Bush rejects inquiry into contract awards

By DIANE RADO

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday defended his Agency for Health Care Administration, saying there is no need for an investigation of allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of state contracts.

"I wouldn't know what to investigate," Bush told the Florida News Network in a brief interview at the Capitol.

The state Democratic Party this week called on the Republican governor to ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate "questionable contracts" at the Agency for Health Care Administration.

But Bush said the party is just "playing politics."

In recent months, the agency has been embroiled in a bidding controversy over a $24-million contract to do reviews of the way hospitals and other facilities spend their federal Medicaid dollars. Missouri health care executive Sarah Grim has gone to the FBI with allegations that lobbyists Don Yaeger and Michael Coldony told her they could "guarantee" she would get the contract if she paid the men $1.2-million. Yaeger, also a writer for Sports Illustrated and a sports book author, bragged of his connections at the agency, Grim said. She declined to bid on the contract, and another company represented by Yaeger got the job.

The St. Petersburg Times has also reported that an agency official, Jim Clark, went to lunch and Florida State football games with Yaeger, and then made decisions in Yaeger's favor on the $24-million contract.

In another case, Yaeger went on a vacation to Jamaica last fall with Douglas Russell, another top official at the Agency for Health Care Administration. About three months later, Russell approved a $936,579 contract for Yaeger's client, EMC2 Corp. Yaeger's wife, Denise, was the sales representative on the deal.

Agency Secretary Ruben J. King-Shaw Jr. has canceled the $24-million contract and started the bidding over. Russell was transferred out of his job overseeing purchasing in February, and last month submitted his resignation. The agency said those personnel changes were not disciplinary in nature.

Bush expressed confidence in how the agency is handling its business. "If there was any wrongdoing, I can assure you Ruben King-Shaw would change the procedures," the governor said Friday.

Democratic Party spokesman Tony Welch was critical of Bush's response: "We simply said the governor needs to appoint an independent body to take a look at this. What was political about what we said?" Welch asked. "We're saying there are unanswered questions. Why is the governor resistant?"

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