Proposal gives school board more power in awarding contracts

Horry County School Board members will have a larger voice in choosing which companies are awarded district contracts if the board approves proposed governance policy changes.

According to the new policy, “The facilities chair shall appoint five board members to any 10-member selection committee involved in decisions concerning projects of new construction.”

All board members on the facilities committee may serve on the selection committees, which are tasked with ranking and vetting companies competing for a district contract.

“It really spreads out the decision-making where the superintendent is going to appoint five, the facilities chairman is going to appoint five in those situations,” said school board Chairman Joe Defeo. “Without a doubt a spreading out of the decision-making I think is best from a standpoint of making sure the process is kept clean.”

Outside influence?

In the past, school board members — who are elected officials and receive campaign donations — have received money from companies involved in bids.

Board member John Poston works for Castles Engineering, which was listed as a potential subcontractor for MB Khan. MB Khan was one of the companies competing for the contract to build five new schools for the district. When the board voted to award the contract to First Floor, Poston was one of only two dissenting votes.

Poston could not be reached for comment.

Board member David Cox received large campaign donations from First Floor officials and subcontractors after the firm was awarded the contract. Cox voted in favor of awarding the contract to First Floor.

“That happens all across the country,” said DeFeo, who helped raise the donations for Cox. “When you go to the county council, who’s giving them money to run for office? Businesses. When you go to the school board, who’s giving them money? Businesses. That’s the way it works, unfortunately. And I don’t see any way of getting around that unless you just say ‘people can’t donate anymore.’”

But DeFeo said he thinks more board members will lead to less outside influence from companies competing for contracts.

“There’s more of a possibility or equal possibility of people within facilities being influenced because these people have worked for those people in the past,” he said. “Generally speaking, board members don’t work for those people. So they’ll build a long-term relationship, and then they come and work for county council and the school district.”

Horry County Schools Executive Director of Facilities Mark Wolfe formerly worked for UWPD Architecture, which was in charge of renovations at North Myrtle Beach High School. The company would have done architectural design work for MB Khan had the firm been awarded the new schools contract, according to the company’s proposal.

“In my opinion, all persons assigned to a procurement selection committee, whether they are staff persons or elected officials, would be expected to render objective, unbiased ratings for offerors responding to any procurement solicitation,” said Wolfe, who sat on the evaluation committee in charge of ranking the three firms competing for the school contract award.

“We would be remiss not to capitalize on the expertise and experience of our employees, whether it is a procurement selection process or other day-to-day decision-making in support of the best interests of Horry County Schools,” he said.

DeFeo said that because the school board makes the final decision in awarding contracts, it needs to be more “engaged” in the process.

“We’re elected,” he said. “And we’re the ones that have to answer to the people, as we’re doing that right now. There’s been a discussion for years on this, where the school board is too far away from the process. And our constituents have told me and other board members point-blank, ‘what are you doing? You need to be more involved.’”

The board will vote on the changes at the next board meeting.

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Proposal gives school board more power in awarding contracts."