The former President of the Montana Senate is in hot water with his Republican colleagues this week over a controversial contract.
Lee Newspapers State News Bureau first reported Sen. Jason Ellsworth of Hamilton attempted to give an associate a $170,000 contract without going through a formal bidding process. That’s prompted the new Senate President to open an investigation into Ellsworth’s conduct.
MTPR’s Austin Amestoy spoke with Lee Newspapers State Bureau reporters Seaborn Larson and Victoria Eavis to learn more.
Austin Amestoy: So, tell us more about this $170,000 contract. Who received it and what service was Ellsworth seeking?
Victoria Eavis: This contract was awarded to Sen. Ellsworth's former business associate, Bryce Eggleston. He awarded him the contract to essentially do a post-Session analysis of the bills that came out of the Judicial Oversight Committee that Ellsworth formed during the interim.
This is not Ellsworth's first attempt at getting this work done. Actually, during the interim, in one of those oversight committee meetings, he floated this idea or something similar to it to his fellow lawmakers. He marketed it then as more of a bill-tracking service — in-Session bill tracking, as opposed to post-Session. And, his fellow lawmakers denied it and didn't even go to a vote because it was clear there was just not an appetite for something like this.
Ellsworth quietly still went ahead and awarded his business associate the contract to do this work, and this contract was signed on Dec. 31 of last year.
Austin Amestoy: Right, and there’s a couple of reasons this has landed Ellsworth in hot water with his colleagues. One is, of course, he didn't receive approval, as you mentioned, from the Legislature to give this contract out. He also didn't go through the formal bidding process here, and that meant a public process wasn't triggered as this contract was awarded. Why didn't that happen, Seaborn?
Seaborn Larson: Based on our reporting, what we found was that Sen. Ellsworth initially brought two contracts to Legislative Services to essentially pay Bryce Eggleston that $170,000, but split into two invoices. And, what that did was effectively keep it below this $100,000 threshold in which the Legislature is able to do business, but anything above that needs to go through the public bidding process, and that's handled by the Department of Administration.
What we found from emails we obtained was that Legislative Services actually rejected Ellsworth's attempt to do these contracts that way. And so, he had to return to the table with that single, $170,000 contract for Eggleston, which typically would have needed to go through a bit more of a public process than it did. Because things were towards the end of the year, and the funding for that committee was about to expire on Dec. 31, the Department of Administration granted him an exemption on “exigent circumstances.” So, there’s a couple of things that typically happen with these competitive bids with the state that didn't happen because he was able to get that approval towards the end of the year.
Austin Amestoy: Following your initial report, it sounds like Ellsworth is backing down from the contract. So, what's changed over the last day or two, Victoria?
Victoria Eavis: Once we reported the existence of the contract, we went to Legislative Services and they told us they'd received an invoice. They had not paid it yet. And, Senate President Matt Regier made it very clear to reporters that he was not planning to foot this bill, and he was not interested in the deliverables associated with the contract.
And then, I think public pressure just got to be a little bit too much. Bryce Eggleston appears to have written a cancellation document, and so it appears that the contract is in the process of being canceled, but we do not believe it has been officially canceled quite yet.
Austin Amestoy: What has Sen. Ellsworth had to say about all this, Seaborn?
Seaborn Larson: Sen. Ellsworth has told us on several occasions now that he believed he was doing the process as he was told to do it when he split those contracts into two, and was just learning about the process as he moved through it when Legislative Services told him he couldn't use that route to stay below the $100,000 threshold.
He’s been pretty vague with us about who told him to pursue it that way. But, we continue to ask him questions here at the Capitol.
Austin Amestoy: And Sen. Regier, of course — the Kalispell Republican who took Ellsworth's place as Senate President this Session — I understand is teasing an official ethics complaint here?
Seaborn Larson: The Legislative Audit Division here at the Capitol is working through a complaint that was filed with their office through the fraud, waste and abuse hotline. Both the Republicans and the Democrats in the minority are waiting to see what happens with that report.
The Legislative Audit Division is, I imagine, trying to move pretty quickly through this thing. And then, hearing from Regier, it sounds like he is trying to work things up towards an official ethics complaint that would be heard by the committee. But, it's actually been so long since the Legislature has had to go through this process that we understand Legislative Services’ legal team had to file a records request with the Montana Historical Society to learn more about that process the last time it happened.
Austin Amestoy: Once again, Lee Newspapers State News Bureau reporters Seaborn Larson and Victoria Eavis sharing their reporting with us. Thank you both.
