Sketchy no-bid contract rightfully being challenged
“Where large sums of money are concerned,” Agatha Christie once said, “it is advisable to trust nobody.”
Perhaps more people are beginning to channel the spirit of the great mystery writer, or share her piercing skepticism, as piles of cash accumulate on the figurative doorsteps of individuals and companies that profit from the measures put in place to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Among the lucky winners are companies that offer supplies and services for COVID tests. Twenty months after the start of the pandemic, tens of millions of people are required to show negative lab test results weekly, or even every few days, as a condition of working, going to school, or being indoors in a public place.
Any time the government mandates the use of a privately produced product or service, some people get very wealthy in a hurry. They get even wealthier even faster if they can get an exclusive contract to provide that product or service.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League is suing the city of L.A. over one of those contracts. The union wants an investigation into how a testing contractor, PPS Health Inc., which does business as Bluestone Safe, was awarded a $3 million contract to test unvaccinated city employees for the coronavirus.
Agatha Christie wouldn’t spend a lot of time wondering. PPS Health Inc. is partially owned by Dr. Pedram Salimpour, who happens to be a Los Angeles fire and police pensions commissioner. He was reappointed to the pension commission by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017.
The police union provided the Southern California News Group with emails showing that Salimpour and a lobbyist for Bluestone Safe began contacting Garcetti’s office late last year, seeking to get a contract to provide coronavirus testing for city employees.
“I am working with a company, PPS Health, that has developed a robust health app that manages the risks of coronavirus exposure, and also offers telemedicine and COVIDtesting capabilities,” the lobbyist wrote in an email to two officials in Garcetti’s office. “Would love to speak with you about how we partner, work with, and work for Los Angeles in this endeavor,” Salimpour followed up the next day. “We are available at your pleasure to continue our conversation,” Salimpour’s brother — and his partner in Bluestone Safe — wrote to Garcetti’s team after showing them a presentation.
Under normal circumstances, there’s nothing illegal about lobbying for business. Where it gets sketchy is that Bluestone was awarded a nobid contract. When a company owned by a political insider gets a lucrative government contract in an opaque, secretive process — well, Agatha Christie already explained it.
Adding to the sketchiness, Bluestone contracts with other companies to provide the products and services it offers. The company is not a laboratory or manufacturer. It is a start-up owned by a city commissioner.
The police union is suing because its members have been ordered to submit to twiceweekly coronavirus testing if they are unvaccinated, and the city plans to deduct the $65 cost of each test from the employees’ paychecks. A hearing in the lawsuit has been set for December 8.
The Los Angeles Personnel Department said seven different vendors were vetted before the no-bid contract was awarded to Bluestone Safe, but it wouldn’t reveal the names of those companies.
Adding a little more to the sketchiness, the city refuses to accept third-party tests. So city employees cannot present results from lab tests that were not provided through Bluestone.
A Newport Beach company, Vivera Pharmaceuticals, said it would offer free COVID testing to all Southern California first responders and their families. Vivera’s chairman and CEO Paul Edalat said in a statement, “There is no reason to force first responders to pay for testing in order to keep their jobs.” He said he did not support “profiting off the backs of those who serve our communities.”
Clearly the man has no future in L.A. politics.
This story is just one of many about no-bid COVID contracts, political connections, and large sums of money. Agatha Christie could write a book.