$1.8M Solano County homeless services contract postponed over conflict of interest concerns

FAIRFIELD – A Solano County agency delayed awarding a 2.5-year contact to run the county’s homeless coordinated entry system due to concerns that the agency’s executive director improperly influenced a community panel that reviewed bids for the contract from four nonprofits. 

Community Action Partnership of Solano Joint Powers Authority, or CAP Solano JPA, executive director DeShawn Waters was employed by the highest-ranked bidder, Abode Services, less than a year ago. 

CAP Solano JPA issued a request for proposals in September for a coordinated entry system operator, which is responsible for managing the intake and referral process for individuals seeking services related to housing or homelessness in Solano County. 

Of the four nonprofits that submitted proposals, a community panel ranked the nonprofit Abode Services the highest, followed by the current nonprofit service provider, Caminar.

Waters said during the CAP Solano JPA’s Nov. 20 meeting that the panel recommended Abode because their proposal was scored half a point higher than the second highest-ranked proposal from Caminar.

The staff report on the rank and review process that was provided to the CAP Solano JPA board of directors prior to the meeting noted that Caminar’s proposal received a high ranking in part due to the organization’s existing relationships and history of collaboration in the county. However, according to the report, Caminar’s proposal included a larger staff which pushed the cost of the proposal’s cost over the maximum limit. 

Caminar provided a lower cost option in accordance with the instructions for the request for proposals but the report does not provide information on whether that option was evaluated.

According to the report, the Abode Services proposal received the higher ranking because of the organization’s ability to manage data for performance measurement and because the proposal’s budget fell within the maximum cost.

But one of the members of the community panel, Marco Cardenas, wrote a letter to the board  and spoke at the Nov. 20 meeting during the public comment period to express his concerns about Waters' role as facilitator in the rank and review process. 

“When reviewing Abode’s proposal,” Cardenas wrote, “I was repeatedly singled out by the facilitator to explain my scoring decisions. While I provided my reasoning openly, I noted that other panelists were not asked to justify their scores in the same way.”

“One panelist dominated the entire discussion meeting, working closely with the facilitator in a way that seemed orchestrated,” he wrote. “Together, they influenced other panelists to change their scores repeatedly throughout the meeting. All of the original scores that came in showed Caminar as the winner of the contract before the panelists began changing their scores.” 

Both Abode Services and Caminar are regional nonprofits that provide a range of services including substance abuse treatment, mental health and homeless services in several Bay Area counties. Abode Services is the larger organization with revenue of $135 million for fiscal year 2023-24 and 901 employees in calendar year 2023 while Caminar’s 2023-24 revenue was $52 million with 557 employees in 2023, according to tax filings.

In 2023, Solano County contracted with Abode Services to provide street outreach, housing navigation, landlord engagement, rapid rehousing and other services to individuals experiencing behavioral health challenges in Solano County. The agreement arranged for the nonprofit to provide those services for a period of two years and seven months at a cost of $26.1 million. 

Individuals seeking homeless services in Vallejo have frequently expressed frustration with the coordinated entry system during Caminar’s tenure. The most common complaints are that the intake process is burdensome and repetitive or that they never hear back once they sign up.

CAP Solano JPA board member and Fairfield City Councilmember Doriss Panduro said during the Nov. 20 meeting that she was also one of the members of the rank and review panel but she did not experience any of the issues that Cardenas raised. 

“I did not feel overpowered or coerced to change my scores,” Panduro said. “I think the panel was a diverse group that was able to provide knowledgeable expertise, and with their backgrounds, I thought the process was fair in that manner.”

Dixon city councilmember and JPA board member Don Hendershot said that he could see how some members of the community panel could feel intimidated by questions while others may not. He asked Waters if part of his role as facilitator was to ask questions.

Waters said that when there were non-similar scores he would ask panelists to share their thoughts in case they saw something that other panelists might not have noticed.   

JPA board member and Vacaville Councilmember Ted Fremouw said that he felt Waters was being unfairly maligned. 

“There's nothing that says that [Waters] did something wrong. It has the flavor of, maybe this could be inappropriate, but that doesn't make it so. He was doing his job as director,” Fremouw said, adding that the board was aware that Waters had come from Abode Services when he was hired in May, “so we also hold responsibility.”

JPA board member and Benicia Councilmember Trevor Macenski asked the board’s attorney, Deputy County Counsel Kelly Welsh, if there are any disclosure issues with a perceived or actual conflict of interest related to Waters hiring his former employer. 

“In my opinion it was not a conflict,” Welsh said. “DeShawn’s role is administrative, purely. The entire process was very transparent. There is no current financial interest in Abode, there is no apparent bias, it is strictly an administrative role in terms of the actual process,” she said, adding that Waters did not vote in the process or give any input. 

JPA board member and Vallejo Councilmember Tonia Lediju disagreed with the staff attorney, arguing that just the appearance of a conflict of interest is enough to raise ethical and legal concerns. 

“What we have done now is placed our [executive director] in a position of being in conflict,” Lediju said, adding that proceeding without addressing the conflict would damage public trust in the board of directors.

JPA board member and Suisun City Councilmember Jenalee Dawson said that she was concerned about transitioning the coordinated entry system to a new operator during the winter months and asked Waters how long the transition process would take. 

Waters said that the transition would take one month and Caminar’s contract would be extended for that month to aid in the transition, but building relationships with the community would require more time.

Lediju said that in her experience a month is inadequate to transition to a new service organization. "It's not possible, you might transfer some data, and that's just about it,” she said. “What you're telling me is the people that we serve aren’t important in this transition.”

JPA board member and Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez said that she has seen regular efforts by Caminar to eliminate bottlenecks in the system, including improvements to the Homeless Management Information System and the addition of extended intake hours through the 211 homeless services call line, which is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

“I haven't seen anything that showed me that they're doing something so drastically off that requires us to make an overhaul,” Hernandez said. 

However, she said the CAP Solano JPA’s contracting process does need an overhaul. She expressed frustration with the limited information provided in the staff report and said that she would like to see the questions asked of the panel and the panel’s rankings as well as profiles of the top three candidates prior to making a decision.  

Hernandez said that the agency had previously received complaints about the contracting process and she called for a closed session meeting for the board of directors to review the policy.

In an interview with the Vallejo Sun, DeAndre Richard, Caminar’s program director for the coordinated entry system, said that there are a little more than 100 units of permanent supportive housing in Solano County but there can be more than 1,000 people waiting in the queue. He said that the organization works with a housing locator to connect individuals who have income with landlords but there are still many people waiting for housing.

During the public comment period, several community members spoke in support of continuing Caminar’s contract. 

Vallejo resident Amy Hansen said that after her husband died she had no choice but to live on the streets. “Without Resource Connect (run by Caminar) I would still be there,” she said.

Kari Rader, staff member at the nonprofit CAN-B, which provides services for seniors, veterans, and homeless residents of Solano County, said that she is concerned about loss of services during the transition between the two providers.

“Remaining with the original provider ensures continuity, stability, preservation of staff practices. It also allows us to build upon existing strengths rather than restarting foundational work,” said Rader.

After several amendments, the JPA board unanimously approved a motion to extend Caminar’s contract for six months. The motion directed agency staff to conduct a second rank and review process for the current proposals without Waters present.

The motion also called for a closed legal session to examine the agency’s request for proposal process in order to develop new policy options for approval at a public meeting. Dawson directed staff to schedule a separate closed session to review Waters’ performance.