As you cover failed governor Ted Strickland’s campaign event today in Northeast Ohio please remember that Governor Strickland granted stimulus funds to a company that outsourced contracts to call centers in El Salvador. To make matters worse, Strickland said that he thought Ohio spent the stimulus money “wisely” even though two companies in Columbus applied and lost bids to the El Salvador firm. Ohio families can’t afford to go back to Strickland’s outsourcing days.
Strickland Granted Stimulus Funds To A Company That Outsourced Contracts To El Salvador
Strickland’s Administration Paid Texas-Based Parago Inc. $357,300 In Stimulus Money To Administer Ohio’s Appliance Rebate Program. “After years of stumping against the outsourcing of American jobs, Gov. Ted Strickland recently found his own administration guilty of same. The Ohio Department of Development hired Texas-based Parago Inc. to administer the state’s $10.5 million appliance-rebate program, which offers rebates ranging from $100 to $250 to Ohio consumers who buy energy-efficient appliances. The money was provided to Ohio as part of the federal economic-stimuluseffort. Parago was paid $357,300, a big savings over rival bids from two Ohio companies of $467,238 and $493,763.” (Editorial, “Dialing For dollars,” The Columbus Dispatch, 8/11/10)
- Parago Outsourced Its Call-Center Functions To El Salvador. “If Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel had asked why Parago’s bid was so low, she might have learned that the company outsources its call-center functions to low-wage El Salvador, where the work probably was much appreciated. It was an embarrassing goof, leading a wag to dub the Parago contract the ‘Central America stimulus program.’” (Editorial, “Dialing For dollars,” The Columbus Dispatch, 8/11/10)
The Ohio Department of Development Evaluated Nine Bids For The Contract, Including Two Companies In Columbus. “A division director was forced to resign and a second Department of Development staff member was suspended yesterday amid a controversy involving the use of federal stimulus money to pay for jobs outsourced to El Salvador. In March, the state gave an $11 million appliance-rebate-program contract to Texas-based Parago Inc., which used hundreds of workers in El Salvador to process applications and answer customers’ calls. The Development Department recommended Parago after evaluating nine bids, including two from companies in Columbus.” (Jim Siegel, “Rebate Program Call-Center Outsourcing Costs Official Her Position,” The Columbus Dispatch, 8/11/10)
The Department Of Development Admitted It Knew Parago Would Outsource. “When the contract was made public, Lisa Patt-McDaniel, director of the Department of Development, said Parago never told state officials it would use an offshore call center. But yesterday, Patt-McDaniel said she had since come across new information regarding what was known, and when. The information led Nadeane Howard, director of the Ohio Energy Resources Division, to resign yesterday… She also said Howard got an e-mail in late February, before finalizing the contract, which ‘explicitly raised a question about Parago’s potential outsourcing of jobs.’ The message came from a competing company, Minnesota-based Helgeson Enterprises, which said Parago was ‘known throughout the rebate industry as providing some of their services through offshore channels.’” (Jim Siege, “Rebate Program Call-Center Outsourcing Costs Official Her Position,” The Columbus Dispatch, 8/11/10)
Strickland Defended Use Of Stimulus Funds; Said Ohio Spent Money “Wisely”
In 2009, Strickland Requested $8.2 Billion In Stimulus Funds From The Obama Administration. “A day after Republican John R. Kasich accused him of going to Washington ‘on his hands and his knees with a tin cup begging’ for federal stimulus money to fix the state’s budget woes, Gov. Ted Strickland fired back with a challenge: What would you have done? Strickland, talking to The Dispatch, was making his first response to comments Kasich made Monday as the former congressman from Westerville officially launched his campaign for governor. ‘OK, so you don’t like what I’ve done or what I’m doing,’ Strickland said of the $8.2 billion in stimulus funds he sought for Ohio. ‘What would you do under the circumstances we face? How would you come up with a few billion more dollars?’” (Mark Niquette, “Strickland Fires Back At Kasich,” The Columbus Dispatch, 6/3/09)
In 2014, Strickland Said Ohio Spent Stimulus Funds Wisely. STRICKLAND: “Well you know I was criticized by some in the media for using the stimulus resources. I’m not sure what they expected me to do – just not accept them and go without? They were resources that were made available to Ohio and other states for the purpose of trying to keep the economy in a more steady path during a great, great recession. And so I have no doubt that, if it had not been for the use of those dollars – and I think the wise use of those dollars- Ohio would have gone deeper into the recession which would have made it more difficult for us to try to climb our way out.” (Ted Strickland, Interview,www.ideastream.org, 6/24/14)