At a special called meeting Thursday, the board of the Savannah Economic Development Authority voted unanimously to reimburse Chatham County nearly a quarter million dollars for what chairman Bob James characterized as “an overdue invoice ignored by previous SEDA administrations.”
“As we get ready to start SPLOST VI on Oct. 1, it has come to our attention that we have an audit issue from SPLOST III that needs our attention,” said SEDA president Trip Tollison.
“As you may recall, money from SPLOST III was set aside to help fund the Technology Circle campus infrastructure, which was funded by the city of Savannah, the Georgia Department of Transportation, Chatham County and the county SPLOST program.
“Basically, when SPLOST III was completed, the county did its audits and had several issues, including a $243,540 shortfall on the Technology Circle project,” Tollison said.
“We have gone over and over the agreement SEDA had with the county, which served as the program manager of record for the project, and it is clear SEDA agreed to take responsibility for any shortfall related to the project.”
Tollison said he has learned the issue was brought up with previous SEDA administrations, starting in 2008, but was never dealt with and never brought before the board.
“What I would like for us to do, now that we have been made aware of it, is honor our commitment,” Tollison told the board.
“The good news is that the county is willing to allow us to pay half this year and half next year,” he said. “This will resolve a longstanding audit issue for the county.
“I’m not happy about this and I know you aren’t happy about it,” Tollison told board members, most of whom were stunned to be learning of a decade-old debt for the first time.
There are some questions about whether the city has completely paid its share, an issue SEDA will pursue with their finance director, Tollison said.
“But, at the end of the day, the buck stops here. SEDA signed the document and we are responsible, period.”
James, acknowledging that the board was never informed about the shortfall, said no one had a problem with SEDA accepting its responsibility.
“This was an outstanding audit item on county’s books, not ours,” he said. “I want to commend Trip and our staff for bringing this to our attention when they learned of it and giving us the opportunity to make it right.” he said.