Coast RTA leadership track record, contract perks for CEO prompt Horry County Council to provide input

Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said the county wants to take a look at the new contract being offered to Coast RTA’s potential new leader because of hiring concerns it has with Coast’s past chief executives.

On Tuesday, Coast RTA prematurely announced the hiring of Brian Piascik before the County Council reviewed and approved the contract, which is a requirement in the funding agreement the county has with Coast.

Lazarus has asked Coast RTA officials to bring the county a draft of the proposed contract, because it would like to know what Coast is offering Piascik and what the proposed terms and conditions outline.

Lazarus said the county’s involvement is a safety measure in hiring a new chief.

“It hasn’t gone that well with the last two they had, so we have a concern,” Lazarus said.

Coast RTA fired its last two chief executive officers. Former chief Benedict Shogaolu pleaded guilty to three felony public-corruptions charges in 2006. He was fired from Coast in 2004 after an investigation by the agency’s board showed he misspent public money, mistreated employees and possibly violated state and federal laws.

In April 2014, the Coast RTA board fired Myers Rollins as its chief amid a committee’s examination of a failed bus shelter program that cost the transit more than $324,000. Rollins was given a severance package after the firing for $76,248.68. Lazarus said the county will be looking for those “out clauses” in the new contract.

“We just want to have a review of it and make sure that there’s not a severance package that’s in there that’s out of line or that can cost the authority a tremendous amount of money on the back end, and there are no out-clauses that are not acceptable or salary ranges that are not acceptable for this area considering the kind of money it takes to operate that authority,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus gave Bernie Silverman, chairman of the Coast board, a tongue lashing Tuesday for the premature announcement.

“They have nothing,” Lazarus said Thursday of the contract with Piascik. “I don’t know how you can make an announcement saying how you’ve engaged somebody and that hasn’t even gone through. Maybe they’ve selected a person they want to offer a contract to, but we have not seen that contract, so I have asked them to get that information to us for the next admin [administration] committee meeting.”

Silverman said he didn’t mean to upset council by announcing that Piascik was hired and sent an email to councilmen Friday apologizing for appearing to jump the gun.

“My intention was to announce that we made him an offer and he accepted that offer and we would begin negotiations,” Silverman said. “That’s what I thought I had asked Coast to do, the people at Coast. They wrote that press release, I proofed it on the fly walking down the street, and it wasn’t what I had hoped it would be.

“I walked in that meeting and honestly, I was excited. I thought I was doing a great thing. The announcement was made and I was bringing to them a person I really thought is just what we needed.”

Lazarus said the council’s concern has nothing to do with the selection of Piascik, but more what is being offered.

“We just want the contract,” Lazarus said. “It’s not the individual. We’re relying on their board and the group that they put together to hire that individual.”

The Sun News has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the offer letter sent to Piascik, but had not received it as of Friday. Silverman said Coast’s attorney was reviewing the request, but did not give any details of the offer.

Piascik has more than 30 years of experience in mass transit, including the last 14 years in the private sector at URS Corp. in Texas where he is currently the transit group manager.

In 2008, he worked with the city of Myrtle Beach on a streetcar project. He also worked at the state level with a transportation coordination study for the state’s 10 regions and he worked with Coast RTA in 2010 on its last transit development plan.

Silverman said he had given Lazarus details of the offer and is working with the county to figure out when the next administration committee will be to bring Piascik in for a discussion.

“My hope is they’ll see what we see in him,” Silverman said. “I think he needs to be in that meeting and I think he wants to be in that meeting so he can talk to council and make his case that he can help turn around Coast.”

This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Coast RTA leadership track record, contract perks for CEO prompt Horry County Council to provide input."