The Scott administration spent three times more than originally estimated – and seven times more than a rival bid – for a redesign of the city’s website that’s a year behind schedule and still not “live,” according to a report issued yesterday by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming.

The company involved – not identified by Cumming in the report, but easily determined through Board of Estimates records and prior Baltimore Brew stories – is Fearless Solutions, a fast-growing digital services company owned by Delali Dzirasa.

Dzirasa has been a prominent backer and campaign contributor to Mayor Brandon Scott, who yesterday announced that Letitia Dziraza, his wife, will return to City Hall as a deputy mayor, a position she left a year ago.

“I want to welcome Dr. Dzirasa back to City Hall to serve as the Deputy Mayor of Equity, Health and Human Services,” Scott told reporters. A press release said she “will tirelessly advocate for programs that support the overall health and well-being of all Baltimore city residents.” (Dzirasa was city health commissioner between 2019 and 2023.)

The IG report looks at the history of a contract given to Fearless Solutions that started at $1 million, then doubled to $2.2 million. Its redesign of the baltimorecity.gov website was originally supposed to be finished by January 2024, but, 1½ years later, has still not launched, according to Cumming.

• Board of Estimates set to spend more on software company owned by husband of deputy mayor (1/24/24)

• Deputy Mayor Dzirasa amends her ethics statement to include her husband’s contract (1/24/24)

Cheaper Alternative

Cumming’s office investigated a complaint that the Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology (BCIT) limited the number of potential vendors for the contract and favored “Vendor 1” (Fearless Solutions) even though there was a much cheaper alternative.

The city’s website designer and host was traditionally determined through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP). For years, McLean, Va.-based Interpersonal Frequency was the vendor, having initially bid $286,000 for the work in January 2014.

To upgrade the city’s site, BCIT requested quotes from six vendors in September 2022, according to Cumming.

But instead of using the RFP process this time around, BCIT opted for a “professional services agreement” that does not entail direct price competition and gives the city wide latitude to select the vendor.

Only two vendors responded – one asking for $1,332,958 and the other for $306,250. The first vendor The Brew can identify as Fearless Solutions, and the second as Interpersonal Frequency.

Faced with a gaping price difference between the two quotes, BCIT tipped the scales in Vendor 1’s favor, according to Cumming:

“On October 22, 2022, the BCIT Project Manager requested Vendor 1 to submit a revised proposal that shortened the timeline from 61 weeks to 39 weeks. The revised proposal lowered the project amount from $1,332,958 to $1,078,847.40.”

The revised figure not only made Fearless’ proposal more competitive with Vendor 2, but was more in line with BCIT’s own internal estimate that the redesign would cost $800,000.

While propping up Fearless Solutions, BCIT’s then-chief officer, Todd A. Carter, was disparaging Interpersonal Frequency’s bid.

“There was no way the project could have only cost $300,000,” Carter later told investigators.

Voting Twice

A panel was then formed by BCIT to score the proposals.

In the first round, Fearless and Interpersonal Frequency were tied. In the second round, Fearless got 89 points to Interpersonal’s 83 points.

Questioned by Cumming, a panelist explained that during the re-vote “they were not led in any direction, but the panelists were not happy with Vendor 2’s presentation and put some more thought into the proposals they received.”

On January 19, 2023, after Mayor Scott and the Board of Estimates awarded the contract to Fearless, Scott hailed the award.

“In keeping with the city’s focus on equity and opportunity for local business owners,” Scott was quoted in a press release, “we are delighted that the winning bid will go to a local minority-owned company.”

The $1 million price tag approved by the board didn’t last long.

Just five months later, BCIT came back to the board seeking $887,844 more for Fearless. The company needed to incorporate “a gift card distribution policy” into the website and arrange for a “full buildout, external feedback and site implementation.”

The expenditure – approved by the mayor, then-Council President Nick Mosby and Comptroller Bill Henry – more than doubled the $330,000 that had been wiped away from Fearless’ initial proposal by the BCIT project manager.

But that, too, proved not to be enough. On January 24, 2024, BCIT requested another $250,000 to go to Fearless. The request was unanimously approved by Scott, Henry and Mosby without discussion.

Rising Doubts

By that time, Scott’s interactions with both Dzirasas had become more frequent.

In May 2023, he promoted Letitia Dzirasa (who had originally worked as Fearless’ Health Innovation Officer) from the head of the Health Department to deputy mayor, moving her to City Hall and upping her salary to $245,000 a year.

In August 2023, Delali Dzirasa contributed $2,500 to Scott’s reelection campaign. In October 2023, he helped arrange for Scott’s first pre-primary fundraiser at the Fearless Club, a social venue his company had established at the CFG Arena. And in November 2023, Scott convened the Mayor’s Business Roundtable with Dzirasa as its co-chair.

“The goals of Mayor Scott’s Business Roundtable aligns with our core focus areas at Fearless – efficient government, social justice, human life and quality living,” Dzirasa said in a press release. “I an honored to co-chair this group to make impactful change for Baltimore today and the future.”

Behind the scenes, however, BCIT employees were raising concerns about Fearless and its prime “Subcontractor,” who The Brew can identify as XCell LLC, headed by former Fearless “scrum master” Felix Gilbert.

In interviews with Cumming’s investigators, employees faulted XCell and Fearless for “inadequate preparation,” “lack of cohesive organization,” “unnecessary coding,” and said there was a constant turnover of staff.

The net effect was that the “go-live” date for the redesign was repeatedly delayed, adding to the costs of a project whose Fearless staff were clocking up over $25,000 in weekly expenses.

“BCIT employees told the OIG that the website could have been launched, but the delays experienced pushed the completion date multiple times. In July 2023, a BCIT executive employee advised another BCIT employee that the project’s success was an enhanced user experience and not hitting a budget or hitting a schedule. This was corroborated by BCIT personnel, who explained that the website could have already launched, but that appearance was prioritized by BCIT management,” the report says.

Ex-BCIT boss Carter told investigators that he expected the website to go live in January 2025 – or two years after the start of the redesign. Following his departure in March, Interim CIO Leyla Layman said the website “was under final review by the City Administrator’s Office” and would be launched by June 30.

The redesigned site has still not gone live, Cumming said yesterday.

City Administrator Faith Leach and Scott’s press office have not responded to requests for comment.

Blame Game

In an interview with Cumming’s office, Delali Dziraza (identified as Vendor 1 CEO) said he had little to do with the actual design and got few updates about the project “to avoid any conflict of interest issues.”

He faulted city officials for pushing for an “all-at-once approach to content migration instead of taking an incremental approach.” The latter would have allowed Fearless staff to “produce some deliverables before the end of the contract,” he asserted.

Felix Gilbert (identified as Subcontractor President) said the project’s initial time frame was too short and it was unclear who in city government was actually leading the project. He blamed “a decade’s worth of outdated content that had not been received or filtered before the project” for slowing down the redesign.

Now returning to city government, Letitia Dzirasa had resigned as deputy mayor last June – or five months after she was forced to amend her ethics form, which had not disclosed her husband’s interest in the redesign contract.

In response to Brew reporting, the mayor’s office insisted that the contract did not present a conflict of interest for the deputy mayor or the mayor himself.

In response to yesterday’s report, Interim BCIT Chief Layman continued to defend the expenditures to Fearless Solutions.

“While the cumulative value of the contract reached approximately $2.2 million, this value reflects the expanded scope of work and associated labor hours required to support the City’s complex digital transformation needs,” she wrote in a rebuttal letter.

“BCIT acknowledges the need for improved planning and more explicit scoping in future digital infrastructure initiatives and IT professional services,” she continued, but “in selecting [redacted], BCIT acted in the best interest of Baltimore City residents and stakeholders, with a focus on long-term value, digital inclusion and user-centered design.”