PROVO — A change of vendors for Utah County employees' personal retirement plans sparked an emotional and sometimes heated discussion Tuesday.

An evaluation process for providers of deferred compensation programs — 401(k), 401(a) and 457 — resulted in a tie between two vendors, putting the decision in the hands of commissioners.

Nationwide Financial ultimately emerged as the winner by a 2-1 vote but not before county employees expressed their displeasure with the procurement process and results.

County personnel director Lana Jensen was part of the four-person committee tasked with whittling down the proposals, listening to presentations from potential suitors and then independently ranking the top four candidates.

Jensen and one other member of the committee cast first-place votes for Prudential, the county's current vendor. However, rankings by all four voters resulted in a two-way tie between Nationwide and Principal Financial, with Prudential at No. 3.

Jensen requested that the committee meet again and come up with a solution rather than have the commission break the tie.

"I don't feel there really was a consensus (from the committee) on the best option," she said. "We were already working with a good company, and I wanted to make sure there was a substantial enough difference to justify going through a change."

Commission Chairman Larry Ellertson favored sending the decision back to the committee to decide among the four vendors, but commissioners Steve White and Jerry Grover disagreed.

"There were no issues of impropriety or collusion or anything else that would cause me to not accept the results of our procurement process," Grover said.

Proper procedures were followed, White said, even if the results aren't popular among some committee members and county employees.

"I think what (some committee members) wanted to do was get into a room and see what (the committee decides) while exerting pressure on each other," he said.

The county issued a request for proposals and followed procedures in identifying the two top candidates, White said. Disregarding the results of a the committee's evaluation and ranking could put the county at risk of a lawsuit, he said.

---

E-mail: jpage@desnews.com