OC Leaders Secretly Approved Over $200 Million in Covid Contracts
VOICEofOC
Orange County officials have secretly approved at least $222 million in taxpayer contracts since last March, when county supervisors set up a behind-the-scenes process for emergency spending without public disclosure of where the money is going, according to records obtained by Voice of OC.
The coronavirus-related contracts, which are now being detailed publicly for the first time, include over $40 million for testing, $11 million for contact tracing, and $2 million for marketing by a separate firm from the one known to have a coronavirus PR contract.
The other $169 million is among 115 separate contracts with various companies and nonprofits. Much of the spending was funded by federal coronavirus response money the county received in April.
While complaining about the information requests, Do said the information is available to anyone who asks despite county officials often taking weeks to provide records.
For anyone that says that theres [a] lacking in transparency, to them I say: choosing to remain ignorant does not mean that they dont have access to information. All they have to do is ask, said {OC supervisors' Chairman Andrew} Do, who publicly defended the secret contracting approach in January.
A Voice of OC review of county supervisors public meeting agendas showed none of the largest contracts worth $10 million and $20 million have been publicly posted for taxpayers to review.
Putting light on OC Supervisors' spending is opening Pandora's box.
It would be for if so many weren't hurting because of them.
We still have much work to do locally.