Firm that used Richland 1 director’s license should be investigated, elected leaders say
A Columbia-based law firm and at least three elected officials are calling on South Carolina’s attorney general and other government agencies to investigate a construction management firm — one of three companies that oversaw Richland County’s $1 billion penny tax program — to see whether it violated state laws.
Calls for the investigations came on the heels of an article published Wednesday online by The State Media Co. that exclusively reported that Brownstone Construction Group has been operating under licenses held by Richland 1’s Facility Director Raymond Perkins Jr. for the past five years.
Perkins has said that he has had little involvement with Brownstone over the years, despite being required to oversee the group’s work on a daily basis, according to state law. An attorney representing Brownstone emailed The State Thursday evening and wrote that the company didn’t use Perkins’ licenses for any Richland County penny tax work and that the company is properly licensed.
Some of the firm’s recent projects stretch across the state, including overseeing construction and inspections for Richland County penny projects, the county’s Decker Center, K-12 school facilities and the University of South Carolina’s School of Law building.
“When we get something that doesn’t look quite right, we need to investigate,” said Richland County Councilman Bill Malinowski, a former special agent with the FBI, in a phone interview Thursday.
Perkins told The State on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure if Brownstone misrepresented licensing paperwork given to the state, but that he initially thought he was helping the company obtain a license for a single project, not taking on day-to-day responsibilities.
Richland County Councilman Joe Walker and Richland 1 school board member Jonathan Milling held a press conference Thursday after reading The State’s article and receiving a letter sent to the attorney general’s office by a local law firm. They said the situation raises issues of potential conflict of interests, the company’s license status, double dipping of taxpayer funds and unethical behavior.
Robert Kittle, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the letter was received and being reviewed.
Perkins, who makes about $105,000 a year as a Richland 1 school district employee, oversees facility services, which includes contracts awarded for construction work. Milling, an attorney, said the allegations also warrant an internal investigation by Richland 1 to ensure Perkins’ associated companies didn’t do any work for the school district. District officials previously said they did not.
“When that employee’s position is one that requires exchanges with construction companies, and those other possible business ventures are, in fact, other construction companies,” a review of those relationships becomes especially important, Milling said, adding, “With some of the bad press Richland 1 has received of late, I believe we need to ensure that we are doing all that we can to be proactive here, to be as transparent as possible, to do everything above board and without even a hint of impropriety.”
Brownstone was one of three companies that made up Richland County’s Program Development Team, or PDT, a group that was awarded a $31 million contract to oversee road construction projects funded by a penny sales tax that voters approved in 2012. Brownstone Vice President Anthony Lawrence also holds an architect license, which may have met the necessary qualifications to land the penny tax contract.
As a member of the PDT, Brownstone oversaw procurement, construction, design and inspections of various road projects, according to county documents. County officials stopped working with the PDT in November after saying they could save millions doing the work themselves.
John Pringle, an attorney for Adams and Reese LLP, which represents Brownstone, said the group provided construction management and that Brownstone didn’t need to use Perkins’ licenses to do that work per its contract. Perkins, however, said Wednesday the company was using his license for the work.
Pringle’s letter also said the company is properly licensed in accordance with state law, despite concerns from elected leaders and lawyers that the company may not be.
Richland County councilman Walker said he doesn’t know who oversaw Brownstone’s penny tax work and said county roads are no better today than seven years ago when voters approved the tax and the construction program.
He said the state’s departments of revenue and labor, licensing and regulation should look into the issue, as well as the county’s legal staff.
“It’s very concerning,” Walker said.
According to state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation documents, Perkins is the qualifying party who supervises two entities, Brownstone and Perkins Contractors and Engineers. State law requires that anyone who oversees two entities must run both businesses from the same address and be involved with both entities on a daily basis. Law also requires he earn income from both and have at least 50% ownership in one company and a partial ownership in the other.
But during his first two years with Brownstone, Perkins said he was unaware of his role with the company. Court records show the company paid him between $2,500 to $5,000 a month.
In a sworn deposition from 2016, Perkins said he didn’t know who owned the company, that he was never notified by company leaders that he became a 1% owner and that he had never been notified of any board meetings. The company continues to use Perkins as its license holder to date, according to LLR documents.
Brownstone shares a building at 1330 Lady St. in Columbia with a host of other businesses, none of which are Perkins’ other company, as required by state law.
When not working for the school district, Perkins said he works for Perkins Contractors and Engineers after hours, leaving little, if any, time to do work for Brownstone.
Columbia attorney Ben Bruner was first told about The State newspaper findings during an interview and was asked to clarify the state’s license requirements and its laws. A day before The State’s article was published, another lawyer in Bruner’s firm notified Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office of the situation.
Wesley Peel, a construction litigation attorney with Bruner, Powell, Wall and Mullins, LLC, wrote that the situation raises questions about any bid or management work Brownstone has done over the years.
“If Mr. Perkins has merely ‘lent’ his license to Brownstone, there has been no qualified individual looking over their projects, including the Richland County penny tax projects,” Peel wrote. “There seems to be some issue in the LLR file as to what Mr. Perkins’ actual role was with Brownstone.”
He wrote that he believes it’s impossible for Perkins to work in his school district while also working full time at two other construction companies.
Walker said he understands law enforcement’s need to keep investigations quiet to reach a needed outcome. “In this case, though,” he added, “it has gone on so long, and it is so deep and it continues to be shoved in our face that I believe (we need) at least a public acknowledgment that it’s being investigated.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 6:52 PM.