Horry County Board of Education member upset over architectural committee’s private discussions
An Horry County Schools committee charged with selecting architects to build new schools voted on qualification criteria after an hour-long meeting behind closed doors Wednesday to the objection of one Board of Education member.
“Everything that [the committee] is considering doing with public funds will not be disclosed to the public of Horry County,” said John Poston, district 8 representative. “Why must we decide how the district spends public money behind closed doors?”
The district has spent nearly $93,000 on legal fees since October 2014 to prepare and discuss the Request for Qualifications, which are used to determine the qualifications of potential, according to legal records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Horry County Schools established a committee to short-list architectural and construction firms bidding on building five new schools. The group, which includes five district staff members and five Board of Education members, met for the first time Wednesday.
But a board member, who is not on the committee, objected to the group’s plan to discuss anything in executive session.
“The board is a public body, elected by the public, dealing with public funds in a public arena,” Poston said. “The public has a right to know what we’re doing, when we’re doing it and why.”
Executive sessions allow boards to discuss privileged information or private issues out of the public eye. Legally, boards can discuss employment, personnel, contractual, security and misconduct issues during executive session.
Committees can also receive legal advice in private, which is why the majority of Wednesday’s meeting was held in private, said Bick Halligan, with Halligan and Childs of Columbia.
“The advice pertained to the RFQ and legal responses, which are part of a contractual issue,” he said.
The committee, called Request for Qualifications Selection Committee, discussed procurement procedures and organizational structure. Its task is to select a short list of firms that qualify for the district’s projects, said Rick Maxey, superintendent.
The committee also privately discussed how factors such as experience, price and construction time were to be weighed in the selection process. Those details are to be made public by Friday.
Halligan would not elaborate on why the discussion of the criteria was private if the information would be made public in a few days.
“We have a responsibility to be transparent, and when you go into executive session you shut out the public,” Poston said.
Ara Heinz, procurement specialist for the district, was chosen to facilitate the meetings, since there’s no official committee chair, Maxey said. Bick Halligan, with Halligan and Childs law firm in Columbia, was also present.
“[Halligan and Childs] played a key role in developing procurement code for the district, so they’re here to make sure we’re doing everything right,” Maxey said.
Horry Schools spent nearly $93,000 on legal costs associated with the construction procurement work for the schools, according to legal documents obtained from a Sun News Freedom of Information request.
The district has paid Childs and Halligan $92,467 from October 2014 to February 2015, according to records. The charges paid for:
“Why did we need to hire an attorney for almost $100,000 to do something district staff know how to do?” Poston, district 8 representative, said. “It’s interesting.”
Joe DeFeo, board chairman, said the attorneys were necessary to make sure everything was written correctly and was within the law. He also said district staff have never written an RFQ with a design-build delivery method before.
“Anybody building a $2 million project, to spend $93,000 to do it right, is a good amount,” he said. “I want it to be done right so there are no legal protests later.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Horry County Board of Education member upset over architectural committee’s private discussions."