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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Exchange board commissions independent review of no-bid contract snafu

Idaho’s health insurance exchange board, after an hour and a half closed-door executive session to discuss personnel matters, returned to open session and voted unanimously this afternoon to commission an independent review of what happened when a no-bid contract was awarded to a board member who then resigned. “We will be working to find an attorney to do that review for us,” Board Chairman Stephen Weeg said after the meeting, “to look at what happened, and how that might have happened, and what recommendations they would make for us as an organization.”

The motion was made by board member Jim Rice and seconded by board member Hyatt Erstad. Weeg said the board wants to do better. “We’ve operated under a crisis mode for five months, and it’s time to stop and take a breath,” he said.

The exchange’s executive director, Amy Dowd, awarded the $375,000 contract last week to board member Frank Chan, who then resigned from the board. Yesterday, Chan agreed to cancel the contract and offered to work with the board on IT issues over the next month, but at its meeting today, the board declined that offer, ending all work under the contract immediately. It also voted to require that in the future, any contract for more than $15,000 be brought to the board for approval.

“It was a long, deliberate, informed, civil discussion,” Weeg said. The board is scheduled to meet again Oct. 30. Weeg said it hopes to receive the review from the attorney in executive session. Asked if the results then will be made public, Weeg said, “I think I will have to see what those findings say before I can give you a definitive answer.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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