Myrtle Beach disputes misspending claims, while Horry Schools chair spars with mayor
As a dispute among Horry County’s largest public agencies over redevelopment spending becomes more contentious in the court system, leaders of those agencies are quarreling on an unrelated issue.
The lawsuit, jointly filed by Horry County and Horry County Schools against the City of Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach Air Force Redevelopment Authority, centers around redevelopment of the former Air Force base.
The county and school district allege the city and authority are misusing tax increment financing and taxpayer funds on a project the county and school district argue has already been completed.
The suit, which has been ongoing for nearly a year, took a turn Monday when the district filed a motion to compel, alleging that the city has obstructed its ability to access requested data during the discovery period, and asking the judge to grant an extension to the discovery timeline as a result.
As part of that motion, the district notes that a firm it hired to conduct an audit of the city’s and authority’s financial records related to the TIF project found several issues showing Myrtle Beach may be misusing millions of taxpayer dollars.
The city fired back Wednesday, submitting a memorandum opposing the district’s “frivolous” motion and asking the judge to issue a sanction requiring the district to pay all legal fees the city incurred responding to communications leading up to and opposing this motion.
“Although the (district’s) Motion claims ‘remarkable information’ that purportedly demonstrates ‘millions of misused taxpayer dollars,’ those allegations are revealed to be categorically false and advanced in this filing without factual support, first-hand knowledge, or identifiable ‘good ground to support it,’” the city’s court filing states.
The city argues in court filings that the auditing firm’s allegations show a misunderstanding of the rules that apply to this TIF district redevelopment and allege that the school district’s attorneys haven’t made any effort to review the more than 39,000 pages of documents the city has already handed over as part of discovery.
The city’s attorneys describe the district’s actions as a “transparent (effort) to delay the inevitable dismissal of this meritless lawsuit,” pointing to Dec. 13, 2020, as the city’s deadline to issue additional debt for redevelopment of the TIF district under its statutory authority.
Tax revenues have been frozen on properties within the former Air Force base area, which includes The Market Common, since 2004 while the assessed value of the land has increased from about $4.2 million to more than $38.2 million, according to court documents.
The city had entered into an agreement with Wells Fargo for the sale of $12.6 million in bonds prior to the filing of the lawsuit, but failed to close the deal due to the suit, which could cost the city more than $42 million in losses, according to court documents.
School board chair and mayor
Outside of the lawsuit, HCS board Chairman Ken Richardson recently took issue with Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune weighing in on a school board decision via social media.
The board recently voted to cut the freshman and sophomore grades from its STEM program at the Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology and turn Scholars Academy into a standalone school. Parents and students associated with those programs were widely critical of the decision.
Richardson pointed to a comment Bethune made in reference to those changes on Facebook, where she states that her personal opinion “is that the brightest children are being overlooked and that’s a shame.”
Richardson said he felt Bethune should’ve stayed out of it and needs to worry more about running the city while he runs the school board. He added that if she cares so much about education, the city shouldn’t be “trying to screw the school district” with regards to the school that was initially included in plans for redevelopment of the former Air Force base.
Part of the lawsuit deals with plans to place a school on the redeveloped land, a project that was removed from the authority’s to-do list in late 2017, according to court documents.
The school district argues that it expended funds and forewent other opportunities in anticipation of that school being built, while the authority and city countered that the school was never promised, and there’s no longer a need or available space to build it.
Bethune, told about Richardson’s comments, said she regrets that her comments upset him, but she represents a lot of families in Myrtle Beach and her personal belief is that the school board’s recent decisions are only hurting future children who won’t be given the same opportunities.
She declined to discuss anything related to the lawsuit.
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 11:36 AM.
