Fee Agent a Free Agent?

In yesterday's Post-Dispatch, reporter Jo Mannies buries the lede in a story about the state's decision to open the West County fee office for bids. Mannies only further down the page touches on the most interesting fact: that the office is currently held by embattled Republican businessman and Garrett Lott business partner Tyler Alcorn.

The Blunt administration --clearly intending to take out a little trash with minimal notice-- released word of its move at 4:59pm on a Friday. Of the unceremonious dumping, Mannies wrote:

That includes the person who had held the contract to operate the license office now up for bid: 15425 Manchester Road in west St. Louis County. The contract holder has been Tracy Alcorn, a Republican activist and ally of Gov. Matt Blunt. ...

That includes the West County office. It has been among more than a dozen area license offices that have had business arrangements with management firms operated by two Republican activists, Garrett Lott and Andrew Cohen. Alcorn is a former business partner with Lott.

Tracy Alcorn is the wife of Tyler Alcorn, who was previously the named fee agent.

The timing of the Governor's decision to strip Alcorn's fee office and open it to bids is curious, given that it comes barely two months after Fired Up! reported on his involvement in a bid-rigging scandal in Florida and the subsequent unusual delay of a Request for Bids for a contract centering on Missouri Corrections.

Compounding the suspiciousness of these events is the fact that, apparently, Tyler Alcorn is no longer employed by Keefe Commissary Network. Alcorn, while listed on Keefe's website as Vice President and General Manager of Keefe as recently as August 21, 2006, no longer appears on the site's staff listing.

So, in the span of a few weeks, a Blunt fee agent and partner of Garrett Lott's loses both his executive employment and his sought-after fee office. Enough to make one wonder what precisely Mr. Alcorn knows, and who may have been talking to him.

Also might make some enterprising reporter ask about whether Alcorn's departure is due to his getting caught in a legal or criminal pinch.