Isailovich on defensive over county contract
C.P. mayoral nominee says his firm did good work
NWI Times
Oct 5, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/isailovich-on-defensive-over-county-contract/article_9dcc9f46-35d7-508b-a1a6-aae67462eb31.html
CROWN POINT -- Since announcing his candidacy in January, Democratic mayoral nominee Wayne Isailovich has campaigned as a fiscal conservative who will defend taxpayers against wasteful government spending.
But his opponent describes him as just the opposite - a man who landed a fat contract for his business through a political connection and then failed to account for the work he did when his patron left office.
At issue is the four-year, $480,000 contract Isailovich won for his Merrillville business, Addiction and Behavioral Counseling Services, to provide counseling to inmates at the Lake County sheriff's work release program.
Isailovich and his former partner, George Sufana Jr., received the contract shortly after opening their business in 1999.
Isailovich's longtime friend, former Sheriff John Buncich, had invited them to provide the services.
The partners accepted, and soon their business was making $120,000 a year counseling inmates on anger management and drug and alcohol addiction. Sufana died that November, leaving Isailovich as the business' sole owner. Each year he provided Buncich with an annual report of the services his business provided to the county, according to Isailovich and the former sheriff.
On Nov. 21, 2002, Buncich wrote a letter to the Lake County Board of Commissioners asking them to renew Isailovich's contract for two years with a 10 percent raise, bringing the business' annual fee to $132,000. But the sheriff was on his way out of office, prohibited by law from seeking a third consecutive term.
Incoming Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez asked the commissioners not to vote on Isailovich's contract until he could review Isailovich's work. But when he went to review the records, he said, they were nowhere to be found.
"I don't believe they were lost, but they weren't here," Dominguez said. "I simply asked him for the records. I would think that whatever he sent to the previous sheriff, he would have had a copy of those records. I would not ask for specific client information, but rather statistical data on the type of counseling they provided -- pretty basic stuff."
But if Dominguez's request was routine, Isailovich's resistance took him by surprise. The sheriff's assistant chief, Melvin Maxwell, made repeated attempts to contact Isailovich by phone, but his calls went unreturned.
In January, Dominguez sent Isailovich a certified letter requesting information about the work Addiction and Behavioral Counseling Services provided the county. The letter went unanswered. A month later, on Feb. 13, Dominguez sent Isailovich a second letter informing him his contract would not be renewed.
"I regret having to take this action," Dominguez wrote, "but your failure to respond in any manner to my request for the empirical data has left me with no reasonable alternative."
The contract was subsequently awarded to Hammond-based Addiction and Family Care Inc., led by Dominguez supporter Nancy Fromm. Fromm's contract is worth $70,000 a year, or $62,000 less than Isailovich had requested.
Isailovich's opponent in the election, Republican Dan Klein, made the controversy the subject of a question he asked Isailovich in last week's mayoral debate. Klein said a friend of his, whom he declined to name, obtained Dominguez's letters to Isailovich through a public records request.
"It struck me that if you're getting paid almost half a million dollars and you have nothing to show for it, that's not being accountable," Klein said afterward. "Is that what we're going to anticipate in his administration?"
Isailovich did not address the issue directly at Monday's debate. But later in the week, he said Dominguez never intended to renew his contract. In last year's Democratic primary, Isailovich had supported Buncich's hand-picked successor -- and Dominguez's opponent -- Miguel Arredondo.
Given his support of the losing candidate, Isailovich said, Dominguez's decision not to renew his contract was a foregone conclusion. He said Dominguez's letters were part of a political game, and to respond would have been a waste of time.
"The request was a pretext to get rid of me," he said. "It's just that simple."
Buncich, who said he has been friends with Isailovich for 30 years and is now working on his campaign, agreed.
"It was clear from the get-go that the contract was going to go to Fromm and (her consultant, Bobby) Cantrell because of their support for Dominguez," he said. "It's unfortunate politics had to play a role in that."
Fromm did not return a phone call last week.
Dominguez denied being politically motivated.
"That would not be true, because I offered him the opportunity to provide the information to me so I could evaluate it," he said. "When I have no records, no response and I can save $124,000 (over two years) -- I guess it's easier to say it's just political. But it was a lot more than politics."
Buncich praised Isailovich's work with inmates, saying he had observed several counseling sessions himself.
"I was very impressed by what he provided over there," he said. "The quality of the service was there, and I think for the amount, it was well worth it."
Isailovich staunchly defended the work his company did for the county. He became a counselor after struggling with alcohol addiction himself, he said. He took his last drink in 1992, and has since devoted himself to helping others recover.
"From the time I stopped drinking, I have dedicated my life to helping other people," he said. "My past is my greatest asset. I've dealt with the problems in my past. I've learned from them and continue to learn from them. ... Since I've been in this business, we've helped thousands of people. We've taken drunken drivers off the road. We've educated individuals that have had problems."
That his business' contract was not renewed, he said, is no reflection on the work he did.
"We got that job because we did good work," he said. "We provided a service that was needed. We dedicated everything we had to make sure that the inmates were treated in the proper manner. And I defy anyone to prove otherwise."
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