jQuery Grid Plugin - jqGrid

In the past, I've been able to successfully implement autoloading tree nodes.  Today, when I attempt to implement another tree grid with autoloading, the expanding of a selected row does not work.  I copied much of my existing (good) code to this new implementation.

Specifically, the root nodes load successfully.  But when I click on a '+' the image toggles to a '-' but no ajax call is made to the server to retrieve child nodes.  Very strange...as this code was working perfectly in previous implementation.  Any thoughts as to what would prevent jqGrid from issuing child node ajax calls?  Below is my config:

            $('#table-contracts-new-draft').jqGrid({
                treeGrid: true,
                treeGridModel: 'adjacency',
                ExpandColumn : 'name',
                url: '/contracts/asynccustomer/contracts' + contractsRequestParams(),
                datatype: "json",
                jsonReader : {
                    root: "rows",
                    page: "page",
                    total: "total",
                    records: "records",
                    repeatitems: true,
                    cell: "cell",
                    id: "id",
                    userdata: "userdata"
                },
                mtype: "GET",
                colNames:['Project Name', 'Sales Rep', 'Start Date', 'End Date', 'System Notes'],
                colModel: [
                {
                    name: 'name',
                    index: 'name',
                    width: 400,
                    hidden: false,
                    sortable: false
                },
                {
                    name: 'rep',
                    index: 'rep',
                    width: 200,
                    hidden: false,
                    sortable: false
                },
                {
                    name: 'startdt',
                    index: 'startdt',
                    width: 130,
                    hidden: false,
                    sortable: false
                },
                {
                    name: 'enddt',
                    index: 'enddt',
                    width: 130,
                    hidden: false,
                    sortable: false
                },
                {
                    name: 'notes',
                    index: 'sysnotes',
                    width: 400,
                    hidden: false,
                    sortable: false
                }
                ],
                height: 'auto',
                width: 'auto',
                pager: false,
                viewrecords: true,
                sortorder: "desc",
                loadError : function(xhr, status, error) {
                    console.log(xhr);
                    console.log(status);
                    console.log(error);
                    if (xhr.responseText.length > 0) {
                        $('#contracts-new-draft').replaceWith('<b>'+xhr.responseText+'</b>');
                    }
                }
            });