Split Palmetto commission approves block grant administrator

PALMETTO – A measure to award administration of a block grant to a firm triggered a debate over process and procedures at Monday’s City Commission meeting, though it eventually passed.

The vote was 3-2, with commissioners Brian Williams and Tamara Cornwell voting against.

City Clerk Jim Freeman said the Community Development Block Grant was to be used toward the Ward I Phase II project, and the grant was for $750,000. An RFP was issued in September 2009, and two bidders emerged, Clark Communities Inc. (CCI) and Guardian Community Resource Management Inc.

The grant still has to be applied for.

Though Guardian was the lower bidder, CCI got the bid because a staffer on the team that made the recommendation based on five criteria swung the vote toward CCI. That worried city commissioners because of the power and ”an appearance of impropriety,“ Williams said.

He said he didn’t think they had to follow the scoring and could just throw out the high and low scores, and then Guardian would win the bid. ”We need to evaluate and decide based on what we see here,“ he said. ”I'm not ready to say CCI is who I want to go with.“

”I'm not going to support this because it's not fair,“ Cornwell said.

Freeman said there are no parameters in place for the scoring, but they could be added next time. ”If there are things you want us to reevaluate and reconsider, we can go back and do that and see if it changes anything,“ he said. ”If you don't like what you see, you can put those parameters in place.“

Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said that the system could be improved, but in the meantime this was the recommendation that was put forward.

”I think that those of us sitting up here that feel that by voting for this, we're compromising what we feel are the best interests of the community may be,“ Williams said. ”Both of these firms can do this job. I don't think it's right that we have to do this without strongly suggesting that this is something that has high priority to be fixed.“

Cornwell asked if it could be moved to the next agenda, and Freeman noted that the process hasn’t officially opened, so they have time to go back and revisit it, and look at the scoring again.

”The city needs to look at this,“ said Commissioner Tambra Varnadore. ”It could be a fluke, or this person felt so strongly. It does have the appearance that one person can skew the whole process.“

Still, she said, the result couldn’t be thrown out, though Freeman offered to have it deferred.

Instead, a motion to approve it was advanced, and seconded, and the vote came in at 3-2 in favor.