Wednesday, an Horry County Committee made up of school board members and district employees discussed the district’s more than $150 million dollar building plan, however one board member is questioning the transparency of the process.
This is the second request for architectural qualifications the district has held in less than a year.
However this time Childs and Halligan, the law firm that represents the district, is part of the process.
As well, the decision making process is being held in private executive session with a committee made up of board members and district employees.
Board member John Poston says he is concerned about how the meeting is being conducted.
“It’s just so hard to answer the questions of your constituents when you can’t have public, open sessions,” said Poston.
Poston asked the committee to remember taxpayer dollars fund the choices it makes in private.
“We’re not a closed club. We’re not a secret society. We’re a public body dealing with public funds in a public arena,” he said.
Poston said executive sessions are difficult because no record is kept of what is said and no one is permitted to speak about the topic outside of the session.
However, board chair Joe Defeo says this is business as usual.
“We’ve been going into executive session for the eight years that I’ve been on this school board,” he said.
The committee voted to go into executive session after attorney William Halligan advised the possible legal issues that could arise if they did not.
Defeo said executive session is needed to decide which company will build the district’s new schools.
“If this selection committee did everything in public, I would sure like to be the last design-build team to go into that interview because I would know everything that was asked of me. That’s unfair,” he said.
The committee is not expected to meet again until after the April 7th qualification deadline.
