OMAHA- Testimony in a legislative investigation of the problematic contract for managing Omaha-area child welfare cases began Friday with the words of baseball great Yogi Berra. “It’s déjà vu all over again,” former State Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln told a panel of lawmakers. Ten years ago, she headed up a legislative investigation into the state’s disastrous attempt to privatize the oversight of child welfare cases statewide. The effort was plagued with turmoil, and four of the five original contractors ended up dropping or losing their contracts within two years.

On Friday, Campbell provided an overview of that history to the committee that has been charged with looking into how Nebraska ended up signing a $197 million, five-year contract with St. Francis Ministries. The new contract was signed in late January, after interim St. Francis CEO William Clark told state lawmakers that the agency would be out of money to operate by Feb. 12, unless Nebraska agreed to pay more. The $147.3 million emergency contract ends Feb. 28, 2023, the month after Gov. Pete Ricketts is term-limited out of office.

On Friday, Tom Kenny, an Omaha attorney hired by the investigative committee, reviewed the flaws he sees in the state’s procurement process. He said the process allows state agencies broad discretion in seeking and awarding contracts and does not provide many options for appealing their decisions.

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