County commission votes to pay a consulting firm $52k for work on budget

Gadsden Commissioners voted to pay The Integrity Group $52,700 for 2 weeks of work on the county’s budget.
County Administrator Ed Dixon brought in the consulting firm to work on the county’s budget after the former budget manager resigned in July.
According to the two task orders signed by Dixon, two of The Integrity Group’s project managers worked 65 hours a week at $155 an hour, while another worked 40 at the same hourly rate from Aug.1 – Aug. 17.
The Gadsden County News Corp. previously reported that Dixon told the board he was not aware of the cost until after the work was completed, even though he signed off on the task orders prior to the consulting firm completing the work.
The Integrity Group’s Chief Executive Officer Gary Yates appeared before the board on September 17 to clear up inaccuracies from the Sept. 3 meeting.
During the Sept. 3 meeting, Dixon said he was unaware of Integrity’s hourly rate until the county received the invoice. Yates confirmed the county administrator signed off on the task order prior to the work beginning. Yates said there were numerous conversations about the hourly rate with the county.
Yates also said the firm did not charge the county a disaster rate for working on the budget, as Dixon had previously reported to the board.
Yates also said his firm was instructed to provide a forced balanced budget, which he says is not something they normally do.
“We were not comfortable doing that, frankly, but we did,” Yates said.
He said the firm had hopes of providing a “true balanced budget” by Oct. 1.
Yates said many hours were spent working on the budget, and other county projects.
The Integrity Group also created a budget presentation which was converted into a PowerPoint presentation by county staff.
Dixon originally told the board he would try to meet with Integrity to review the invoices and negotiate the total cost of the task orders, in order to seek a reduction on the invoices.