Sonoma County auditors will review DEMA contracts in response to Press Democrat investigation

Sonoma County officials say they will audit more than $26 million in no-bid contracts with DEMA Consulting and Management after an investigation by The Press Democrat raised questions about the company’s billing practices earlier this week.

“I can confirm that the county will be looking into the specific spending questions raised in the story,” spokesman Paul Gullixson said via email late Friday.

Gullixson, the county’s communications manager, said the decision to look into “specific questions raised by the story” was made by Erick Roeser, who leads the Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office.

Gullixson added that the county’s Department of Health Services, which initiated the contracts with DEMA in the early days of the pandemic to provide emergency medical care in county-run homeless shelters, will conduct its own review.

The health services review will examine other county contracts involving Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and is part of an analysis the county had “anticipated doing anyway in keeping with FEMA requirements,” Gullixson said.

The Press Democrat’s in-depth, two-part investigation, published online Wednesday and appearing in print editions Sunday and Monday, found that DEMA billed at least $800,000 for staff positions that current and former employees said they didn’t remember interacting with or even knowing about.

Sonoma County has never audited DEMA’s contracts, and the company’s pandemic-era contracts have never come up for review by the Board of Supervisors.

DEMA has billed taxpayers more than $26 million through no-bid contracts with the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.

The contracts were awarded outside the normal competitive bidding process, which was allowed under emergency orders during the pandemic.

Company founder Michelle Patino confirmed on Friday she had been contacted by county auditors.

“I received a phone call from the county finance department ... as a courtesy call, mentioning we would be receiving correspondence requesting documents for an audit,” Patino said in an email to reporter Andrew Graham, author of the series, and executive editor Richard Green.

“We are more than happy to cooperate and provide any documentation requested with this audit and reassure the community that (their) tax dollars are being spent accordingly. We are a company of integrity and stand behind our services provided to the community.”

Patino added, “We are a transparent company and can and will account for every penny that has been billed with our contracts. We provide great service and model that is proving to be very successful in assisting with the homeless crisis our county faces.”