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After a former campaign worker was awarded an $11 million contract for COVID-19 vaccination outreach, Harris County Commissioners have reversed course, voting to void the contract with Elevate Strategies LLC.
According to Houston Daily, Elevate Strategies LLC, operated by Felicity Pereyra, was a one-woman operation with little history, having been formed two years ago and based in a private residence. She also had worked primarily for Democratic political campaigns. It was a lack of experience and resources that had Harris County Commissioner Court member Jack Cagle questioning the decision to award the contract to the company.
“I did raise the concern that their experience was all with political campaigns and not health campaigns and I didn't like that and I still don't like it," Cagle said at a recent meeting, according to Houston Daily.
Amid the controversy, County Purchaser DeWight Dopslauf told Houston Daily that his department treated the contract with Elevate Strategies like any other.
Pereyra’s company was selected from a panel of “three individuals from the County Judge's office” and “two or three individuals from the Public Health Group," Dopslauf told Houston Daily.
Houston Daily also reported that the Harris County Commissioner Court had no input into the decision, and while Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced that she would seek cancellation of the contract.
“The way it’s being politicized is getting in the way of getting people vaccinated,” Hidalgo, a Democrat, told The Texan.
Despite the push to have the contract cancelled, Houston Daily reported that Hidalgo alleged that Cagle wasn’t being truthful when he said Elevate Strategies was a one-woman operation, even though the company intimated that fact on its website. She also tried to cite contributions of some Republican commissioners while failing to mention Democratic colleagues received contributions from similar sources.
Moreover, Elevate Strategies’ ability to meet the requirements of the project were called into question. Houston Daily reported that the company would not have been able to meet Harris County’s bidding requirements, which include five years of annual fillings, audited income statements and a financial balance sheet.
Fox26 reported that the company wasn’t required to provide financial statements during the bidding process, which fueled shouts that the process was corrupt, prompting a critic to claim Democrats were using tax money to “build their voter database."