City of Myrtle Beach asked for ‘receipts’ for million-dollar deal. Guess their response?
Will Myrtle Beach residents get to see the deal that keeps the Sheraton hotel open and saves the city nearly $2 million?
In an election year when elected officials promote transparency, 17 days into the year, the city has already seemingly skirted the Freedom of Information Act to delay, if not outright withhold, a contract from public disclosure.
Earlier this week, city council members unanimously passed a new franchise agreement between the Sheraton hotel and a city volunteer board that oversees the city’s ownership of the hotel. The agreement effectively keeps the hotel open and operating. Since the council approved the new deal, details are currently being withheld from public inspection.
The publicly available document and part of the agenda reads more like a marketing pamphlet than a legal contract between a city and a business. For example, it notes the city is saving $1.7 million a year, but provides no other information about potential costs or parts of the deal. The actual contract was not included in the agenda.
The city was asked to “show their receipts,” providing proof or evidence supporting their claims of saving millions by providing a public document.
After email exchanges with the acting city spokesperson, Patrick Lloyd, he has clarified that the city has not outright denied a formal written request while making it clear that the public should not expect many additional details, citing “confidentiality requirements.”
Lloyd was asked how the financing of the new agreement would work for the city to save $1.7 million over the first four years.
The simple answer for how these savings are calculated is based on a change in the franchise fee formula, he explained via email.
“I can’t provide specific numbers for you, and I’d like to explain why. The Sheraton LLC considers terms of the franchise agreement to be confidential and proprietary,” Lloyd, creative services manager for the city and acting spokesperson, said in an email to The Sun News on Thursday. “Participating in a franchise system like the one developed by Sheraton allows the Convention Center Hotel Corporation to take advantage of an established brand and customer base, as well as tested and proven business practices and processes.”
The Sun News requested a public record from the City of Myrtle Beach, not The Sheraton LLC. The Sheraton corporation has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the negotiations over the past few months.
A non-elected volunteer board oversees the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel. The Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel Corporation is “a closely-held corporation that oversees the city’s ownership of the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel and the management of the property,” the city’s website states.
The members are Louis LaBruce, Adam Johnson, Frank DuRant, Matthew D’Antoni, Jessica Greene, Yvette Jefferson and George C. DuRant.
“Louis LaBruce is the Chair of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel Corporation Board. You are more than welcome to reach out to him, but he will not be able to provide any specifics due to the confidentiality provisions in the agreement,” Loyd wrote in an email on Thursday.
Does that mean a non-elected volunteer board signed a contract binding the city to a multi-year and potentially multi-million dollar deal without city council reviewing or signing the actual agreement? The agenda says “Execution of the agreement by the Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel Corporation requires the approval of City Council.”
Lloyd clarified Friday morning in an email, “No city staff or elected officials have signed the document on behalf of the City of Myrtle Beach or the Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel Corporation.”
Lloyd cited section 30-4-40(1) of the South Carolina Public Records law that cites trade secrets are being exempt from disclosure. The law defines those as “unpatented, secret, commercially valuable plans, appliances, formulas, or processes, which are used for the making, preparing, compounding, treating, or processing of articles or materials which are trade commodities obtained from a person and which are generally recognized as confidential and work products, in whole or in part collected or produced for sale or resale, and paid subscriber information.”
Lloyd’s emailed statement in response to The Sun News’ request for documents continued with, “In order to protect their proprietary information, franchisors like Sheraton impose confidentiality requirements on franchisees. S.C. FOIA also recognizes the importance of keeping confidential or proprietary information of companies who do business with public entities confidential by exempting certain information from being disclosed to the public.”
The tool under the state law allows documents to be redacted, not withheld. The city has a fee schedule on its website that includes the cost of redacting public documents.
“What we’ve done with our FOIA process over the last few months is we’re trying to track as much as we can in terms of any requests for any documents,” Lloyd wrote in an email. “So basically anytime you need any documents we want to be able to track that process and have a history of it, that’s why we’re trying to direct more FOIA requests for anything document related.”
The law does not require a formal written FOIA request. The city website notes “A FOIA Request Form is provided for the public’s convenience, but use of the form is not required to make a written request under the FOIA. Submit written requests to the City Attorney Office at: P. O. Box 2468, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577, email FOIA@cityofmyrtlebeach.com or 843-918-1028 (fax). Click here to download the FOIA request form.”
The Sun News will ask for that tracking data.
