Horry County Chairman blasts Coast RTA’s ‘insubordinate’ current leadership

The hiring of Coast RTA’s next chief executive officer got the initial nod Thursday from Horry County’s administration committee, but county Council Chairman Mark Lazarus warned Coast to “clean house” before the new hire.

Brian Piascik was introduced Thursday to the county’s administration committee, which consists of five councilmen. Though Coast RTA officials are not allowing him to talk to media, Piascik couldn’t avoid the questioning of council members on his willingness to take over an agency that’s had its state funding trimmed by $377,000 over the next five years, was labeled an at-risk agency by the state and has not followed the county’s request for a forensic audit of its finances.

Lazarus was highly critical of the current administration, led by Julie Norton-Dew, the agency’s chief financial officer. Lazarus said he was upset because Norton-Dew handed out a “fact-finding document” where a company examined Coast’s procedures rather than a forensic audit the council asked for a year ago in a funding agreement it entered with Coast.

“Running my business, the questions that have been asked by this council, asked of the CEO and the CFO of this company, I would call it total insubordination, derelicts of the duty,” Lazarus said. “That’s what I would call it. Because if my person in my company did that and this is all I would get back and didn’t give me the answers that I wanted, I would have a serious problem with it and they probably wouldn’t be working for me anymore. It’s not the board of directors’ position... they don’t run the company... As the CFO of a company, as an educated person in this field... they would have more to add to it and you would have a better report here. They would be dazzling us, making us feel good about spending $1.05 million. Man, they’re making me madder by the minute.”

Norton-Dew said in an email after the meeting that since she has been employed by Coast, “all financial records and audits were clean.”

“Since accepting the appointment as interim general manager last April, I have continued to strive to move Coast RTA forward through our internal initiatives as well as resolving open-ended projects and holding steadfast to our mission,” Norton-Dew said in an email. “... Coast RTA works openly with any funding agency in reviewing our accounting and bookkeeping. There has been no misappropriation of funding.”

The county gives Coast RTA $1.05 million annually, and began requiring more stringent reporting last year when the state required a rebate of $377,000 for a failed bus shelter program that led to the firing of former CEO Myers Rollins.

Piascik said much of Coast’s problems are with uncared for buses.

“The biggest issue that I’ve seen in the system is that there’s been a lot of deferred maintenance,” Piascik said of the bus system. “They’re having trouble making pull out on buses and it’s really damaged the reliability of the system.”

Under Norton-Dew, who took over as interim in April 2014, Coast began a maintenance re-vamp led by Felicia Beaty, chief operating officer, where it organized the shop, streamlined ordering parts, aligned mechanic’s skill set with responsibilities and more. Piascik said he plans to work with the state to find funding.

“I think we need to get in there and get some new equipment,” Piascik said, adding he will work to better the relationship between Coast and the county. “I think in terms of the relationship with the county, we need transparency. We need to be able to let you all know what we’re doing with your money and give you the metrics that you need to understand your money is being spent efficiently and we’re doing the most that we can with it.”

“In terms of getting people on buses and getting drivers on the bus to where passengers are, I think the system is run fairly efficiently. The numbers compare favorably to systems of similar size around the country.”

The county had also required a route analysis in the funding agreement, and after an initial meeting in January between Coast officials and a consultant, the plan stalled so the analysis could be conducted by the new CEO.

Lazarus asked Piascik what he thought about accusations of “mismanagement, misappropriations, and mishandling” of funds and not having a forensic audit of a place where the last two CEOs have been fired.

“I feel like the books are relatively clean,” Piascik said.

“How do you know that?” Lazarus said. “You haven’t seen more than anything I’ve seen. So how do you know?”

“I guess I need a little bit more time to really know completely,” Piascik said.

Lazarus said he was referring to the failed bus shelter program where in 2005, Coast RTA was awarded a $1 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to install more than 60 bus shelters on routes throughout Horry and Georgetown counties, as well as route signs. The grant, which was administered by the S.C. Department of Transportation, was to cover the entire cost of the project.

Hurdles Coast RTA said it had to deal with included working with municipalities to install the shelters, with such challenges as zoning and underground cable issues. The delay prompted Coast RTA to request an extension in 2009, which is when the whole project was scheduled to be done. The extension was granted to mid-2013.

S.C. DOT pulled the plug on the program in late 2013 and determined it needed $377,000 back from the transit for not completing the project. Lazarus said there are claims that about $50,000 has been undocumented and unaccounted for, which shows him the company is not being run right.

“I’m telling you today it’s not run effectively and it’s not run efficiently,” Lazarus said. “Mr. Piascik, you may run back to [his current home in] Dallas. But I don’t think so. I can see the commitment in you, and I know [Piascik’s current employer] URS [Corp.] and that’s a top-notch company... Mr. [Coast board president Bernie] Silverman, before you bring Mr. Piascik on, I think you need to clean house. You’ve got insubordination. Your board has been let down and I don’t even think y’all see it.”

Lazarus said before taking the role as interim chief, Norton-Dew still should have been “keeping the books” through her role as chief financial officer.

“I don’t know that this person was capable of running a bus company, she was thrown into that,” Lazarus said of Norton-Dew. “She’s supposed to be capable of being a [chief financial officer], an accountant, to provide us information that we’ve asked for and we’re not getting. It was ultimately not given to us for years... We can blame the past CEO and everybody else, but somebody else was keeping the books. Y’all got a problem. You need to fix that problem. Mr. Piascik, it may be your first duty.”

Michelle Cantey, spokeswoman for Coast RTA who has fielded all questions to Piascik, said Coast was surprised by Lazarus’ comments.

“We were taken off guard, we will admit that,” Cantey said. “Those will also be offline conversations to see what was intended. We think that by taking on the roles that everyone has taken on in the last year, that we’ve done an outstanding job in the challenges and trials that were facing us at the time.”

Cantey said Piascik was not available to the media because a contract has not been signed. When asked what Piascik thought of coming from the private industry to a public role, Cantey said: “He’s actually looking forward to coming to Coast RTA and being able to spend time with his family here. He is looking forward to tackling some of the challenges we have ahead of us.”

One of the first challenges is securing funding from Horry County for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1.

Lazarus said Coast needs “somebody that can take charge and get the confidence back to this council” and he will do what he can for Coast until Piascik takes the helm, which is projected to be May 18.

“I’m going to do everything that I can to hold the line,” Lazarus said. “I can’t tell you what 11 other people [on county council] are going to do. We’ll get you there, but we’re going to get up and get running hard, so put on your running shoes.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Horry County Chairman blasts Coast RTA’s ‘insubordinate’ current leadership."