BOMBSHELL PART 2: Former ICCS Academy Compliance Director now working for City of Austin gave $7 Million Contract to Unqualified ICCS Academy
Two days ago, we dropped this bombshell story about Item 23 on this Thursday's Austin City Council agenda.
BOMBSHELL: Austin City Council wants to give $7 Million to Highly Suspicious Mystery Company to “Clean Up Homeless Camps” in Possible Fraud Case (link)
This story blew up over the past 36 hours.
It was widely shared on Austin social media and was a major topic on local talk radio.
Even InfoWars covered it yesterday.
Part Two of this bombshell story is even more scandalous than Part One.
All the evidence indicates this is was almost certainly an inside job.
It certainly appears that at least one City of Austin employee colluded or communicated with friends and business associates to secure lucrative seven figure contracts.
Despite being grossly unqualified and totally inexperienced for the job.
It also seems like ICCS Academy is lying about a bunch of stuff on their bid submission.
Got your popcorn ready?
Part II of this bombshell story is ready to detonate.
BOMBSHELL PART II: HOW DID ICCS ACADEMY GET AWARDED THIS $7 MILLION CONTRACT?
First we exposed P Squared Services for being a highly suspicious, newly-formed company with no internet presence, customers, revenue or experience.
Today we put ICCS Academy under the microscope.
Believe it or not, the ICCS Academy bidding process raises even more red flags than P Squared Services.
There are two City of Austin employees listed as "authorized contacts" for Item 23.
Sandra Wirtanen
John Wesley Smith
This screenshot shows John Wesley Smith is the "Small Minority Business Resources" contact for this proposal
Guess where John Wesley Smith used to work as the 'Compliance Director' before he started working for Austin city government?
ICCS Academy!
Can you imagine a bigger conflict of interest?
Maybe that's why ICCS Academy yanked their website yesterday (link).
However, this snippet on DuckDuckGo still appears when you search for 'John Wesley Smith ICCS Academy'
John Wesley Smith was the Compliance Director for ICCS Academy.
His bio states he also works as a "Small Business Counselor with the City of Austin".
His LinkedIn profile has been wiped clean of any mention of ICCS Academy.
QUESTION: Shouldn't John Wesley Smith have immediately recused himself from the bidding and contract negotiation process for Item 23, due to his massive conflict of interest as the current / former Compliance Director for ICCS Academy?
Massive Conflict of Interest
Gee, I wonder how the other eight companies who submitted bid proposals for Item 23 feel about the former Compliance director of ICCS Academy overseeing the bidding process, and awarding a $7 million contract to his former colleagues?
John Wesley Smith was definitely the Compliance Director for ICCS Academy at one point in time.
Whether that was two weeks, two months or two years ago - it doesn't matter.
John Wesley Smith should have removed himself from this project due to the awful optics and huge conflict of interest.
John Wesley Smith's LinkedIn profile shows his current role with Austin city government is "Business Development Coordinator II".
John Wesley Smith says he's in charge of "negotiating contractual agreements for the City of Austin" and is "responsible for various minority/women procurements."
Huh.
For the record, ICCS Academy is currently a registered vendor with the city of Austin (link).
However, all of their 'certified commodities' are in education, training and consulting.
But the Item 23 RFP says they need vendors with experience in these two fields (link):
Spill Containment, Clean-Up, And Hazardous Waste Elimination Goods (07568)
Garbage/Trash Removal And Disposal Non-professional (91027)
Check out the ICCS Academy vendor page on the Austin's finance website (link).
ICCS is not a registered vendor for garbage disposal and hazardous waste. They are an education and e-learning organization with only five employees and zero experience for this job.
QUESTION: How did an education and apprenticeship organization with 5 employees win a $7 million contract to clean up dozens of Austin homeless camps?
Every registered vendor who works with the City of Austin must sign an offer sheet.
The offer sheet clearly states:
Vendors must certify that they have not "colluded, conspired or agreed" with any other person about the proposal terms or dollar amount.
Did anyone at ICCS Academy pick up the phone and contact their former Compliance Director John Wesley Smith to see if he could help them win?
Now check out #5A on the City of Austin registered vendor offer sheet.
ICCS Academy signed documents that said "we do not have an employment or other business relationship with any local government officer of the city that results in the officer receiving taxable income".
If John Wesley Smith is currently working with ICCS Academy AND the City of Austin, this contract needs to be torn up and he needs to be fired.
Even if John Wesley Smith is not currently working for ICCS Academy, this crucial question still needs to be answered.
QUESTION: Did anyone who currently works for ICCS Academy pick up the phone and ask their former ICCS Academy colleague John Wesley Smith for a favor and a little help winning this $7 million contract?
WAIT, IT GETS WORSE
The ICCS Academy documents submitted for Item 23 claim:
ICCS Academy is an LLC
However, I cannot find any records with the Texas Comptroller that shows they ever registered a limited liability corporation in this state:
I used two different spellings for ICCS:
ICCS Academy
I.C.C.S. Academy
And nothing came up.
No business records for "I.C.C.S. Academy".
Question: Did ICCS Academy lie about their corporate status on their bid proposal?
ICCS Academy clearly has no experience in garbage disposal or hazardous waste removal.
Everything ICCS Academy does (according to their own words) is centered around education, mentorship and training.
Their LinkedIn profile says ICCS Academy is in the "E-Learning" industry, which centers around their apprenticeship opportunities.
It appears that ICCS only has five active employees, who are all directors / executives.
Who exactly at ICCS Academy will be getting their hands dirty cleaning up Austin homeless camps?
I highly doubt the directors of ICCS Academy will be putting on Hazmat suits to pick up dirty needles.
MORE QUESTIONS:
Does ICCS Academy plan on using their young, untrained and inexperienced INTERNS to pick up tons of hazardous garbage?
And if the five company directors and their interns aren't picking up the homeless garbage - who the hell is?
TONS OF TOXIC TRASH GETTING DUMPED IN WILLIAMSON COUNTY
Guess where ICCS Academy plans on dumping tons of toxic trash and hazardous waste that they pick up from Austin's homeless camps over the next five years?
The Williamson County Landfill!
Just like P Squared Services, the liars at ICCS Academy claim they will dumping all this hazardous waste at a landfill that states specifically on their website:
We do NOT accept regulated hazardous waste.
[caption id="attachment_1215" align="alignnone" width="510"]
WIlliamson County landfill - no hazardous waste[/caption]
None of the legit companies who submitted a bid for Item 23 listed the Williamson County Landfill as their dumping grounds.
But ICCS Academy says they plan on taking ALL of the homeless garbage they collect (dirty needles, human waste, old tires) up to Williamson County.
Dirty fentanyl needles need to be thrown away at a specialized location like "BioMedical Waste Solutions" or "Medsharps".
Medical and hazardous waste cannot be taken to a regular landfill.
The legit companies who work in this industry listed FOUR different area landfills for various types of waste.
But ICCS Academy plans on dumping it ALL in Williamson County.
CRITICAL QUESTIONS:
Austin residents are sick of parks, greenbelts, creeks and lakes getting contaminated with toxic garbage from homeless camps. Why isn't Austin City Council taking this matter seriously and hiring experienced professionals to clean up this garbage?
Austin city employee John Wesley Smith just handed a $7 million contract to cleanup dozens of homeless camps to an e-learning company he used to work for. Why did John select an education and apprenticeship organization for the important task of cleaning up homeless camps?
Did anyone at ICCS Academy contact their former colleague John Wesley Smith to see if their buddy could give them an inside track at winning this $7 million contract?
How do the eight companies who lost this bid to ICCS feel about the former ICCS Academy Compliance Director being in charge of the bidding process?
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