Candidates vying for the Texas Senate seat in the SD 18 special election were asked about their business participation in the bid process for contracts with state, county or other public entities during Friday’s forum sponsored by the Sugar Land Tea Party, Greater Fort Bend Tea Party and Katy LiberTea.
Scroll to the 12:15 minute mark for the candidate’s answers to the question:
“Have you or anyone working for your businesses ever participated in the RFP/ RFQ bid process for a contract with the state or any county, school, municipal, special district or other public entity, and if your answer is yes, was your business awarded the bid?
IMHO, the only candidate who answered clearly, articulately and with conviction was Charles Gregory. Jim Kolkhorst however, standing in for a “violently” ill Lois Kolkhorst, acknowledged Kolkhorst Petroleum sells lubricants to Texas A&M University:
“…if you’re in that business…if, if we, we do business with county governments…sometimes we get it and sometimes we don’t…we’re close to Texas A&M …and we sell them some lubricants & that’s always on an RFP process as well…yeah, we’re familiar with that process.”
What happened after the forum when the cameras were turned off?
“Zach”, a Kolkhorst staffer, dashed up behind me while I walked toward the exit…”Ma’am, ma’am, none of those contracts were no-bid contracts—we believe in competition…and if you have any questions about our campaign, please call me.”—and wrote his phone number on a Kolkhorst push card:
How intriguing—Contracts? Plural? There’s more than one?
- What OTHER colleges and how many OTHER public entities does Kolkhorst Petroleum have contracts with and under what circumstances did they win or lose the bid award?
- How many times was Kolkhorst Petroleum the high, close to high or lowest bidder?
- How much HAS Kolkhorst Petroleum earned from government contracts?
- Why upon meeting a Kolkhorst staffer was I explicitly told Kolkhorst Petroleum has no no-bid contracts when I never asked that specific question?
Oh, and BTW what IS Lois Kolkhorsts’ relationship with Dan Gattis, Robby L. Cook and Fred Brown?
Brenda says
So did you call Lois? Or do you call this hanging enuendo reporting facts? You can call and speak directly to the Company, or look up the contracts. Either one or both would be done by a responsible blogger.
James Olsen says
Texas A&M will not return calls regarding the contract or regarding comment from a former intelligence officer that Lois acted improperly in obtaining the contract. The Agent’s name was James Olson. He works at The Bush School.
Furthermore, the company CEO and Director Jim Kolkhorst sent an aide to confront the reporter which is listed above. I was at the meeting and saw the exchange. Zach was not wearing a tie with his blazer.
George Scott says
Actually, a public official in these circumstances should proactively disclose such business without prompting from anyone including responsible bloggers! Over time, standards have deteriorated. That is the sad truth.