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County paid $885,000 on the vaccine contract after Hidalgo decided to cancel it
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County records show that shortly after County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced on September 8 that she intended to ask the Commissioners’ Court to cancel the controversial contract, the County rushed through a payment of $885,000 on September 16 covering all of the contractor's outstanding invoices.
When the County made the payment, the invoices had only been pending for about two weeks. Few County vendors get paid that quickly.
That payment came on top of another $539,000 payment made the same day Hidalgo announced the cancellation. In total, the contractor was paid over $1.4 million in eight days.
The County Attorney is now attempting to recover most of the money paid to the contractor.
The selection of Elevate Strategies was approved by the Commissioners’ Court at its meeting on June 8 last year. However, at that time, a final contract was not ready. The Court was asked to approve the award to Elevate vaccine contract Strategies but was assured that the would be brought back for final review after it was completed.
That never happened. Instead, the final contract was signed by the County and Elevate Strategies on July 27 without further action by the Court.
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