Oakland County Disciplines 4 Employees Who Had Role in Improper Awarding of ZaydLogix Contract

Pontiac, Mich. - Oakland County has disciplined four Information Technology employees in the wake of the independent investigation by Miller Canfield into the inappropriate awarding of a contract to ZaydLogix, a company owned by one of the employees.

"Oakland County strives to serve the public with the utmost ethics and transparency," Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said. "In the ZaydLogix matter, that didn't happen. The actions of some employees fell short of that standard, and they will now face the full consequences of their actions.

"While I'm grateful that the independent investigation into this matter found no evidence of any intent to defraud the county or improper financial gain, failure to follow county policies and its Standards of Conduct is unacceptable and must be appropriately disciplined. I support the effort of law enforcement to investigate this matter as they deem proper and I remain committed to accountability in this and all matters where there has been a violation of public trust and the principles to which we hold ourselves."

The discipline resulted in suspensions without pay for four employees in the county's IT Department commensurate with their roles in the awarding of the ZaydLogix contract. Two of those employees will be resigning from county service in the coming weeks. The disciplinary results are as follows:

• A CLEMIS manager, who will be resigning from the county - suspension without pay for four weeks
• The employee who owns ZaydLogix, who will be resigning from the county - suspension without pay for four weeks
  The department director - suspension without pay for three days
• The evaluator who reviewed and approved the ZaydLogix bid - suspension without pay for two days

The county has taken additional measures to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future including:

• Ensuring that the county's Purchasing Division leads the evaluation process for all bids received in response to County Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• Requiring all county employees to review and sign the county's Standards of Conduct annually
• Mandating additional training regarding Oakland County procurement policies and procedures for all IT Department employees, supervisors and managers