ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s chief of staff last year lobbied for a firm that the administration now wants to award a public contract.
Winston Calvert worked as a lobbyist for Securus Technologies Inc., a prison communications firm based in Texas, for 45 days prior to taking his job as Page's chief of staff last spring, public records show. Page’s administration earlier this month recommended that the St. Louis County Council award Securus a five-year contract for inmate phone and video calling at the Justice Center, suggesting the company offered the lowest potential cost to inmates and their families.
But last week, St. Louis-based TKC Holdings Inc., which currently holds the prison contract, complained to the council about "scoring irregularities" in the bidding process, saying its own bid was three times lower than that of Securus. “As such, there appear to be inconsistencies and errors within the scoring process,” Alex Lee, TKC’s general counsel, said in a Feb. 11 letter to the council.
Calvert, who joined Page's administration in April, served as a lobbyist for Securus from December 2018 to February 2019, state records show, a fact one member of the St. Louis County Council said should have been disclosed.
“If the chief of staff used to work for this firm, and now his superior, the county executive, is asking us to approve this contract, it should have been disclosed,” said Councilman Tim Fitch.
Calvert didn't respond to a request for comment.
A Securus spokeswoman, Jade Trombetta, said “at no time during his short lobbyist tenure was Calvert working for, or engaged with, the Page Administration. For the past year, Securus has not communicated with, conducted any business with, nor retained Mr. Calvert's services on any level.”
Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page, said the county executive's office wasn't involved in picking Securus. The Carrollton, Texas, firm was selected by a committee made up of four Department of Justice Services employees and one Division of Procurement employee reviewing bids from five respondents to a request for proposals, Page said in a Feb. 7 letter to the county council.
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