Mock v. Jaeger
KFGO - Monday, August 16
On Thursday, August 12th, Rep. Corey Mock questioned the leadership of Sec. of State Al Jaeger by saying, "First, we learned that Secretary Jaeger signed a contract with an out-of-state, bankrupt company..."
To those allegations, Sec. Jaeger (on News & Views) asked for the contract that he signed with the bankrupt, out-of-state company
CLICK HERE to see the contract Rep. Mock provided.
CLICK HERE to see the follow-up information provided by Sec. Jaeger, here is some explanation provided by Sec. Jaeger:
- I have attached a scanned copy of excerpts from a contract that I executed in December 2009 with Elections Systems and Software (ES&S). ES&S is a financially sound company based in Omaha, Nebraska and is a leader in providing election systems and support. They are not bankrupt.
- On pages 3 and 4, a company by the name of Synergy Graphics, Inc. is listed as a subcontractor to ES&S. I have never signed a contract with Synergy Graphics. As noted in # 1, the contract that I executed was with ES&S for a wide variety of election services. ES&S is not bankrupt.
- Yes, Synergy Graphics, Inc. had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. It was a result of their efforts to save the jobs of over 300 people in a printing plant they had purchased in Wisconsin. By court order, they emerged from that status on October 9, 2009. The contract I executed with ES&S was in December 2009, in which Synergy Graphics, Inc. was listed and disclosed as a subcontractor for ES&S. Neither ES&S nor Synergy Graphics were in bankruptcy at the time I executed the contract with ES&S. In any event, I never have signed a contract with Synergy Graphics. They were a subcontractor to ES&S and ES&S was responsible for providing the services and had the option to use subcontractors.
It doesn't stop there.
On Monday, August 16th, Rep. Corey Mock again responded to Sec. Jaeger by saying:
(The first attachment in this story) ESS 2010 Contracts include correspondence from the Secretary of State's office to county auditors and correspondence from ESS related to the terms and agreements with ESS and Synergy Graphics. It also explicitly states the services that will be provided by Synergy Graphics as acknowledged by the Secretary of State's office.
You will note that the document is signed on December 30, 2009 by Secretary Jaeger and on December 18, 2009 by the CFO of ES&S. The terms state (in section 4) that some or all of the services will be rendered by the subcontractor, Synergy Graphics. All services in Exhibit A are performed by Synergy Graphics, while Exhibit B is a price incentive for counties to work with Synergy Graphics.
The PACER Document (CLICK HERE it view) is the bankruptcy papers filed in the US Bankruptcy Court, District of Minnesota (Minneapolis). Filed on 11/07/2008 and terminated on 01/04/2010.
Rep. Mock ends by saying this:
Sec. Jaeger and the North Dakota Republican Party are wrongly citing dates from the bankruptcy case and accusing me of telling an inaccurate story. The fact is that Synergy Graphics is contractually responsible for providing nearly all of our election services for providing nearly all of our election services for the next 4 years and they were under bankruptcy protection until January 4, 2010. The people deserve to know why Sec. Jaeger contracted North Dakota election services with Synergy Graphics without doing any research on their financial stability. He admitted that he had no idea they were bankrupt in June, and today can only cry foul when his judgement is questioned.
Here is the FULL CONTRACT of between Sec. Jaeger and ES&S.
