Troubled SunPass vendor linked to Gov. Rick Scott

The company behind Florida’s troubled SunPass toll system won the lucrative, seven-year contract with the help of one of Gov. Rick Scott’s top supporters despite allegations of favoritism and the company’s history of problems, records show.

The state’s Department of Transportation announced last week that it is withholding payments to that company, Conduent State & Local Solutions, in response to a backlog of about 90 million electronic toll charges.

On Wednesday the department said the backlog of transactions had increased to 170 million. Late fees and penalties are on hold until the system is fully operational.

The New Jersey-based company has experienced problems in a number of states, including Texas, where some customers were sent bills and exorbitant late fees in error, an ongoing USA Today Network investigation found.

They include some mistaken — but nightmarishly high — late fees to drivers, and other problems Florida knew about before signing a seven-year contract in 2015.

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The company won its contested bid for that contract with the help of Brian Ballard, a close Scott supporter and one of the nation’s top lobbyists. Ballard is helping the governor raise money for his GOP campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Ballard, a Tallahassee lobbyist who continues to represent Conduent, hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser in Washington, D.C., according to media reports. Ballard also collected more than $97,000 in donations for Scott between April and June, according to campaign finance disclosures.

The Democratic Party has seized on the issue as evidence that the Scott administration has mismanaged the SunPass system.

“In yet another instance, his administration has given state business to a company — directly affiliated to a major campaign donor — which is simply not cut out to do the job,” party spokesman Nate Evans said in a written statement.

Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis said the governor's office had “no role” in the deal. Lewis offered a written statement last month when these latest SunPass problems came to light.

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“While the issues with the SunPass system do not interrupt traffic on Florida’s toll roads or affect the cost of tolls in any way, they remain unacceptable and total restoration of this service must be achieved quickly,” the statement reads.

Scott's campaign released another statement after this story was posted online Wednesday: “Every decision the Governor makes is in the best interest of Floridians. Any assertation otherwise is completely false.”

Conduent spokesman Sean Collins declined to comment for this story, referring all questions about the SunPass system to the state's transportation agency.

In a June 28 letter to Conduent, Florida Transportation Secretary Mike Dew expressed alarm about “numerous deficiencies,” including problems with the call center, the website and its mobile app.

“SunPass customers are now unable to use SunPass at various non-department locations because of the unreliability of the system,” Dew wrote. “This is a significant inconvenience to the department’s customers and undermines the department’s commitments to the owners of other facilities that rely on SunPass.”

The state agency announced the suspension of late fees and penalties five days later.

Conduent responded July 10 with assurances that it was working to fix problems with the SunPass website and mobile app. The company said it had also reversed improper charges to customers related to tolling glitches.

“We are focused and are working urgently to resolve these issues and restore the high levels of timeliness and customer service we committed to with this project, to FDOT and the people of Florida,” Conduent President David Amoriell wrote.

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On July 16 the department notified Conduent that it would withhold payments until the system was fully operational.

“The delays in providing a fully functional SunPass system is completely unacceptable to FDOT and to our customers,” Dew said at the time. “I am committed to holding those responsible accountable.”

Conduent was created in 2017 as an independent offshoot of Xerox.

In 2014, Xerox was invited to negotiate the tolling contract with Florida’s transportation agency after edging out its two closest competitors: the Ireland-based Accenture and Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego.

Accenture and Cubic later challenged that decision, claiming the agency gave short shrift to their proposals.

There were also complaints that a member of the selection committee, Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, favored Xerox because she had worked for the company while working for the New Jersey Turnpike. She is now the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

A state review of the protests later determined that the selection was conducted properly, though It noted that Xerox’s experience in such business helped drive the decision:

“Selection Committee members Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti and Joseph Waggoner expressed the importance of this based on their firsthand experience with existing tolling systems in use for their respective agencies.”

The USA Today Network investigation of Conduent, which controls nearly half of the U.S. tolling market, found systemic problems in a number of states employing its services.

Drivers crossing the electronically tolled Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (formerly known as the Tappan Zee Bridge) over New York’s Hudson River complained of delayed billing and erroneous late fees for bills they had paid on time.

That investigation found similar problems in Texas and California, which is dealing with a class-action lawsuit over 16,000 violation notices sent out to drivers who allegedly did not receive initial bills.

Follow @FrankGluck on Twitter.

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