Within a month of Houston Public Library completing the installation of SimDesk word-processing, spreadsheet, and e-mail software on all its public-access workstations, a city council member has discovered on the municipal computer server some 55 e-mails that call into question the circumstances under which the $9.5-million SimDesk contract was awarded in June. According to Councilman Bruce Tatro, the summer 2001 e-mails exchanged between former Houston technology chief J. Dennis Piper and several employees of SimDesk (then known as Information Access Technologies) prove that “awarding the contract to IAT was the forgone conclusion in August 2001,” when city council gave the firm permission to test a prototype at three branch libraries, the November 15 Houston Chronicle reported.
Tatro discovered the trail of e-mails a month after it was revealed that the Houston Office of the Inspector General and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are probing Piper’s actions for alleged violation of Texas bid law. Piper, who quit his Houston job the day before city council approved the contract, is also under investigation for the alleged theft of almost $300,000 from his one-time employer Reliant Energy.
Since the allegations became public, Tatro and several other city council members have tried twice to call a special session regarding terminating the SimDesk contract, but have failed to draw a quorum. Al Haines, chief of staff to Houston Mayor Lee Brown, told the Chronicle that Brown is awaiting the Inspector General’s report.
Posted November 25, 2002.