California cancels pact with firm co-owned by senator’s spouse
SACRAMENTO — The state prison agency has canceled a contract with a firm co-owned by a state senator’s husband.
The decision follows a report by The Times in June that at least a dozen subcontractors — including dentists and pharmacists — said they were owed $120,000 in back payments from two firms co-owned by David Walters. Walters, husband of state Sen. Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel), is an owner of Drug Consultants Inc., a firm that has contracts with the state to provide medical workers for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The healthcare office of that department said in a letter Wednesday to Drug Consultants Inc. executives that it “has received multiple reports that DCI has failed to pay non-disputed claims to registry nursing personnel utilized by DCI to perform services at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.”
The problem is “interfering with the delivery of services,” said the letter from Renee Carroll, manager of the contract management section for the medical agency overseeing the prisons.
Walters and her husband could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The senator reported in her most recent economic interest disclosure, for 2011, that DCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Monarch Staffing Inc., in which David Walters has a 40% interest. DCI had revenue of at least $950,000 last year from 19 state prisons, she reported.
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