31. DPS identified the person surveilling him as a private investigator and made contact with the P.I. who told DPS to speak with his attorney. The P.I.’s attorney confirmed that the P.I. was conducting surveillance.
32. Each time that Mr. Shooter voiced his objections to the Governor’s Chief of Staff Kirk Adams, within days, Dennis Welch, a local television reporter would show up at the Legislature with a camera man and aggressively follow and film Mr. Shooter, then run a story derisive of Mr. Shooter.
33. The timing of Welch’s appearances was so consistent, that Mr. Shooter suspected collaboration between Mr. Welch and Mr. Adams.
34. In the summer of 2017, in his capacity as Chairman of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), Mr. Shooter was instrumental to enabling the AZ Department of Administration proceed with the purchase of software for its agency that would provide robust auditing of procurement services provided by the agency.
35. Representative Shooter was told by the Arizona Department of Administration’s Director at the time, Craig Brown, that permitting the state’s conversion from its existing procurement software vendor, Periscope to an alternative procurement software vendor called Valuea, via a new competitively bid contract, would stop some of the current, questionable and problematic practices at the Department.
36. The existing procurement software company at the time, Periscope, lost its contract with the state following Representative Shooter’s efforts in the committee he chaired (JLBC).
37. Periscope was represented by Axiom, a lobbying firm that subcontracted lobbying duties with Brian Townsend, who, until recently, had worked for Kirk Adams in the Governor’s Office. Also of significance, Brian Townsend was Representative Michelle Ugenti-Rita’s fiancé.
38. The state’s transition from Periscope, the existing software procurement company Ugenti-Rita’s fiancé Brian Townsend represented, to another company, ended the multi-year, multi-million dollar important and lucrative contract for Periscope.
39. Almost immediately thereafter, Representative Ugenti-Rita’s fiancé Brian Townsend’s representation of Periscope was terminated.
40. Just as Mr. Shooter escalated his efforts, the retaliation escalated following a private meeting, November 2, 2017.
41. In that November 2, 2017 meeting between then Representative Shooter and the Governor’s Chief of Staff Kirk Adams, Representative Shooter point blank told Adams that he planned to use his subpoena power, granted to him as Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, to gain additional insight into the irregularities in the procurement process at the start of the next legislative session unless there was some movement to address the continued improper use of expensive, no bid contracts.
Mr. Shooter explained however, he’d much prefer the Governor’s Office “clean-up their own house.”
42. This was Mr. Shooter’s twentieth and final attempt to push the Governor’s Office to address brazen procurement process deficiencies without having to issue subpoenas and conduct hearings.
43. If it was not clear before, it was made clear in that meeting: Mr. Shooter was never going to stop his efforts to bring state procurement, and the procurement no-bid process to light and obtain systemic reforms to require competition.
44. At or around the time of Mr. Shooter’s expulsion, the director of procurement at the Arizona Department of Administration was terminated.
45. Kirk Adams, as confirmed directly by media, leaked an internal memorandum from DOA addressed to Adams detailing alleged issues relating to Ashoke Seth’s job performance prior to the state’s termination of Seth’s employment.
46. This internal memorandum was disclosed in direct contravention of the state’s human resource practices, which prohibits such public disclosure.
47. The memo was never included in Ashoke Seth’s personnel file and Ashoke was never made aware of the memo prior to its public release nor provided the opportunity to refute its assertions, contrary to state personnel practices.
48. Ashoke Seth filed for protection under the state’s whistle blower status and detailed mismanagement, abuse of authority, a gross waste of monies and a violation of laws” by representatives of the Arizona Department of Administration citing several questionable technology contracts.
49. Seth’s claims were supported by other DOA employees including but not limited to the former DOA director Craig Brown.
50. Ashoke Seth’s whistle blower claim did not prevail yet many of the facts he described relating to technology contracts and questionable payments were not disputed.