note that the contract for DataOne Services was approved by Dr. John Porter.
 Last but now least were the contracts awarded to Research in Action as J.P. Beaudoin channeled his inner Gibbs.  J.P. Beaudoin became MDE Chief of Research from June 2015 to October 2016.  His salary was $158,000.  MDE followed the same pattern used to award contracts to Dr. Porter and Mr. Stokes although it at least had contracts:

During  the  period  of  May 2013 to June 2014,  Research in Action was awarded three separate contracts. The contract periods of these contracts overlapped and were concurrent. For fiscal year 2014, Research in Action  was paid $102,219 for services rendered. Each contract, individually, fell beneath the $100,000 threshold for competitive bids and PSCRB approval;

 MDE issued three contracts to Mr. Beaudoin  between July 2014 and June 2015.  They terminated when he began his MDE employment.  The total amount of the contracts were $166,885 but each contract amount was below the $100,000 threshold for competitive bids and approval by the Contract Review Board.  MDE used the pool method once again to award the contracts, thus no competitive bidding took place.  

Mr. Beaudoin's departure didn't mean anything to MDE as it resumed awarding him more contracts:

During the period of May 2017 through June 30, 2017, Research in Action was awarded a contract for $48,076. This contract appears to be in conflict with   PSCRB   regulations   that   former   employees   are   prohibited   from contracting with the State for one year after the end of employment.
No bidding, structured contracts that avoid review, contracts given to employees and friends....hmmm... these damn foreigners sure do learn the Mississippi Way pretty quickly.

Kingfish note: The State Auditor is holding a press conference that began at 2:00 PM.  More information and the report will be added to this post.

38 comments:

Justice for Tyrion said...

And yall want these incompetent, corrupt ***clowns to take over JPS? Wow.

Anonymous said...

Wright must go immediately.

Anonymous said...

The board approved all of this. Every one of them needs to go.

Anonymous said...

The children of Jackson are being crippled by the corruption and graft of JPS. It'll take nothing less than a long term state board of education takeover to straighten this mess out and return sanity to the district. The governor needs to .... UH OH .... Never mind.

Anonymous said...


No one can stop what's going on---this is just an example of why we are at #50 on every scale. Term limits would eliminate some of the problems but that won't stop it.

How do you think Trent Lott got so wealthy along with hundreds of other elected officials. Oh, I forgot Benny Thompson !!!

The Board should be personally responsible for every contract, that would change things quickly.

Louis LeFleur said...

So Stacey Pickering takes over MDE, THEN they can take over JPS? Dat how dis works?

Anonymous said...

How many times is that woman going to get caught spending lavishly, granting sweetheart deals and basically raping the taxpayers of Mississippi before she is shown the door? WTF?

Anonymous said...

Thats a really good idea 2:14. Make the board responsible for millions of dollars of contracts done by career bureaucrats (that they had little or nothing to do with their hiring) for the boards $40 per day payment. I'm sure you will get plenty of good, well qualified highly intelligent individuals to take that appointed board position then!

Once nobody is willing to serve on thar oversight position, then you have the unaccointabe to anybody set of bureaucrats running unchecked and in charge.

Anonymous said...

I jog by the waving, precious faces at Casey almost every day. They deserve SO MUCH BETTER. THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL. Stealing the money from children trying to grow up in the poorest state in the country. We should all be standing outside of their offices or houses. Where is the NAACP? I'll take BLM?.... FBI. anybody? Treacherous, thieving.... disgusting.

Anonymous said...

Does everyone know Wright came from DC? The only state ed system ranked lower than Mississippi at the time?

Anonymous said...

Lock her up

Anonymous said...

Clearly they need more money ---

Anonymous said...

Who, or what entity (law firm, lobbyists, and/or politician) is responsible for bringing this lady to MS?

Without THAT info, this is just half of the story. I'm not trying to discourage "talent" from coming to this poverty ridden state, but dear lord.

Anonymous said...

Wright needs to go but every single one of the board of education members is just as complicit in all of this. Wright can't do anything without their approval.

Orange Jump Suits.. said...

Will be interesting to watch Rosemary Aultman mush-mouth her way out of this one.

"We were given every assurance that all of this was legal and above board, and after extensive and deliberative reflection and study we did what we thought was right"....

Or some such nonsense.

The only thing missing here would be Rudy Warnock, Karl Banks, John B. Crosby, Paul Griffin and Gerald Steen.

Anonymous said...

This is why we can't have nice things

Anonymous said...

We would not be having this problem if we would fully fund MAEP.

Anonymous said...

@7:19- Hahahahaha!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! The same Joseph Kyles that was arrested in Memphis last year for choking his pregnant girlfriend?! Say it aint so Mr. Fish!

Anonymous said...



Reminds of the movie "The Grinch who stole Christmas".

There won't be anything left when Wright and her thieving ass friends get finished.

Not even the "Roast Beast" !

Anonymous said...

Who is responsible for hiring Wright? This is unbelievable. Sounds like corruption, fraud and cronyism will just go from JPS to MDE in a takeover!! Heaven help us!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Crooked Carey Wright blames everyone (and everything) for her shady contracts. If she hadn't bent the knee to Lord Snow, she would have been long gone by now.

Anonymous said...

The Winter Crew set-up the Board of Ed the way that they did in order to remove the management of the Dept. Of Ed from politics. In a way and at times, that makes sense. At times like this, though, it sure seems like we’d be better off if the State Supt reported directly to the Governor.

Anonymous said...

Dear JPS

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Anonymous said...

Can it possibly get any worse?

Kingfish said...

Funny. I reported most of this in June 2016 and most of you cats were completely silent. Didn't say a word. I wonder what changed.

Ben said...

This is some of the most blatant corruption I've ever seen. Getting paid $90K+ to conduct a nationwide search and then hiring yourself at nearly $200K a year. We put check bouncers in jail. WTF is all I can say.

Anonymous said...

And not a single one of the crooks will ever spend a night in jail.
Will they all be given a bonus for their work?

Anonymous said...

Actually Kingfish the silence speaks volumes. Doesn't it? Cedrick Gray came to town and did the same thing as Wright at the JPS level. Silence. The corruption is so pervasive it has become the rule, not the exception.

Anonymous said...

Where are the arrests and demands for payment? I guess those only happen for low level employees. Stacy should drive his RV down to MDE and load it up!

Anonymous said...

Facts should be submitted to a federal grand jury or a state grand jury in a County other than Hinds.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish,

Yes, I remember your reporting on this matter last year and I commented then. As an MDE employee, I know this type of thing has been going on for years and years. Why did it take our State Auditor this long to go public? Did it become politically correct to do so now? Don't know.

MDE puts more stringent requirements on their contract procurements than the state regulations, but that is for lower level contracts and procurement of services. They have different values when it comes to procurement of people--their cronies.

This is nothing new. It has been happening for as long as I know. The MDE gets criticized for this or for being top heavy; the Superintendent makes changes and puts an article in the Clarion Liar touting how much money he/she is saving the state; then MDE begins again to do the same things over again once the heat has passed.

No integrity. Extremely disappointing.

Anonymous said...

This is not unique to MDE, I worked for one of the MS companies that gets a lot of business. I had to leave due to the unethical behavior of most of the sales team. All state agencies should be investigated.

Anonymous said...

This is not anywhere close to what mdot just did. Mdot just cut a contract with 9 engineering firms worth over 31 Million just to inspect county bridges. Not repair inspect my friend. Former engineer of mdot is on the contract. Can you hear the taxpayer screaming?! Billy McCoy looks conservative about right now.

Anonymous said...

200K paid no MDE can't produce a contract? In the rest of the world this called fraud, kickbacks and just plain thieving!

Anonymous said...

I've not seen the Clarion Ledger headline yet this morning. Paper still in driveway. Save me some time. Is she in jail yet?

Anonymous said...

Is she in jail yet.
What is the matter with you.
She will be given a big bonus for her hard work.
This is Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

This is the evidence of what really is mind when you hear "think of the children" or the like, during election/reelection time. These big money, big government, low life, no oversight, scum buckets just take it from the kids and do as they please. I'm ok if we close MDE down and have all the superintendents be made front line accountable to the state auditor and the governor's already appointed oversight board. Then lets privatize the education management/administration and know where our money goes from day one. (If we even need it at that point).

I am sick of "save the children" ads that rally up money by emotion and in reality is all about "saving their self and friends". Don't ask me for another dime. I am taking care of my own children - stay out of it!


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