The Gazette
Representative Mike Sottile’s new bill would eliminate the current Statute of Limitations, which prohibits legal action against an official more than four years after an event in question occurred.
The move comes in reaction to a complaint filed this summer against Mayor Pro Tem Paul Gawrych that accused him of using his position on town council for financial gain.
Some of the events cited in the complaint occurred more than four years before the complaint was filed.
Submitted by former town councilman Gary Santos, the complaint
points out an alleged conflict of interest arising from the fact that Gawrych, who also owns Asphalt Concepts, voted on several town projects that later would utilize products for which his company was the sole provider in the region.
“The ethics commission reviewed the complaint; there was no finding, and they voted to dismiss the complaint,” Gawrych stated about the commission’s decision.
In his complaint, Santos cited two sections of the S.C. Code of Laws that Gawrych allegedly violated. The first states that: “no public official, public member, or public employee may knowingly use his official office, membership, or employment to obtain an economic interest for himself...or a business with which he is associated.” The second section reads: “no public official, public member, or public employee may make, participate in making, or in any way attempt to use his office, membership, or employment to influence a governmental decision in which he...or a business with which he is associated has an economic interest.”
From 2004 to 2007, Gawrych voted on the annexation and approval of the Central Mount Pleasant and Oakland Plantation developments, which both later received a stamped pavement product that he provided.
In 2007, Gawrych gave town officials a demonstration of his product by installing it in crosswalks at Patriot’s Point.
In response to an e-mail from Transportation Engineer Brad Morrison to Town Administrator Mac Burdette discussing the demonstration, Gawrych requested that it be kept “inside the Town.”
Following the test site application, the planning department, within their rights to do so, selected Gawrych’s new product as the approved product to be used in the future.
When Gawrych later promoted his product for use on crosswalks in the Coleman and Ben Sawyer Revitalization plans, which he had also voted for, he was able to use Patriot’s Point as a concrete example.
According to Santos, by convincing the town to use his product for its new crosswalks, Gawrych now stood to potentially profit from every subsequent project involving crosswalks.
The Ethics Commission concluded that Gawrych did not have any economic interest in the Oakland, Watermark and Central Development at the time Town Council voted on them because the development agreements that were considered and approved by council did not specify the type of crosswalks to be installed. In the case of Coleman Boulevard, a company called Walker Brothers was contracted by the town for the entire intersection project - mast arm traffic signals, pedestrian crosswalk signals, pavement markings, and crosswalks.
Walker Brothers would normally select an Accredited Applicator from a list of certified installers, giving different companies a chance to compete for the bid; but instead they were directed by the town to use a specific crosswalk product, and found that the only approved provider in the region for that product was Asphalt Concepts (Gawrych’s company).
Asphalt Concepts was then hired to do the work as a sole source provider of the product.
“They (the town) determined that was the best product for durability and long life,” said a Walker Brothers contractor who wished to remain anonymous.
Normally, Walker Brothers would have charged an additional percentage on top of the SCDOT’s pre-set rates for contract work; but the contractor said Walker Brothers chose not to in the Coleman case.
“If this thing comes to the surface later,” he reasoned, “we didn’t make a nickel off it.”
The product, code-named RD-180 in correspondence, combined two processes that had already been approved by SCDOT for making crosswalk bricks.
In an email to the SCDOT, Gawrych explained: “As you can see, we continue to press to find a truly long lasting crosswalk that fits in the existing conditions. Combining two approved processes with our reciprocating heater has placed us in that position.”
By combining two previously approved processes, Gawrych was able to promote his new product as a superior one, although it had never been tested before for durability. Jim Arthurs, Senior VP for Integrated Paving Concepts, the company that created RD-180, explained in an email to SCDOT the risks of using an untested product.
“We are prepared to consider some additional crosswalks in Mount Pleasant as long as everyone understands that this is a product that’s in the prototype stage and, as such, we can’t be certain of its long term performance,” Arthurs said. I can tell you the following based on the understanding that this information will remain confidential among you, the Town of Mount Pleasant and those staff in SCDOT with a true ‘need to know’ in order to allow you to proceed.”
Because the product was “patent-pending,” IPC was hesitant to release propriety information on this product.
According to Joe Bustos, former Mount Pleasant Town Council member, it was never made public that Gawrych’s company was involved as a subcontractor in the Coleman projects.
“I think it should have been disclosed to council at the time and at the Bids and Purchases Committee, which I was chairman of at the time,” Bustos said.
“We didn’t know anything about it and at the very least would have addressed it on the record so that everyone knew Paul’s company would be the subcontractor.”
According to Bustos, Gawrych was able to use Mount Pleasant town staff to persuade SCDOT to recognize the pavement stamping process, of which he was the only provider, as an approved product. As the subcontractor, he wasn’t going to be visible when all was said and done, according to
Bustos.
“Clearly, based on the emails that I saw, he and the staff chose to keep this inside the town. Had it been above board, no one would have said anything if it was the best route, but to do it and keep it buried made it a little unseemly,” Bustos said.
On the invoices from Walker Brothers for two Coleman crosswalks, at Simmons Street and Lansing Drive, there is no mention of Gawrych’s company or a subcontractor.
“There was no way the average person could know who did this work unless you saw them out there doing it,” Santos explained.
Despite Santos’s case, the Ethics Commission did not find Gawrych guilty of intentionally violating the S.C. Code of Laws, instead only cautioning him to be more careful in the future.
“However, the Commission does express serious concern regarding the appearance of impropriety in the frequent contacts between the Respondent and Mount Pleasant Planning Department employees concerning the crosswalk applications for Coleman Boulevard,” the decision reads. Gawrych would not comment on the appearance of impropriety, and only referred back to his original comment.
Frustrated with what he saw as a “slap on the wrist” for a serious ethical violation, Santos appealed to Congressman Sottile to change the Statute of Limitations so that public officials will be subject to investigation for a longer amount of time even after leaving office.
Sottile has pre-filed the bill, and it has been assigned to his judiciary committee, where it must go through committee process and then pass muster on the House floor. Co-signers can’t sign on to it until they go back in session on Jan. 11.
“To me it was all about accountability,” Sottile said. “Gary came to me and asked me if I would introduce a bill that would eliminate the four year statute of limitations. People want elected officials to be more responsible in everything they are doing, and to be more transparent, and this will allow that,” he said.
Mount Pleasant Mayor Billy Swails said that Gawrych has always worked hard for the town and that Santos’s complaint was unfounded.
Swails said he stood by Gawrych’s product as being superior to any other options and that the company was used as a subcontractor and was completely legitimate.
Click here to read the Ethics Commission findings.
Click here to read read assorted e-mails between Councilman Paul Gawrych and SCDOT officials.
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