CHAPTER THIRTEEN — THE LUNCHROOM
The recess filled the auditorium corridors with conversations more urgent than anything said from the stage.
Farah approached Carol beside the drinking fountain.
“You were on the committee,” she said.
“Yes.”
“My sister lost work because your committee told the district everything was fine.”
Carol felt a familiar impulse to explain how little authority she actually possessed.
She kept her hands at her sides.
“I am sorry,” she said.
Farah’s eyes narrowed.
“An apology does not return her hours.”
“No.”
“Did the company ever invite people who needed interpreters to those meetings?”
“Sometimes.”
“Which languages?”
Carol considered the question.
“Mostly English.”
Farah gave a short, bitter laugh.
“Then you were speaking for a room that was never allowed inside.”
She turned away before Carol could reply.
Daniel was eating a sandwich in an adjoining room when Lena entered.
“The hearing has become a disaster for CivicBridge,” she said.
“It has become an opportunity for people to describe a problem.”
“Those descriptions could lead to contract termination.”
“If the evidence supports it.”
Lena sat down.
“We have a bigger issue.”
She showed him a draft statement from a district communications employee.
The draft praised Daniel for remaining calm after a politically motivated attack and connected Carol’s actions to alleged misconduct by CivicBridge.
Daniel read the words twice.
“Who authorized this?”
“Nobody.”
“Then nobody will.”
“News outlets are asking whether Price ordered the attack.”
“We have no evidence he did.”
“Carol says he influenced her.”
“She also admits she chose to swing the hammer.”
Lena leaned back.
“People expect you to make a statement.”
“I will make one about the services residents deserve.”
“And the car?”
“The car is an insurance claim and a local criminal matter.”
Daniel looked at the unopened sandwich.
“If we make this about me, the people who waited four months for an interpreter will disappear behind the photograph of a smashed window.”
Lena gathered her papers.
“I will rewrite it.”
“Let them know why.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN — THE COMPANY’S EXPLANATION
Nolan Price testified after lunch.
He wore the same blue tie Carol had seen at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
His lawyer placed a thick binder on the lectern.
“Our organization has served tens of thousands of residents,” Nolan began.
He described the difficult transition from separate municipal systems to one regional scheduling service.
He acknowledged missed appointments but rejected the claim that the failures were deliberate.
“The volume of requests exceeded original projections,” he said.
“We relied on automated methods to prevent the system from becoming unusable.”
The hearing chair asked whether the category client unavailable sometimes represented a failure to find an interpreter.
Nolan hesitated.
“The code can reflect several operational scenarios.”
“Does it distinguish a resident who declined assistance from a contractor unable to provide it?”
“Not consistently during the transition.”
A low murmur moved through the room.
The chair leaned forward.
“Then how were those categories described in the performance reports?”
Nolan opened his binder.
“The reports used standardized terminology.”
“Did the district know the terminology could be misleading?”
“I cannot speak for every recipient.”
The chair asked him to answer the question within his knowledge.
Nolan took a breath.
“We discussed the issue with certain administrative contacts.”
Peter Walsh was called back to clarify what he had observed.
He described a meeting in which workers requested a separate code for appointments the company could not fulfill.
“They told us changing the code would make our failure rate rise,” he said.
Nolan objected through counsel to the characterization.
Peter agreed to supply the meeting date and names of attendees to the independent procurement review.
Daniel watched the hearing counsel take notes.
He understood the difference between a damaging pattern and a proven violation.
He also understood that a resident who had lost her work schedule would experience that distinction as another delay.
At the end of Nolan’s testimony, Farah asked one final question.
“Can my sister book an appointment tomorrow with an actual interpreter?”
Nolan looked to his counsel.
“We are working with the district to improve service.”
Farah shook her head.
“That is not an answer.”
