From the Daily Herald:

Contractors' tiff cost toll authority $15 million
By Joseph Ryan | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 10/26/2007 12:14 AM

A one-year delay in the delivery of tollway violation notices is being blamed on infighting among contractors -- one of which lost a lucrative contract and then had to turn over crucial data to the winner.

Still, Tollway Director Brian McPartlin said he is not planning a substantive reprimand, even though the delay meant a loss of nearly $15 million this year and major aggravation to some tollway users.

McPartlin did say, however, that he is keeping an eye on those involved.

"Me breathing down their neck should be enough, quite frankly," he said, while adding that he is not known as a "pussycat."

At issue is how the tollway's intricate violation enforcement and I-PASS systems were transferred from Pennsylvania-based TransCore -- a notable donor to the governor -- to Texas-based Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp.

In 2006, TransCore lost a bid to continue managing the violation and I-PASS system to ETC, which won the five-year, $79 million contract.

TransCore subsequently won a $30 million, three-year contract to run the tollway's call center.

Around July 2006, the tollway stopped sending out violation notices to toll drivers who blew through plazas at least three times without paying.

Notices started being mailed again in late August. Eventually, all of those in the 13-month backlog will be mailed.

Tollway officials have previously said transferring the data from one company to the other was a difficult process.

On Thursday, McParlin declined to get into specifics, but said "inside baseball" between the contractors played a role in the delay.

TransCore representatives didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

ETC managing director Tim Gallagher called it a "touchy subject" and declined to discuss the relationship between the two contractors or that relationship's role in the transition.

"Generally speaking, the Illinois tollway's violation processing system is one of the largest in the nation," Gallagher said in explaining the complexities of his company's task. "They wanted to add a lot of features … and the data collection was a very large and very significant effort. All those things combined take a little time."

Gallagher did concede, "I don't think anybody anticipated it taking as long as it did, but it has taken the time it needed to take to make sure it was rock solid and accurate."

TransCore donated $15,000 to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign between 2003 and 2005. The state lobbyist for both TransCore and ETC is the former partner of David Wilhelm, Blagojevich's one-time campaign chairman.

Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said the donations have nothing to do with TransCore's work or decisions about reprimands. She also said tollway officials plan a more thorough review of the delay in violation notices sometime down the road.

++++++