(REDUX) ‘WHAT’S PAST IS PROLOGUE: CITY MANAGER REBECCA DAVIDSON, part 7 of 9

This story first appeared in the February/March Issue of the Zephyr. We’re reprinting it here, in smaller sections, to make it easier for our readers to absorb the information.

NOTE:  In preparing this article about Moab’s city manager Rebecca Davidson, the Moab City Council’s actions re: Ms. Davidson and the subsequent “restructuring” of Moab government, The Zephyr sought information from a variety of sources. We filed Freedom of Information Act requests, via the Wyoming Sunshine Laws, with the City of Kemmerer, Wyoming and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. We filed a Government Records Access request (GRAMA) with the City of Moab, and we conducted interviews with numerous people personally involved in the issues raised here. We also contacted reporter Trevor Hughes, now of USA Today, who wrote a comprehensive article about the current Moab City manager’s tenure as city manager in Timnath, Colorado.

On January 11, we sent 15 questions to city manager Rebecca Davidson, in an effort to “clarify and resolve” issues raised in this article. She did not respond (Those questions are available to the reader elsewhere in this issue). Finally, we contacted the Moab City Attorney, Christopher McAnany, to seek clarification on the process used to fulfill our GRAMA request with Moab City. His January 24 response, which he noted was, “in lieu of any further response from  Ms. Davidson,”  is included elsewhere in this issue, and excerpted later in this article. Finally, we offer the City of Moab the opportunity to reply. But please note that all correspondence with this publication will be regarded as ‘on the record.’…JS

COMING TO MOAB & TAYO, INC.

By the time Davidson accepted her new position in Moab, debate about Kemmerer’s departing city manager had reached a fever pitch. One Kemmerer-based facebook page called ‘South Lincoln Freeman’ became a gathering place for supporters and opponents of Davidson. The comments were so intense, angry and emotional, I could find nothing substantive and worthy of printing, from either the Pro- or Anti-Davidson constituencies. But clearly, the town had been badly divided over decisions made by Davidson and the city council.

Inflaming public sentiment even more, the city’s parks and recreation director, April Corwin, was placed on administrative leave on March 10 and terminated on March 18. Two days later, the City of Moab signed a contract to hire Rebecca Davidson. In fact, for almost two weeks, Davidson was almost certain she was Moab-bound.

Records obtained from the GRAMA search indicate that in the first two weeks of March, Davidson was already the council’s first choice; all that remained to be resolved was the salary/benefit package. Eventually the council agreed to pay Davidson an annual salary of $110,000 plus the cost of moving her to Moab.

Only Councilman Doug McElhaney offered any resistance. In a March 5, 2015 email, he wrote, “We should

Councilman McElhaney.

not pay 20% more than we were paying our last city manager. We are forgetting we are offering employment, not begging for help. I don’t think $9583.00 a month with insurance and retirement is a slap in the face.”

On March 7, he added, “When did we agree on a 10% raise after the first year almost automatic?” And on March 18, he protested, “I still think a 3 year employment contract where at the end our city manager will be receiving $130,000 is wrong.”

But McEhhaney’s concerns were effectively after the fact. On March 6, the offer was made public. Davidson notified the city recorder on March 12 that she had turned over the contract to her attorney.  And on March 20, a contract to hire Davidson was signed by Mayor Dave Sakrison.

Davidson’s announcement that she was leaving came as a shock to many, including the Kemmerer Gazette, which noted that her sudden departure was “a surprise.”

And while the Kemmerer mayor and city council wished her well, it made an unusual decision when the City Council “voted 4-2 to restrict Davidson’s ability to hire and fire employees during her final weeks.” A majority of Kemmerer’s governing body apparently feared Davidson would fire or replace even more staff in her remaining time there. Whether April Corwin’s termination pushed the council’s action, just two days before Davidson got the official thumbs up from Moab, is not known.

(NOTE: By January 2016, the Kemmerer City Council had still not replaced Davidson. In the January 16 issue of the Gazette, Kemmerer’s Mayor Hopkins responded to questions about the vacancy, explaining  “that they are in the process of changing the job description of the city administrator to ensure the parameters are where they should be before they hire someone. That way, he said, the city doesn’t risk having the administrator change too many things once hired.”)

* * *

Rebecca Davidson’s first day on the job was supposed to be May 11, but according to a story in the Times-Independent, she came to work a week early. “We have a great staff here, and I’m also looking forward to getting to know the business owners and people in the community,” she said. “I’m really enjoying being here.” She told the T-I that, ” infrastructure issues — particularly wastewater, sewer piping and a water tank project,” would be 2015 priorities. She also wanted,  “to develop an outreach program to keep city residents well informed about city activities and projects,” by “stepping up use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the city’s website.”

There was no mention of “restructuring.

Also moving to Moab was Tara Smelt, Davidson’s Director of Communications and Events in Kemmerer.  Sometime that summer, Smelt left her job in Kemmerer and ultimately received two final payments from the City of Kemmerer for $55,661.20 and $3217.76 on July 27, 2015. A non-disclosure document prohibits the Kemmerer City Council from commenting on the payments.

Less than a month after the new city administrator assumed her duties, the City of Moab moved quickly to employ the IT security services of a company called Tayo, Inc., “a corporation of Wyoming.” A draft agreement between the City of Moab and Tayo, dated June 4, 2015, appears in the GRAMA files. But according to City Recorder Stenta, the contract was not signed by the city. In an email to Tayo, Inc, Stenta explained that the city had, “a purchasing limit of $6,999 before we have to go through a competitive process.” However, according to the web site, Transparency Utah, the City of Moab made two payments to Tayo, Inc in 2015, for $6,529 and $23,240.

(NOTE: A search of ‘business entities’ on the Wyoming Secretary of State web site listed only one company named ‘Tayo, Inc.’ The corporation was dissolved on January 5, 2013. Further it lists a principle address in Michigan and doesn’t appear to be the same Tayo, Inc. that contracted with the City of Moab. The Zephyr made additional inquiries with the Moab City Recorder for clarification, but we did not receive a reply.)

Some Moabites thought the new arrangement was a conflict of interest when a document recovered from the internet identified Tayo, Inc. as a Utah corporation, with a filing date of June 30, 2015, and with Tara Smelt as the “registered agent.” It identified the company’s address as a street address in Moab, Utah.

Grand County Councilman Chris Baird.

County Councilman Chris Baird later raised the conflict of interest issue to City Councilwoman Ershadi writing by email:

“As you may know. An ongoing ‘conspiracy theory’ is that Rebecca (Davidson) is making room for her friends and colleagues in the City organization by eliminating locals. I don’t have an opinion on things like that one way or the other. But, when a local loses out, and a friend of Rebecca’s moves in, it doesn’t help alieve (sic) that concern. I’m sure you realize that Tara’s (Smelt) involvement can’t be played off as a mere coincidence.”

But City Recorder Rachel Stenta insisted there was no conflict and later explained that the same IT technician who had worked on Kemmerer City’s computers in 2014 was now involved in Moab’s computer security issues. “Niyo Pearson is our IT consultant,” Stenta explained.  “He has formed Tayo Inc. with Tara Smelt who offers Communication services for hire. Tara lives here in Moab and Tara Smelt does not and has not provided any IT services for the City of Moab. Niyo Pearson was hired to assess our IT security issues and is highly specialized in his field.”

And Stenta, still bothered by County Councilman Baird’s remarks, emailed Ershadi, “I don’t think that Chris Baird and whoever he is speaking for is interested in the facts or the reality of this matter. I do think the County Council’s time and energy would be better spent looking within their own organization and taking care of their issues rather than slinging unfounded accusations at the City. It is sad for our Community that after all of these years our City/County Cooperation appears to be on a steep downward trajectory over a fabricated issue that is certainly not in the Community’s best interest to perpetuate.”

Later, Stenta asked Niyo Pearson to draft a letter to the Grand County Council, in response to Baird’s comments. Pearson’s draft letter, which bordered on the apocalyptic, included these remarks:

“Dear Members of the Grand County Council:
My name is Niyo Pearson and I am the Chief Technology Officer for Tayo, Inc. I am writing you in regards to some misinterpretations of both our business and our intentions. Tayo Inc. is a company founded on cybersecurity and communication as its core business. Our mission is to help nurture and grow cybersecurity as a culture for municipalities all across North America…

“…Every day, more and more medium and small sized municipalities are being targeted by ISIS, Anonymous, nation state hackers (China, Russia) in order to, but not limited to, inflict damage against the United States, understand the SCADA water and waste systems (military intelligence gathering) or leak city and citizen data to sell on the digital black market. The City of Moab, a UT customer, engaged us to help them review their security stance and compliance within all aspects of their internal and Internet facing systems.”

But later Stenta wrote Pearson, “At this point, there seems to be only one County Council member who is confused, so I’m not sure that presenting it to the County Council would clarify anything it may confuse them as to why they’re being addressed for City IT issues.” The letter was apparently never sent.

* * *

Despite the city’s commitment to Tayo, Inc, the company’s contact details continue to be baffling. In the June 4, 2015 draft contract with Moab City, Tayo, Inc is referred to as a “Wyoming Corporation,” though it’s not listed among ‘business entities’ on the Wyoming Secretary of State web site. And in another email recovered by the GRAMA search, Stenta states that, “Tayo Incorporated’s business address is 560 South Sandusky Ave., Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

But on the company’s web site, Tayo, Inc. offers virtually no information on its physical location; only a phone number with a ‘970’ area code suggests that the company might be in Colorado. And as we noted, Tayo, Inc is also registered as a Utah corporation, with a June 30, 2015 filing date and with Smelt as its registered agent.

The Zephyr tried to acquire just the basic details of the company and via an email address for Niyo Pearson, again acquired through the GRAMA request, I contacted Mr. Pearson and tried to get a better handle on just who and where Tayo, Inc is. Noting the conflicting contact details listed in this story, I asked, “Is Tayo, Inc. in Moab a branch of your main office in Tulsa, do you have another office in Colorado, and how long has Tayo, Inc in Tulsa been in business?”

The next day, I received a letter from his attorney, Andrea Welter, who informed me the company was not obligated to provide ‘non-public information.’

I replied, “I’m not trying to obtain ‘non-public information.’ But isn’t it possible to see who sits on its board of directors? Who its chief financial and executive officers are? And whether Tayo, Inc in Moab, Utah is affiliated with Tayo, Inc. in Tulsa? If nothing else, what public information about Tayo, Inc is available and could you send me that information?”

Welter responded, “Unfortunately, everything you requested below is non-public information which private companies are not required to disclose. I cannot assist you in your request.”

End of conversation.

Ultimately, one could only conclude that Tayo, Inc. is either a corporation based in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado or Oklahoma, or a combination of the four, with unknown corporate officers in unknown locations and with an unknown board of directors. Or it’s not a corporation at all, but a “partnership” as city recorder Smelt described the business relationship between Pearson and Smelt, with an office in Tulsa and one in Moab, with the partner who lives in Tulsa doing all the IT work for the City of Moab, while the partner who lives in Moab does no IT work for the city whatsoever.

Despite Tayo, Inc’s seeming lack of transparancy, Moab City put its faith in that company to resolve IT security issues, real or possible and cited a lack of vigilence by the previous city manager. In an email to Ershadi, Stenta stressed the need to update the city’s computer security systems. Stenta wrote:

“The City contracted with ComputerWise (Mike Baird the City Manager’s husband) for IT consulting services beginning around 1999 through 2015. We did not procure a contract for those services, rather we were billed an hourly rate for time and materials as needed.

“An issue that we had for many years with our consultant, was that Computerwise utilized and installed software on city computers that was not legally licensed. Each time I brought it up as an issue that could negatively affect our organization, I was told by our City Manager that our budget could not accommodate the purchase of licensed software to bring us into compliance and that it was not a budgetary priority. City Manager Metzler also told me that she would really prefer not to know about the issue.

“When our new City Manager started this past April, I brought this issue to her attention, because as IT Manager it has been a stressful and awkward situation that I previously had no support in resolving. She asked that I resolve the situation immediately, as we are government and using pirated software was completely unacceptable.”

Later, Stenta explained, “…she (Davidson)  asked that I resolve the situation immediately…” And so the City of Moab turned to Tayo, Inc.On August 25, Stenta sent Davidson an email re:”Emergency Purchase.”

Stenta informed Davidson:

“Given that the above system was maintained and developed by our independent consultant, In order to inventory and assess our overall system, it was necessary to hire a different consultant to give us an accurate accounting of system design, vulnerabilities and access control.

“During this inventory process, critical issues were discovered. Security issues which left City water systems, Narcotics Task Force operations and City databases exposed and at risk to security breaches. In order to assess theseverity, I authorized additional consulting hours and broadened the scope of work for the consultant. Further investigation revealed major security issues that warranted immediate action to safeguard the City’s water supply as well as law enforcement activities.

“In my opinion, as per Moab Municipal Code Section 2.28.045(D), the security situation that existed constituted an ’emergency situation involving a threat to public health, welfare or safety’. Once the issues were identified, I could not go through a competitive process to procure consulting without further exposing the vulnerabilities of our critical systems and jeopardizing the safety of our water and law enforcement systems. I did ensure that the services and hardware were competitive and as favorable to the City as possible by utilizing the State Contract for hardware purchases.“

Our previous consultant was charging $90.00 per hour and the consultant I hired for the emergency charges $60.00 per hour. These expenditures are currently at $53,000 and I estimate another $25,000 to complete the process. After the  upgrades are completed, the RFP will be advertised and an IT consulting contract will go before City Council. I request that during the budget process we create a centralized IT department budget to accommodate these and all IT related expenditures for the City of Moab.”

On September 22, 2015, the Moab city council agenda summary includes staff reports presented by Rebecca Davidson and Rachel Stenta, on city IT stating, “A few months ago, we identified some critical security and legal compliance issues in our IT infrastructure. The security issues were very high risk and required immediate action to protect the city.”

They subsequently called for large increases in the city IT budget, including an extra $110,000.00 for 2015-16.  And on October 28, three months ago, Stenta wrote,  “I am in the process of preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for IT consulting services – to conduct a competitive procurement process that we have not previously been able to engage in.” The Zephyr asked Stenta, via a January 28 email, for the status of the RFP but as this story prepares to post, she has not replied.

As noted, an examination of expenses by the City of Moab, show that Moab paid Tayo, Inc. a total of $29,770.30 for two invoices submitted June 30th and September 8th, 2015. And clearly, dramatic additional charges are yet to come.

In the previous four years, ComputerWise charged the City of Moab $35,216. And finally, no serious cyber issues have been reported to or by the former IT consultant in the past 15 years.

And just eight weeks after Rebecca Davidson left her city manager duties in Wyoming, Kemmerer City terminated the services of Niyo Pearson as its IT support technician and, as Kemmerer City Recorder Glenda Young stated, the city “never used or talked to” Pearson again.

Whether the City of Moab needed a systems upgrade, or whether the city was unprotected from cyberattacks by “ISIS and nation state hackers” is not the main point here. Improvements may indeed be in order.

The question is whether the City of Moab, just three weeks after Davidson became its city administrator, should have hired the services of a company, whose co-owner, Tara Smelt, turned out to be Davidson’s Director of Communications and Events, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and who, at the time the arrangement was made was still apparently employed by the City of Kemmerer. Further, it paid Tayo, Inc almost $30,000, four times the maximum allowed by the city without conducting  “a competitive procurement process.”  Finally, what is Tayo, Inc’s customer history? These are issues that need to be resolved.

Coming in Part 8: A LETTER FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY

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