Commissioners cut ties with Avon Lake firms operated by local GOP donor

ELYRIA — Lorain County commissioners have parted ways with an Avon Lake firm hired earlier this year to help secure supplemental insurance benefits for county employees as well as to perform a health care benefits audit. Andrew McDonnell, of Avon, and his in-laws gave thousands of dollars to Republican Commissioners David Moore and Michelle Hung during their 2020 election campaigns. Then in February, commissioners hired his firm, Velocity Advisors, to provide a supplemental insurance benefit program to county employees. Hung and Moore voted twice to give business to McDonnell's firm: First in February, then again in March when a second firm created by McDonnell called Velocity Benefits Audits Inc. was hired to do an audit of county health care rolls to determine if they were accurate and that there weren't beneficiaries there who didn't belong. Hung and Commissioner Matt Lundy, a Democrat, voted Wednesday to end the county's relationship with Velocity. Moore voted against the issue, but it passed 2-1. At the commission's Aug. 24 meeting, Moore said commissioners were there to talk about the county health care plan, but accused his colleagues of deflecting discussion away from that and an ongoing scandal involving Hung's relationship with former Lorain County 911 Director Harry Williamson by promising $4 million to the proposed Lorain County Crisis Stabilization Center. "I would love to talk and have the health care discussion right now," he told Hung and Lundy that day, "but you fired the guy that wanted to audit all the health care stuff last week, who started to expose something very simple: Proof that you're allowed to be on our health care … All we're asking for is a simple audit, that's all." Moore was referencing a 2-1 vote by Hung and Lundy on Aug. 18 to rescind a plan to have Velocity conduct a planned health care eligibility audit. That audit is now being done by county human resources staff. "I don't see any problems having an outside entity coming in to audit a $42 million self-funded health care program," Moore said Aug. 24. "Right now, there's too many unanswered questions in regards to that. They were not even finished." Lundy previously said a "limited" health care audit was completed several years ago. It is not true that one has never been done, he said. Velocity "had issues" with rolling out an online portal where county employees with county healthcare benefits could go and update their personal information, and Velocity Benefits Audit Inc. was only registered with the state of Ohio on July 23, Lundy said, explaining his Aug. 24 vote. The late date at which the company was registered bothered Lundy, and county employees also raised concerns about the audit rollout, he said. "Bottom line for me, the rollout was not done well," he said. "We felt it was best to put a stop to it, bring (employee) information back to the county from the vendor and do the audit through our own human resources department." Hung promised to create a fully-staffed human resource department during her 2020 election campaign. She mentioned it during several campaign stops and interviews with the media. That promise became reality when commissioners hired an HR director, Jen Sinatra, and other staff Jan. 4. On Wednesday, Lundy said Velocity asked the county's permission to bring its previous vendor, Campana Insurance, on board to work with Velocity. "And my opinion was that you (Velocity) should be running lead but if you're asking for the previous vendor to join you, that indicates to me you're not ready to perform the services," he said. "My thinking was we needed to pull back and go back to the previous vendor (Campana Insurance) on that." Campana has been handling the county's supplemental benefits plan "for a while now," Lundy said, and there weren't many county dollars involved with it to begin with. Moore confirmed that, saying Velocity's commission for taking on the supplemental benefits program was comparatively small. According to a state database of registered companies, McDonnell registered the name Velocity Benefits Audit Inc. with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office with the stated purpose of "auditing benefit plans and any other legal operation" on July 23 — four months after commissioners gave him the task. Along with being the listed agent for Velocity Benefits Audit Inc., McDonnell is a managing partner of Velocity Advisors in Fairview Park, according to the firm's website. He also is a candidate for the 4th Ward on Avon City Council in the November election and sits on the Lorain County Regional Airport Board. McDonnell could not immediately be reached for comment. McDonnell and his in-laws also gave to and raised money for a number of Republican political candidates in 2020 and 2021 — including Hung and Moore, who twice voted to hire McDonnell's firm. McDonnell and his wife, Jillian, co-hosted a fundraiser for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jane Timken at the Red Tail Golf Club in Avon on June 21, according to an invite to the event obtained by The Chronicle. Moore and his wife, Debbie, were co-hosts of same event, according to the invitation. Andrew McDonnell donated $500 to Moore's election campaign July 20, 2020, according to campaign finance reports publicly available from the Lorain County Board of Elections. His wife, Jillian, whose maiden name is Riddell, is the daughter of Jeff Riddell, a businessman and longtime Republican political donor who gave $1,350 to Moore's 2020 election campaign, according to those same campaign finance reports. Moore said Wednesday he didn't specifically remember the McDonnells' donations until reminded of them by a reporter. He then said he thought the commission's vote to remove Velocity as a vendor was "retaliation" by Hung and Lundy for having ties to McDonnell. Moore also said there was no quid pro quo: He denied that he hired Velocity in February or approved having McDonnell's company do the benefits audit because of any donations to his election campaign. "That's not how I operate," Moore said. He and Hung "did bring in Republican companies" to partner with other insurance firms chosen by boards controlled by Democrats, he said. Between them, Jeff and Donna Riddell also gave a total of $2,000 to Hung's campaign between June and October 2020, according to campaign finance reports. The couple spread their donations among a number of Republican candidates in 2020, Hung said Wednesday, calling the Riddells "very generous people." As for Velocity, Hung said it was the will of the majority of the board not to work with McDonnell anymore. "The majority of the board decided to part ways with Andrew McDonnell (and) Velocity," she said. "We wish him well." Hung said employees have given her good feedback about Campana Insurance and its supplemental insurance products. Lundy said he only recently learned about McDonnell's relationship to Jeff Riddell, but it had "no bearing on my decision" Aug. 24 or Wednesday. "You can bring in any vendor you want to bring in, but they need to be able to do the job and if they can't do the job then I'm going to make some noise about it," Lundy said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.