Without explanation, former barista dropped from $350-an-hour state contract

Most Alaska newspapers printed a state press release from Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka claiming a former barista and 2020 grad—listed at a cost of $350 an hour on a government contract—had been head of HR and operations for an "international corporation."

Tshibaka wrote that one of the Tandem Motion project leaders is a “former head of operations and HR for an international corporation (who also happens to enjoy staying connected with her hometown community by serving as a barista when she visits home,)”

As I wrote here, Tshibaka exaggerated the amount of experience that this person has and misled Alaskans in the process.

Tshibaka has yet to correct the error in her press release and Alaska newspapers have failed to look into the matter.

The young woman worked at a small company for five months this year as head of operations and HR and earned a master’s degree this year. She worked full-time as a barista from July 2018 to July 2019.

Without explanation, the former barista has been dropped from the Tandem Motion contract, under which she was to make $350 an hour for the next six month, a total of $358,400. The state amended the contract with Tandem Motion on Sept. 14.

I first wrote about the issue of this particular contract employee on Sept. 5, after Tshibaka’s misleading press release began to be printed in full by Alaska newspapers.

Irked perhaps, by my reporting on Tandem Motion, Tshibaka posted on social media Wednesday that “critics” may be carping about this with an ulterior motive.

“DOA released docs related to Tandem Motion. It's clear there were no AK bidders, Tandem was the lowest priced, the leads have extensive experience, and the process followed the rules. Are critics saying DOA should've given the contract to a non-bidding Alaskan friend w less exp.?”

First off, the “leads have extensive experience” is still an exaggeration, even with the departure of the former barista. Two other recent grads are commanding hourly rates of $250 an hour and one is getting $350 an hour.

Second, one reason there were no Alaska bidders for the work given to Tandem Motion is that the state only allowed 5.5 working days to respond, later extended by two working days. Knowing that there would be a limited response, the state decided in advance that it would take only 1 working day to evaluate all the responses and pick the best one.

There was no secret about Tshibaka’s support for Tandem Motion because she, along with four of her subordinates and fellow Commissioner Jason Brune, wrote letters of recommendations for Tandem Motion that were included in its offer. A reasonable timeline would have led to reasonable competition.

On July 27, three days after the state published a request for proposals, Tshibaka wrote on state letterhead that “I highly recommend Cara Griffith and Tandem Motion for complex work involving preparing personnel, supervisors, and leadership for managing performance, improving outcomes, and recruiting and retaining high performers.”

Third, I am not suggesting that “DOA should’ve given the contract to a non-bidding Alaskan friend w less” experience. That is a Tshibaka strawman.

One of my biggest concerns with this contract, which was signed in mid-August for $4.5 million and then cut by $1.1 million on Sept. 8, is that the Tandem Motion offer alleges that it was in charge of a state project last year, though Tshibaka said at the time that Tandem Motion was not in charge of the effort, but was merely a subcontractor.

The Tandem Motion contract is a small part of what appears to be a major effort by Tshibaka to reshape the state work force, using tens of millions from the federal COVID-19 bailout package for a series of contracts that could lead to privatizing a significant chunk of work now performed by state employees.

The lack of candor by the Dunleavy administration about what is happening and the lack of news coverage has left a confused and uncertain situation. The business buzzwords and fuzzy jargon Tshibaka relies upon could mean almost anything.

It appears that the Legislature and the public have been cut out of the process. My guess is that Tshibaka is positioning herself to run statewide for political office and the privatization she envisions as a way to transform operations will be the foundation for her campaign.

A graphic Tshibaka posted this week deals with a head-spinning array of contracts and proposed projects topping $50 million for goals that are not clear.

The graphic she released this week, which conceals more than it reveals, said, “PPP Phase 3 (Ongoing) Enabling Technology: Ensure departments have the IT to support a large telework infrastructure. Includes separate projects for a Service Mgmt. System, laptops, network security and capabilities, cloud acceleration, myAlaska Help desk., etc. Total costs not to exceed $41.4M”

The Dunleavy administration is using the pandemic as a handy excuse for these efforts—tapping the deep well of federal bailout money and trying to spend it as fast as possible.

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