How we respond to Kevin Johnston's contract-review email on the 360° SCD Hub: the strategy, the evidence, the talking points, and the one decision to make. Internal prep for Coach Lucy & Dr. Rob.
Kevin Johnston — SCFA's board technical lead (ex-Raytheon), resigning from the board and largely absent for the past couple of years — has surfaced at the final hour of the funded app period with a contract-review email raising seven points against the original July 2023 agreement.
This is best read as a closeout audit, not an attack: a departing engineer wants the technical gaps on the record before he goes. Our objective is not to win an argument — it is to close the chapter cleanly, protect a valued relationship (SCFA opened the Banner door and remains a good foundational partner, with two active follow-on contracts), and bridge to SCFA's next phase. The contract's dispute path is binding arbitration in Pima County; nobody wants that. We keep it collaborative — that is the leverage.
Concede what is genuinely owed, graciously and fast. Provide calm context where the criticism misreads the architecture everyone agreed to. Never admit "breach." Model the 48-hour responsiveness he is asking for.
The 360° SCD Hub was never a custom-code build, and all parties signed knowing that. It intentionally duplicates the Force for Health stack: a WordPress core plus established third-party plugins (BuddyBoss, GamiPress, LearnDash) wrapped in BuddyBoss-generated native apps — a deliberate, grant-budget choice for a full-featured platform.
The implication: the living functionality and nearly all updates happen on the server/plugin side, not as commits to the app-wrapper repo. So the GitHub repository barely changing is the expected signature of this architecture — not evidence the platform is static.
On record: this architecture was presented to and accepted by SCFA — the board overview (with the tech slides kept in specifically for Kevin) was delivered April 2, 2024, and the full stack was demonstrated and accepted at the "Move to Maintenance" milestone, paid in full in 2024.
📎 Supporting evidence — 2023 call transcripts + video:
360° SCD Hub — Stack Agreement Evidence Memo →
Timestamped quotes from the Sep 8 / Oct 13 / Nov 3 / Dec 1, 2023 app-development calls — each "Jump to this moment" button opens the exact second on Vimeo — where the FFH stack was explained as a deliberate cost/timing choice and the SCFA team (Kevin, Moses, Dr. Gillio) acknowledged and agreed. Admin sign-in required.
| # | Point | Our stance | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Source code unchanged 2–3 yrs | Architecture by design; deliver an architecture map | Context |
| 2 | No build instructions (Exhibit B #12) | Owed — concede; deliver build runbook | Action |
| 3 | Bugs unresolved / response time | Already logged & tracked (12 items); triage in 48 hrs | Action |
| 4 | iOS vs Android ~1.5-yr gap | Different store regimes + SCFA-held Apple account; resync | Context |
| 5 | Google health-apps declaration | Owed maintenance; status + resolve in Android pass | Action |
| 6 | Google Play 16 KB page size | Owed maintenance; confirm / remediate in same pass | Action |
| 7 | Texas SB 2420 (age verification) | New law post-dating scope; deliver applicability assessment | Forward |
Net: 2 points are context (defensible by design), 4 are gracious deliverables, 1 is forward-looking. Concede the fair, hold the line on the misread, never admit breach.
Nine bug fixes, two future enhancements, and one contractual item (the build instructions — his point #2, already logged). Four of the bugs were marked awaiting Kevin's own input on preferred behavior — the §6 shared-collaboration responsibility, in writing.
These corroborate that cadence gaps were mutual. Keep them as calm backup only if Kevin escalates toward blame — they read as defensive in writing:
The judo move on SB 2420: if he presses, say — "I'd apply the same disciplined read you did on the Google payments policy." Validates our measured approach using his own judgment. Powerful live; left out of the written reply on purpose.
Send the client-facing Response & Resolution Log + Technical Documentation Packet as a warm, firm reply, and propose the 45-minute technical working session before Kevin departs.