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Sold Out to Firm Ex-Fire Big a 'Company Man'
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS
John Clair, formerly the Assistant Commissioner of the FDNY's Office of Medical Affairs, accepted $5,000 worth of meals, trips and hotel stays from ScanHealth over a two-year period when the company was seeking a $4.3 million dollar contract with the department, DOI concluded. Became Company Booster In exchange, Mr. Clair talked up the new electronic tracking system developed by ScanHealth at various Emergency Medical Service conferences, and once even delivered a keynote address that had been pre-approved by a ScanHealth public relations person. DOI hasn't brought criminal charges against Mr. Clair, who was asked to resign in April 2005 by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, but sent its report to the Conflict of Interests Board for possible sanctions.
DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a written statement that working for the city is a public service, not an opportunity to collect free gifts from vendors. "That creates, at a minimum, an appearance of unfair advantage. The city's taxpayers rightly expect employees to do their jobs honestly, efficiently and without outside influence," she added. Frequent Flyer The FDNY's own guidelines require employees wishing to attend out-of-town meetings as a member of the department to submit a request in writing that must be approved by a supervisor. They must also submit a written report on what business they conducted as an FDNY representative. The DOI's report showed that Mr. Clair rarely sought department approval for some of his trips - which took him to Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Duluth. On one occasion he was approved for travel to an EMS conference, but didn't inform FDNY or COIB officials that ScanHealth was paying most of his expenses. Nor did he make clear that he was presenting himself as a department representative, DOI stated. Another trip request was denied, according to e-mail records obtained by DOI, because his time would "better be spent" in the office. Mr. Clair attended the conference anyway, using personal days and an annual floating holiday to get the time off while still being paid. The Brother Excuse On yet another occasion, he took unauthorized time off and marked his time sheet "Brother Illness - move him." DOI investigators said Mr. Clair later admitted he'd written that because his colleagues knew his brother was ill and it would be a simple way to disguise that he was headed to another ScanHealth-funded EMS conference in Duluth. Mr. Clair joined the FDNY as Assistant Commissioner in the Office of Medical Affairs in February 2000. Prior to that, he worked as an Administrative Staff Analyst for the state Department of Health for 25 years. He is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician. Fire Department officials started to question Mr. Clair's relationship with ScanHealth after he began pushing to get the company's automated electronic coding and billing system used by the FDNY. Ran Interference Mr. Clair said he became familiar with ScanHealth after an independent consultant he knew handed him a brochure on the product; the consultant was working for ScanHealth at the time. In late 2000 Mr. Clair introduced the topic of HealthEMS - the name of the automated system - to other FDNY personnel and arranged a meeting with ScanHealth's vice president. After a demonstration, the FDNY decided to conduct a two-month pilot program with the system that cost $10,000. It was a no-bid project, DOI said. Mr. Clair had been in charge of soliciting other vendors. He came back with only one - ScanHealth - and maintained that it was the only off-the-shelf product available. An intern was assigned by officials to dig up alternate vendors, but none were found. The pilot project ran from August to October 2001. In July 2002 the department issued a request for a large contract on electronic coding and billing. The request was sent to 250 companies on the state's Office of General Services' approved vendor list. ScanHealth submitted a bid just two days before the process closed Sept. 9, 2002. The bid-evaluating committee - of which Mr. Clair was a member - scored ScanHealth and one other vendor the highest. Both were invited to come in for oral presentations. ScanHealth was selected and entered into Best and Final Offer negotiations. Several FDNY officials later told DOI investigators they felt Mr. Clair liked the company and was trying to exert influence to get it selected. Agreements between the department and ScanHealth were drawn up in March 2003, and it took several months before the company signed a Notice of Approval in July. Funding was approved in February 2004, and a final contract was executed in March 2004 for a $4.3-million-dollar agreement to run through March 2008. ScanHealth began work in May 2004, under the eye of an FDNY evaluation committee that was in place to make sure the new billing and coding system met desired accuracy levels. Mr. Clair was on that committee, too. Didn't Measure Up FDNY officials told DOI investigators initial tests during the first few months showed ScanHealth operating at less-than-acceptable levels of accuracy. They said they had the sense Mr. Clair was "pushing for" ScanHealth and that he gave the impression he was willing to work with them to improve accuracy. When an FDNY Chief sent ScanHealth a letter in December 2004 pointing out the system's accuracy problems, Mr. Clair called him and said sending the letter was inappropriate because the company was working to resolve the problem and just needed more time. It was during that process that several department officials began to question Mr. Clair's relationship with the company. Eventually, Commissioner Scoppetta asked the DOI to investigate, which it did, issuing a preliminary report in April 2005, which led to Mr. Clair being asked to step down. | ||||||
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