County extends Gladiator School mentoring contract amid concerns about a $8,500 overpayment and procurement controls

The Health and Human Services Committee approved a retroactive amendment to continue Gladiator School of Motivation and Training's mentoring services at the Wayne County juvenile detention facility and discussed procurement and accountability issues raised by commissioners.

Rachel Davis, department director of juvenile and youth services, and Mac McGee, division director for institutional care, told the committee the vendor has provided steady services through multiple facility sites and that the department continued work while collecting required retroactive documentation. A commissioner asked whether the contractor had been overpaid; Davis confirmed an overpayment of approximately $8,500 had been issued during the department's transition into Oracle and said measures are now in place to prevent repetition.

County counsel and finance staff flagged the payment as an anomaly that should have been blocked by procurement or accounts-payable controls and said the matter will be elevated to management and budget (MMB) leadership for review. Sharron Rose, finance director for MMB for juvenile and youth services, said she agrees the likely root cause was the system transition and will bring the issue back to her leadership for countywide review.

Commissioners also asked how program effectiveness is measured. Davis said quarterly reports are received from the Gladiator School and that Wayne State University will begin an evaluation in March tied to the county's behavior-management rollout; staff committed to reporting evaluation results to the committee later in the year.

The committee voted to approve the retroactive amendment; clerk recorded the motion as carried.

What happens next: the administration will (1) report the Oracle-related overpayment to MMB leadership for a countywide systems review, (2) continue with the Gladiator contract extension while considering an RFP in the future and (3) deliver program-evaluation findings from Wayne State to the committee.