The research in this is good: Original article at: https://culpforgovernor.com/jay-inslee-private-lockdown/
Our state was devastated by high priced consultants hired by Jay Inslee.
Short Version: our governor utilized state funds to personally choose a high priced consulting firm that was unproven in results. He avoided seeking competitive options to safeguard Washington. He ended up with a biased set of actions that left hundreds of thousands unemployed, a huge number underemployed, devastated our economy, bankrupted thousands of businesses, and destroyed an untold number of families.
The Long Version…
Today’s topic of discussion is about how Jay Inslee destroyed the state economy and decided to keep the state in perpetual lockdown.
Do you know that Jay Inslee spent $165,000 a week for corporate COVID analysts to tell us how our state needs to behave?
(If you want to read it, here is the contract.)
The contract in question is with McKinsey & Company – a U.S. based consulting firm boasting worldwide employees with over $8B in revenue.
Contracts that literally affect the entire state and future of our population are generally deemed important. Our state has a specific process for collecting bids from capable vendors to prevent exclusive and favorable contracts. Jay Inslee chose to use a no-bid process and eliminate these competitive bids using “special market conditions” and emergency procurement processes through the Washington Department of Enterprise Services (RCW 39.26.130) (*Instead of consulting with the Legislature?)
Jay Inslee authorized a $1.32M contract that quickly escalated into roughly $5M of additional business with the State of Washington. The McKinsey team then turned around and used Washington’s no-bid case study to engage similar projects in other states such as New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and Maine. It became a never ending cash cow that generated upwards of $100M in additional McKinsey contracts.
An example from Maine’s $2.84 Million dollar project reads:
(You can read the Maine.gov contract here HERE)
The total of the three no-bid Washington pandemic response contracts that McKinsey was given by Jay Inslee had a combined $5 million value. These included making the governor a tool ($1.32 Million), figuring out how messed up the employment security fraud situation was (another $2.4 million), and work to match coronavirus tests with Medicaid ($1.2 Million.)
How did Jay Inslee choose to lockdown Washington?
The truth is that we still don’t know!
As Jay Inslee’s decision to shutdown our state needed support, he turned to the McKinsey team for the ‘data and the science’ he preached in his daily press conferences. His decision to utilize a no-bid process meant that he could contract with a vendor that supported his personal assumptions and political motives with no oversight by the people he serves.
We do know the data and key metrics that were ultimately used to lockdown our state for over six months was orchestrated by the McKinsey team.
This data was never shared with the public.
The reports, formulas, and agreed goals of the ‘science’ used were never shared.
The team was never vetted or compared to other firms due to Jay Inslee using a no-bid contract.
This team consisted of 10 people.
(*We created a graphic detailing how consulting teams are generally structured.)
What do we know about this team?
As a consulting group, McKinsey saw the value of influencing state and national industry changes that affected core business sectors. McKinsey rotated hundreds of employees to provide Covid-19 business consulting around the globe and scrambled for the consulting revenue (check out McKinsey.com)
We know that this team of 10 people were not full time on Washington’s shutdown project. In fact Dr. Jordan VanLare was a named Engagement Director on a similar $5.4M Covid-19 contract with the state of New Jersey happening at the same time (contract here.)
Almost all of this team was virtual and had little expertise or understanding of Washington state community or economic impacts. Only one member of the executive partners was operating out of Bellevue, WA. Other ‘core experts’ resided in Washington D.C., New York, and Maryland.
Why did this destroy our economy?
The McKinsey team responsible for designing our shutdown metrics had no SMB expert (Small and Medium Business) – the lifeblood of our local communities and employment. The McKinsey team acted as quickly as possible to secure multiple state contracts and used Washington as the guinea pig.
Do not let Jay Inslee and corporate consultants destroy our state.
Share. Vote. Take a stand.
If you are asking why Seattle is a glimmer of what it was, why unemployment and underemployment is the new norm, why lockdowns oppose World Health Organization recommendations, and why small businesses are being destroyed in favor of big brands….
Just follow the money.