‘I have their back’: Pillen defends administration’s decision to provide $2.5M ‘emergency’ contract

Gov. Jim Pillen continued to defend his administration’s decision to award a $2.5 million no-bid contract to a business company owner known to the governor. The contract has come under increased scrutiny in the past week after State Auditor Mike Foley said actions by Pillen’s administration may have violated state law and that he’s provided documents to authorities that he claims make the case for illegal activity.

During his monthly call-in show Monday afternoon, Pillen said the Nebraska Legislature approved the contract when it voted to approve appropriation bills last session. He argued the company, Global Sustainability Developers LLC, was awarded the contract by the Department of Economic Development because the company’s CEO Julie Bushell had experience capturing more federal funding assistance for business ventures.

“Something I’ve been working very hard on is to get more than our fair share of federal dollars to Nebraska,” Pillen said. “There’s not one Nebraskan that’s disagreed with that. Our Legislature appropriated it so that we could hire a consultant to help us in Washington to be able to get more than our fair share.”

The relationship has come under scrutiny because state law requires state agencies to undergo a bidding process – or request for proposal (RFP) – for projects that cost more than $50,000. The contract awarded to Bushell’s business was handed over on an “emergency” basis, but the state auditor said employees at DED did not justify the “emergency” on which the contract was awarded. The auditor has also claimed Pillen’s employees backdated certain reports, which Foley says could have been considered as “obstruction” to his office, which is a misdemeanor crime.

“There’s really two key issues. One is the question of, ‘Was there an emergency?’ I say, no, there wasn’t. And secondly, what about this backdating of documents and trying to deceive the auditor in both instances? I’m very concerned about that, and I think that law enforcement ought to follow up,” Foley said last week.

Pillen on Monday continued to defend his administration’s actions on the contract, saying he wanted to move fast to capture federal money that was flowing out.

“When you go for… do RFPs they take time,” Pillen said. “And if there's an appeal process, which many of them have, it could go up to 110 days. We had 90 days. If we didn't get that executed in 90 days, we'd lose time. And if everybody remembers the Biden administration… They had over $800 billion of dollars being invested in states, and we were nowhere to be found. So, we did what many governors have done over time. It's called sole source. You can call it ‘emergency.’ We did a sole-source bid, and the results are extraordinary. We got over $300 million home. There's been no talk about the results.”

Pillen went on to say it was a business decision, and being a business owner with an agricultural background, it was important to him to draw more money in to supplement growing ag-related fields, such as the bioeconomy industry. He defended his team, saying he was proud of their work.

“We followed the letter to the ‘T.’ When somebody wants to start using the word ‘criminal’ – that somebody on my team did something wrong – I have their back. Our team followed everything to the ‘T,’ and you know, I’m really proud of what we did.”