RFP Staff
♦ During the negotiations for the 504 North Main Street property on which the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education plans to build a new Central Office building, the “mutually terminated” City Manager Doug Paris exchanged emails with Board of Education Chair Richard Miller, Mayor Paul Woodson, and Rowan-Salisbury Schools Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody. During May, Doug Paris backed off from the City’s offer to support the deal with $500K in taxpayer dollars from the City fund. RFP obtained the email through a Freedom of Information Act inquiry. In it, Paris writes, “Several months back as we discussed the city making at $500k contribution from our fund balance toward the project this type of deal structure was not part of the discussion.”
The property owner mentioned in Paris’s email to Board of Education Chairman Miller is Clay Lindsay, owner of Summit Developers, INC, who would be the “CM at Risk” mentioned by Paris in the email. A CM at Risk, or Construction Manager at Risk, owns land his company is hired to develop. What is at stake in this case is that there were no bids on record for the contract to develop the land, making these negotiations fit into the category of a no-bid contract in which the receptor of the bid owns the land, and a public entity will give him a contract to develop it.
This type of arrangement calls into question The North Carolina State Statutes on “Required Bidding” for contracts and public funds, which can be viewed here: http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/statutes/statutelookup.pl?statute=143-129
The RFP’s previous article on cronyism in City Hall can be viewed here: http://rowanfreepress.com/2014/07/13/mayor-woodson-are-you-familiar-with-state-laws-for-bidding-government-construction-contracts/
504 North Main Street
Paris’s Subtle Withdrawal of $500K in City funds from the 504 North Main Street Central Office Proposal in His Email to RSS Board of Education Chair Richard Miller:
From: Doug Paris [mailto:dpari@salisburync.gov]
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2014 2:08 PM
To: rwmoptions@gmail.com
Subject: Proposed Deal Structure
Chairman Miller,
I tried to reach you by phone last night and earlier today to share with you the below information, however I am in an area with spotty service, which must explain our inability to connect by phone. My email is functioning thus why I am communicating in this fashion.
After sleeping on yesterday afternoon’s meeting on the central office project with your staff and the N. Main property owner, I continue to have concerns about the proposed deal structure of the project, specifically that the project will not be competitively bid to developers as it has in the past and that the N. Main property owner will also serve in the dual role as the exclusive CM at Risk for the project.
The deal structure as it stands is not something I can recommend to my board from a professional management standpoint and also from a public perception standpoint . Several months back as we discussed the city making at $500k contribution from our fund balance toward the project this type of deal structure was not part of the discussion.
Given that the property owner was in attendance at the meeting, this leads to awkward group dynamics and an inability on my part of comfortably convey this point to you.
As the Chairman of the School Board you have the ability to renegotiate the proposed deal structure with the N. Main land owner and resolve these concerns. I would love to talk with you by telephone to discuss this further.
Best,
Doug Paris
City Manager
City of Salisbury, NC
www.salisburync.gov/citymanager
www.twitter.com/parisdoug
704-239-2038 (cell)
