Company files lawsuit against Manatee school board after troubled software project

A technology company is suing the School Board of Manatee County for more than $779,000, alleging that Manatee failed to pay for work that was performed on an infamous software system.

Daniel VanEtten and Fred Moore, of the Blalock Walters law firm in Bradenton, are representing the school board. VanEtten referred questions to Moore, the supervising attorney, but he was unavailable on Friday.

Attorney Erik Figlio, of the Ausley McMullen law firm in Tallahassee, is representing Ciber Global. He could not be reached for comment.

While the company said it was owed substantial money for work it completed, Manatee claims the work was never board approved, and that Ciber failed to dispute the unpaid invoices in a timely manner.

Ciber and Manatee combine forces

The troubled project officially began in 2016, under the leadership of former Superintendent Diana Greene. The school district embarked on a massive project to update its aging business management software, a system that affected all aspects of the district’s operations, including its hiring, purchasing and payroll.

Commonly referred to as the ERP project, board members approved the replacement of its enterprise resource planning software with a budget of $9.8 million, a cost that skyrocketed to more than $27 million by 2018.

Manatee hired Ciber, among other companies, to work alongside district staff and carry out the project. While the company had its own problems, including a bankruptcy, the Bradenton Herald learned that Manatee was continually warned about its slow decision making, under-staffing and aggressive deadlines.

Much of the budget increase was also due to a last-minute decision by the school board, which voted to include Manatee Technical College in the software overhaul, a response to audit findings at the college. The board increased its budget and rolled MTC into the project about nine months after its start.

The software launched on July 1, 2018, riddled with defects, leading to months of finger-pointing between the district and its project partner. Ciber has now filed a suit in Leon County Circuit Court, requesting a judgment for $779,378, along with interest, the cost of litigation and “other relief as the court deems just and proper.”

Ciber files a lawsuit against the school board

Ciber filed the suit on Sept. 16 and requested a jury trial. It amended the complaint on Dec. 20, tweaking small sections of the original lawsuit, while the accusations and figures remained the same.

The company said it received more than $19.7 million from the school district, and that more was owed.

“At the center of this action is the school board’s refusal to pay nearly one million dollars in services requested and rendered,” Ciber said in a recent filing.

The school board unanimously approved up to $125,000 in spending with the Blalock Walters law firm in late October. In their motion to dismiss the case, the attorneys argued that Ciber was already put on notice in February 2019, when Superintendent Cynthia Saunders sent the company a letter.

“The invoices by Ciber cannot be paid without prior board approval and the school board is prohibited as a matter of law from rendering payment after the fact for unauthorized services,” she wrote.

In a letter dated April 18, Ciber’s attorney disputed the notion that its work was never approved. He also said Ciber was owed more than $30,500 in interest for the unpaid invoices, a number that would continue to rise.

His response was too late, according to the school board’s motion to dismiss. After receiving the letter from Manatee’s superintendent, Ciber had the option to pursue an administrative hearing within 21 days, but it waited more than a month before responding, the motion said.

That, too was disputed by Ciber. The company argued that Saunders was not the appropriate person to raise formal grievances, per the contract, and that her letter failed to outline Ciber’s right to a hearing.

In its lawsuit, the company said it “spent months pleading with the school board for a resolution.” In those months, the district went on to question whether Ciber’s work was actually completed, and the company became “frustrated by the school board’s evolving position as to why it refused to pay.”

The last update to the case was Ciber’s Dec. 20 filing of an amended complaint. There were no hearings scheduled as of Friday afternoon.

This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.