Probe of lucrative contracts sought
Supervisor Lee wants an inquiry into history book's no-bid process for writer
District 3 Supervisor Otto Lee said June 6 he will call for an inquiry into how a former politician's wife secured big-money, no-bid contracts with Santa Clara County over a decade.
Jean McCorquodale, wife of former supervisor and state Sen. Dan McCorquodale, earned $2.45 million since 2009 by writing grant applications and authoring a county government history book, this news organization reported in late May.
Lee's call for a probe comes after this news organization revealed Sunday that about one-fifth of the 580-page history book manuscript contained paragraphs copied almost word-for-word from Wikipedia, the History Channel and numerous other online sources, including the Mercury News.
In response, County Executive Jeff Smith, whose office is overseeing the manuscript, said the project is “on hold” until a third-party investigator can further review McCorquodale's work. McCorquodale said the manuscript wasn't her final draft and that the copied paragraphs were “placeholders.” But Smith said he hasn't received any final draft and McCorquodale did not respond to a request asking for it.
In a statement, Lee said he was “extremely concerned” about the no-bid contracts awarded to McCorquodale and the “apparent lack of oversight” that followed.
He said he wants the county to investigate how much money McCorquodale brought in through her grant writing contracts. The county executive's office claims she secured $320 million since beginning to write them in 1995, a figure it cited to justify making her the county's sole grant writer. The office also said she was uniquely qualified to do the work.
Lee said he would also like a more accurate breakdown of how much McCorquodale was paid for the manuscript. In 2018, her grant-writing contract shot up from $220,000 a year to $510,000 when the history book project was tacked on to her existing duties. The following year, the board approved an additional $500,000 extension to finish the book, which was submitted two years late. The contracts do not contain a breakdown of how much money was for the book writing.
“I will request our County administration to provide us with a public report on these important questions in order to get to the bottom of this,” Lee said in a statement. “This will serve as an important lesson to help us avoid these mistakes from happening in the future, enabling the County to be more fiscally accountable for spending public funds.”
The supervisor did not specify when he would be calling for the inquiry, but a spokesman said it would be soon. He is the only supervisor currently on the board who did not approve any of McCorquodale's contracts.
District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said in an interview that the county should offer more transparency when it comes to no-bid contracts, or what are sometimes called “solesource” contracts. She agreed there should be a review of McCorquodale's involvement with the county.
“Grant writing is a very valuable role,” said Ellenberg, who joined the board in late 2018 and approved the half-million extension for the history book. “But I would like more information when we're going forward with sole-source contracting. Really documenting why this is the best or most necessary decision to make. Sole-source contracting is not a favored position. There should be a strong explanation.”
Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who is running for San Jose mayor in Tuesday's primary, and Supervisor Joe Simitian both approved multiple contracts with McCorquodale. They declined through spokespersons to be interviewed. A spokesperson for Mike Wasserman, who also approved multiple McCorquodale contracts, did not respond to an interview request.
McCorquodale has been contracting with the county as a grant-writer since 1995 through her one-person McCorquodale Corporation. In 2009, the county made her the sole grant writer and ended up giving her a fiveyear contract ultimately worth $740,000.
The contract was renewed in 2014 by the county supervisors. In 2019, her contract was extended by an additional half-million dollars because the history book was taking longer than expected, according to the county executive's office.
McCorquodale claims that the project, which required her to interview former supervisors and county executives, was “more difficult than anyone anticipated” and that the pandemic slowed down her ability to access historical archives. McCorquodale said she also spent “a very substantial amount” of her own money on research assistants and the book's cover design.