Denton County commissioners chose not to award a lucrative contract to the nation’s largest collection firm amid ethics questions.

Commissioners were seeking a firm to collect delinquent court fines. After a lengthy discussion Tuesday, the county chose McCreary, Veselka, Bragg and Allen, with which it has more than two decades’ experience.

The county’s evaluation committee recommended former Internal Revenue Ser­vice tax collection agency Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson be awarded the bid. However, commissioners expressed concern about the firm’s history.

Instead, commissioners narrowly voted to give the bid to the McCreary firm, which will earn 30 percent of court fines collected. The McCreary firm already has a contract with the county to collect delinquent property taxes.

“I’d rather go on 23 years of experience with the company,” said County Judge Mary Horn, who made the motion to award the bid to McCreary.

Commissioners Cynthia White and Bobbie Mitchell expressed concerns to Steve Meeks, a Linebarger firm partner, about media reports of unethical behavior by the firm in Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin.

Meeks said he was unaware of problems in Fort Worth or Austin.

“I’m not aware of any issues,” he said. “[In San Antonio], we did have a partner that was indicted six years ago. It’s not something we are proud of. You can have one bad apple.”

Court records show that in 2002, former Linebarger partner Juan Pena was convicted on charges of conspiring to bribe two San Antonio City Council members who voted to award a bid to the firm.

Municipal Services Bureau, a competitor, filed a lawsuit against Linebarger seeking $15 million in damages. The two sides confidentially settled the lawsuit out of court in 2004, court records show.

Since then, court records show that Linebarger has been the subject of at least two Texas lawsuits, including one in Fort Worth for defamation. However, Meeks said the company has worked to clean up its image by hiring an ombudsman and has installed an ethics policy.

Despite those efforts, Mitchell said she felt uneasy about awarding Linebarger the bid. She and Commissioner Andy Eads backed Horn’s motion to give the bid to McCreary.

Commissioner Ron Marchant said that no court member had substantiated the allegations, and voted against the motion. White abstained from the vote after asking for more time to research the firm.

Before voting began, White asked the court to consider pushing the decision back to the evaluation committee, but Horn refused. White suggested the evaluation committee dig deeper into bidders’ history in the future, instead of allowing potential unethical companies from being awarded bids.

“This is an issue that we need to deal with,” she said. “We need to be more proactive and find out more about these companies. This isn’t the first time this has happened.”

Horn said the committee did its job well, and the committee only gives a recommendation, which the court is not obligated to follow.

DAN X. McGRAW can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is dmcgraw@dentonrc.com .