Republican gubernatorial candidate Ashley Kalus’s time as a state testing contractor ended so acrimoniously that a police officer wound up filing a report on the dispute as the two sides threatened each other with legal action, Target 12 has learned.
Doctors Test Centers (DTC), a company led by Kalus and her husband, secured a $7.9 million state contract last year to provide testing services at multiple sites throughout the state, as well as a separate contract to run vaccination clinics. Kalus bought a house in Newport after obtaining the contract and registered to vote in Rhode Island on Jan. 18, shortly before she filed to run for governor.
By that time Kalus’s relationship with health officials had soured to the point that they were exchanging hostile emails, according to documents obtained by Target 12 from the weeks before the DTC testing contract expired on Jan. 31.
At the heart of the dispute was the fact that Health Department leaders wanted DTC to vacate a Westerly testing site about two weeks before the company’s contract officially ended, in order to make room for Med Tech, the new vendor that would be taking over the operation.
The emails, which were obtained through a public-records request, show state officials believed they had a written agreement with DTC to transition to Med Tech on Jan. 15. But two days before that, DTC chief operating officer Nick Toscano-McDonald informed state leaders the company had “decided that we will maintain control of our remaining sites until the end of our contract.”
That kicked off a heated exchange between the two sides, including a Jan. 14 email in which Kalus wrote, “Whistle blowers do have protection when bringing up issues of waste, fraud, and abuse. I would suggest that you not erase your phone in preparation for litigation.”
Saying that her team had already “complained” to state officials months earlier, Kalus wrote, “I’ll consult with legal to see if mediation allows limited discovery of your text messages.”
Original source can be found here.
