USC paid Quinn firm almost $500,000 but not to lobby, it says
A political consulting firm implicated in a State House corruption probe once helped the University of South Carolina prepare its bid to S.C. lawmakers for a new $80 million law school. The firm also advised the school on a proposal rolling back state regulations for colleges, newly released documents show.
However, the records explicitly state USC’s contract did not pay Richard Quinn & Associates to lobby for the university at federal, state or local levels.
Investigators are said to be looking into whether RQ&A, which helps politicians get elected but also does public relations and consulting work for state agencies and private companies, ever delved into lobbying.
USC paid the Columbia-based firm $491,900 over a four-year span for public relations and consulting work, according to records the university provided The State this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last month.
A spokesman would not say whether those invoices are the same documents that USC turned over to investigators as part of an ongoing corruption investigation that has led to the indictment of three powerful GOP legislators.
“I can’t comment further on the grand jury investigations,” USC spokesman Wes Hickman said. However, Hickman did say USC’s contracts with Henry McMaster, a Quinn client who now is S.C. governor, to raise money for the law school have not been sought by investigators.
No one on USC’s payroll has been called to testify before the State Grand Jury, he added.
Richard Quinn, whose firm advises some of the Palmetto State’s GOP elite, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
The newly released documents show Quinn’s Columbia-based firm was first hired by USC in February 2011. RQ&A was paid $7,500 a month for its “assistance in research issue analysis and in the creation of strategies, themes and messages.”
As justification for the Great Recession-era contract, documents show, USC cited the challenges it faced trying to expand its medical school into Greenville in a “difficult economic, political and cultural environment.”
In July 2011, USC’s monthly payments to RQ&A were bumped up to $9,500, an arrangement that lasted until May 2013.
That is when USC began paying RQ&A $150 an hour for “strategic planning and ... public relations assistance on high profile presidential initiatives and university actions,” documents state.
That work included “governance and regulatory approval – presentations, messaging, strategic planning, crisis management, public opinion tracking, long-term university marketing and branding among South Carolina’s opinion, community, business and government leadership.”
RQ&A billed USC consistently under that arrangement, never more than $15,600 in a single month but never less than $8,250.
Avery G. Wilks: 803-771-8362, @averygwilks
Other USC-Quinn ties
The University of South Carolina had other ties to Richard Quinn.
USC paid The Copy Shop, which Quinn owns, $1,190.33 between 2003 and 2009 for various copying needs, documents show.
The University of South Carolina’s real estate foundation also paid The Copy Shop $1,239.23 for posters, printers and copying between April 2012 and February 2015, according to documents provided in response to an open-records request by The State newspaper.
USC’s Alumni Association also told The State it paid close to $300,000 over a three-year span to lease Quinn-owned office space at 1600 Gervais St. in Columbia.
The association needed a more visible downtown location while waiting for its alumni center to be built, and the 8,544-square-foot office, four blocks from the State House, offered that, association executive director Jack Claypoole said.
The association paid fair-market value for the office, Claypoole said.
This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 6:58 PM with the headline "USC paid Quinn firm almost $500,000 but not to lobby, it says."