Firm on hot seat over COVID work

Fort Bend County demands $25,000 refund after an audit raises questions about billing

A political consulting firm with Democratic ties hired for a COVID-19 outreach contract in Fort Bend County might have to repay the county about $25,000 after an audit found the company submitted questionable expenses and did not comply with terms of the $345,000 deal.

Next Wave Strategies was hired to “develop a marketing communication plan that utilizes social marketing principles and grassroots strategies to dispel myths and misperceptions about the COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the contract between the county and the firm.

Fort Bend County has paid out $102,237 in invoices. As a result of the audit, which was made public Friday, the Fort Bend County Auditor’s Office wants the firm to return about a quarter of that amount and has put a freeze on future payments.

Next Wave Strategies’ website has been taken down and the company’s phone number has been disconnected. The company consists of two employees, Shekira Dennis and Erika Johnson, neither of whom could be reached for comment. While Next Wave Strategies was hired to spread awareness on the COVID vaccine, only about 75 percent of the work they billed could be substantiated, the audit says.

Time sheets submitted in July 2021 include billing for hours worked by Dennis and Johnson in December 2021, for example. Dennis and Johnson submitted identical time sheets claiming the same hours. The pair claimed 867 hours each at $59.36 per hour for total of $102,839.25.

When questioned about the identical time sheets, the audit says, Johnson said, “Shekira and I worked in lockstep appropriately to manage the project. Due to that fact, our activities mirrored each other.”

Next Wave Strategies also billed for meetings that never occurred or that were shorter

than the hours recorded, the audit reports.

“There were 14 instances where either the settings were not on the calendar or the duration of the meeting was not as long as indicated on the time sheets,” the report says.

The amount billed for these meetings was $51,298.04.

Part of the contract stated that Next Wave Strategies would provide the county with a new list of “community leaders, community and faithbased organizations to serve as change champions to aid diffusion,” the audit said.

However, according to Fort Bend County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Jacquelyn Minter, the organizations on the list Next Wave Strategies produced had already been working alongside the county.

“The county wanted NWS to provide it with new collaborators,” the audit said.

How the deal began

Johnson co-founded the firm in 2019, but is no longer working there as of August, according to her LinkedIn page. Dennis began there the same time, according to her LinkedIn page. Before that, she was a community outreach director with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for about two years. Johnson now lists Black Women’s PAC-Texas as her employer on LinkedIn.

Dennis and Johnson previously participated in pandemic outreach in 2020 in Houston, as part of the city Health Departments’s Better Together public information campaign.

The seven-page audit, performed by independent auditing firm Whitley Penn LLP, revealed that the invoices submitted were rife with “deficiencies, or lack of information and a lack of compliance,” Fort Bend County auditor Ed Sturdivant said.

Commissioners Court, by a 3-2 vote, awarded the contract to Next Wave on July 13, 2021. County Judge KP George, Precinct 4 Commissioner Ken DeMerchant and Precinct 2 Commissioner Grady Prestage approved the deal, while Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers and Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales opposed.

Subcontractor issue

Next Wave Strategies also violated its contract by using subcontractors not approved by the county, the audit shows.

Per the contract, the firm could only use subcontractors approved in writing by the county. Of the eight subcontractors utilized by Next Wave Strategies, only three were approved. The audit shows that $42,424 was paid out to unauthorized subcontractors and billed to the county.

Sturdivant said his office will now be requesting a refund in the amount of about $25,000 from the firm.

Next Wave has submitted five more invoices, which Sturdivant says will not be paid until auditors comb through them.

“It is surprising to find deficiencies to this extent from a

county contractor, and it’s very disappointing,” Sturdivant said. “This is something we’re

not used to seeing.”