Did Forefront Organizing Overbill Jefferson County 911 Dispatch?

During the 911 campaign paid for with county taxpayer dollars, Forefront Organizing sent monthly invoices for labor and travel. The labor costs were substantial, and were supposed to cover a full time organizer, a part -time organizer, and strategic consulting services amounting to another full person.

Did the Jefferson County Dispatch get what they paid for? 

Here is an invoice for Forefront Organizing for March 2009.  Notice that it includes 320 hours of campaign management and strategic consulting services, as well as 160 hours for part time staff.  It's an interesting mix, because it suggests that 480 total hours were spent in March on the campaign.

March Invoice Forefront

There are a number of problems with this.  One, there is never any indication of who exactly is working on the project.   Mike Dalton is mostly absent, missing meetings, following up late, and generally unavailable.  And then Cindy Feist, the main campaign worker for Forefront, resigns as of March 1st.  And yet the invoice is still applied.  If Feist only worked December-February, then who is billed out in March and who is billed in April?

This email shows Cindy Feist notifying Brenda Shular of her resignation.  We're not sure what friction caused this resignation, but there is no corresponding person who steps in and takes the reins.  In fact, as Glenn Boyer notes after the measure passes, he received the final mailing after the election.

Cindy Feist Resignation Email

In addition, you have issues of per diem, travel, and food, that all come in round numbers, with no receipts attached.  Are these padded numbers?  Whose travel is involved?  Is per diem provided for someone outside of Jefferson County, or is it simply added on?

And of course, will Forefront Organizing file the appropriate tax paperwork for per diem and travel allowance?  They haven't had to file yet, but it should be interesting, considering that Forefront Organizing wasn't registered in the state of Missouri until several months after this campaign was completed.

You heard me right.

These invoices provide a wealth of information.  They show a large amount of money paid from capital funds. They show that POWER is doing all of the work.  And they beg the question of who exactly approved an open-ended contract that allowed a company that didn't exist in the state of Missouri to funnel money to a union run in part by the attorney responsible for advising the Jefferson County Dispatch. 

What is PWR-JCD-04?

Comments

[Guest]

How did Forefront know what their 03/01/09-03/31/09 costs would be on 02/03/09 when this invoice was generated? How can an itemized invoice be generated prior to the costs actually being incurred? How careless can you be? This invoice makes no sense. You are billing transportation costs through March in the first few days of February????? Something sure smells here........