Lapsed Contract Is Still Being Paid, GOP Says

Assembly Republicans are raising questions about a legislative computer contract that expired nearly six years ago but has continued to automatically pay more than $600,000 to a firm established with help from a campaign fund-raiser for former Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

As they begin a fiscal review of Brown’s record 14 1/2-year reign, newly empowered Republicans say the onetime speaker and his staff seem to have paid scant attention to the details in the contract with Monarch Constituent Services of Studio City, which received the public funds for a computer help line.

In scrutinizing the situation, Republicans say the Assembly has paid $112,000 a year since 1990, when the contract expired, for a rarely used service. Republicans estimate that in the past three years, the service has been used a total of five hours a month. They say that the contract was on automatic pilot and that the Assembly made quarterly payments of $28,000 without a formal renewal.

“It’s inappropriate to spend $112,000 a year for a service we don’t have a contract for and for a service that’s not used,” said Jeff Flint, deputy chief of staff to Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

Pringle said the abuse reflected in the Monarch contract “has to be stopped” and contended that “previous regimes failed to provide oversight” on financial issues.

Ironically, Republicans like the software provided by Monarch. They say they intend to keep it but pay less for the hotline. Other parts of the software contract, including maintenance, were not criticized by Republicans. All 80 Assembly members use Monarch.

“It’s the best of the software that’s available,” Flint said. “But that doesn’t mean we should pay a ridiculous amount of money for a phone support line we don’t use.”

Monarch’s software grew out of an elaborate card-file index developed by Marlene Bane to track constituent contacts for her husband, then-Assemblyman Tom Bane, a Van Nuys Democrat who retired in 1992 after a lengthy political career.

Until the past few years, Marlene Bane also organized lavish Los Angeles fund-raising dinners for Brown, now mayor of San Francisco, and was known among lawmakers as a force to be reckoned with in the Capitol.

Details of the contract came to light as Republicans, out of power for 25 years, are reviewing the inner workings of the Assembly during Brown’s reign.

Central to the computer issue for Republicans is whether taxpayers have received their money’s worth from the hotline.

Brown could not be reached for comment. Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco), who chaired the Rules Committee under Brown, said he knew lawmakers used Monarch’s software but was unaware of the hotline contract’s details.

Monarch’s dealings with the Assembly have been dogged by controversy.

The Banes had helped create a computer version of the office card-file system, and Marlene Bane invested $1,700 as a 25% interest in Monarch’s parent company.

As lawmakers began to solicit software bids a decade ago, Republicans warned that taxpayer-financed computer programs could be abused for political purposes. But the Assembly Rules Committee, chaired by Tom Bane, went ahead with choosing software, including Monarch.

In part to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Marlene Bane sold her interest in the firm for $1,700.

On Tuesday, Marlene Bane emphasized that she had nothing to do with the Assembly picking the software.

Jeff Shulem, Monarch’s chief financial officer, played down the flap as “politics at its best,” saying “we’re not worried about it.”