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NewslettersAnother Beaufort County School District/Sodexho question
Submitted by Susan on Wed, 2006-08-16 14:04.
I was told Sodexho employees occupy a building on Mink Point Blvd. next to the old Battery Creek High which is owned by the school district.
Does anyone know if Sodexho has a lease with BCSD and actually pay rent for this or is this a concession for services provided to the school district?
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As far as I was told about three or four years ago, they were using the facilities with no charge....this may have changed since then.
Do you feel your source is pretty good on this?
The way I understand it, Sodexho is a contractor for the school district, not an employee. They should definitely be paying rent, utility bills, a portion of insurance and the "normal" commercial rental expenses. I wonder if the school district supplies their vehicles?
My concern is if they are not paying rent, but reducing their charges for services in return for office space then where is our "savings" of using them instead of local contractors like we used to.
I sure wish someone would investigate this or if anyone knows if this lease would be public information, please inform me where to locate it. Leases are not normally recorded.
As of six months ago, per Larry Wilson, they were not paying any rent on BCSC Bldg. in Mink Point.(It was called to the Board's attention). Call Mr. Wilson. If he won't give you that info you can request any info from BCSD through the Freedon of Information Act and the district must comply.
It makes perfect "BCSD sense" to me ! Why would you expect anything else. If ,indeed, Sodexho occupies these district offices w/ out compensation to the district, it makes perfect sense to me.Just because you hire a company to do a job (for how many $$$$$$$$ ?)
why in the world would you expect them to handle their own overhead ?
Don't be ridiculous, when Mr. Wilson came to Bft as a Sodexho employee to run food services (or whatever originally brought them to town) BCSD saw no reason why Sodexho should be burdened w/ paying his salary. Soooo, in their infinite wisdom,the district hired Wilson to oversee Sodexho (his now former employee).
So free office space would not surprise me. If someone reported that Sodexho paid rent...now that would be newsworthy !!!
Let's be clear as to how this nightmare began. Herman Gaither decided that it would be wise to privatize the school district and supposedly save a ton of money. He brokered the deal that brought Sodexho to Beaufort and for obvious reasons needed to make it look like it was a smart decision. Many government agencies have been privatized and some have actualy had positive results. Sodexho has done nothing to make services to the District any better, cheaper or quicker which are the reasons folks do this. Larry Wilson was a cook before Sodexho and came to Beaufort as a Director of Food Service with them. His rise to stardom was a direct result of his relationship with Gaither and Donna Altman. He inherited the arrangement with Sodexho as related to office space etc. He always tells the Board about the money he can save the District so one would question why he hasen't leveled the playing field between Sodexho and the locals; who knows?
Everyone at the District level is well aware of the relationship between Sodexho and the District and no one seems to see anything out of order with it. I have no idea of what the dollar difference between Sodexho's bid for grounds services and the others is but I'll wager that if they had to pay their own overhead the numbers would change a bunch.
No matter how hard you may try I defy you to get a definitive amount as to what Sodexho is being paid. They have total control of the maintenance and custodial and grounds dollars for the District and you're a brighter person than I if you can come up with a total cost for their "leadership" in Beaufort.
Wouldn't you think that you could ask a Board Member, John Williams or Larry Wilson what the monthy check amount to Sodexho is? God luck if you try!
I say let's get Jim Bequette on to this!
Yes indeed!
Thank you insideguy for what appears to be very knowledgeable information. I am not a BCSD ex-employee, current employee, contractor or past contractor. I am not writing because I'm mad at a boss or co-worker or Board member for BCSD. I am writing as a frustrated tax-paying citizen who CLEARLY sees there is a problem with this relationship.
Not only do we have, what appears, unfair bidding taking place with locals and national companies, but we are turning major operations of maintenance and food service (I guess transportation, too) for our schools over to large companies who are not based in our town.
There's no turning back once this is done or at least economically. When all of these tasks are turned over to large companies, the district would not be able to bring these responsibilities back in-house without a lot of money being spent.
There is no doubt positive results can happen from using contractors instead of employees, but this must be determined the right way. (Compare apples to apples, NOT apples to grapefruit) We should not be burdened with expenses associated with the contracted work. There should be no office space provided; we should not pay their utilities; we should not provide vehicles. It also appears we may have liability with regard to their employees who drive these vehicles and occupy this BCSD office space/warehouse space. If there's no lease, how is it outlined with regard to insurance?
BCSD finance committe needs to audit the records for this relationship. Definitely time-consuming. Consider ALL expenses involved here and see what number you come up with.
Thank you for the new info on Sodexho and their offices. I am going to request this information. I don't think BCSD has the funds to be "giving" office space away to contractors. If they provide space to one rent-free, it seems to me that the Janitorial company and landscaping companies can begin asking where their office space is.
Are we able to provide office space to everyone who works for BCSD (contractor, not employee)?
This space should be rented and should be considered income for the school district. If this space is provided to them as a concession for services, then that should be added to their contract price, and let's see how much we are really paying Sodexho for services.
Not defending Sodexho, but the contract would have to be reviewed and explained by someone familiar with the negotiations. For instance, it may be that if BCSD provided the office space and utilities, then Sodexho may have lowered their bottom line offer as compensation for the rent and utilities. Just because Sodexho is not writing monthly checks for rent to the district doesn't mean that they are not paying rent. They may have paid in one lump by lowering their bottom line.If Sodexho had rented space in a high rent office building, that cost would have been added to the bottom line to the district. By offering unused space owned by the district, it's possible that they were saving money by allowing Sodexho to use the space. Only those individuals involved with the contract negotiations might know these details. The challenge now is to have those individuals answer the questions!
Your comment is my point exactly. If they subtracted rent and utilities from their bottom line in exchange for the use of the school-district's office space, then we should be sure the correct bottom line was used when comparing their bid to other contractor's bid. Right?
Does the school district furnish anything else?
Yes, vehicles, phones, computers, warehouse space and equipment. I don't believe that any of this is figured in their "bottom line". Other contractors must add all this overhead into their bids and no, it isn't fair.
Just a quick note to inform you that First Student or Students First, not sure, (transportation contractor) is in the same position. Office space plus, plus also applies. Well at least they are picking up and delivering all the students to where they should be and in a timely manner; or are they?
Amen! The extra's in all these privatized contracts is sizeable. I'm told (can't prove) that already there have been thousands of dollars spent with existing grounds contractors for work that they must do in order to have the schools ready to open for Sodexho. The timing of the grounds contracts makes one think that not only is Larry crazy but so are Moe and Curly.
How on earth can the BCSD believe that using this national company to perform food service, janitorial, grounds maintenance, and whatever else they do plus provide office space, warehouse space, vehicles, utilities, computers (office supplies, too?) is a good business decision. The person (s) who recommended this to the Board or Committee that made the decision to hire them, should be investigated for their job performance.
Employees who work for the school district and make these decisions are entrusted to make wise recommendations with use of tax-payers money. I cannot imagine that this is the best use. Outside contractors should be responsible for rent, utilities, and any materials needed to do their job.
If Sodexho is bidding against locals for any of the jobs they perform and these added expenses are not factored in to the bottom line, then the Board is not doing justice to any other contractor bidding on the same job nor are they saving Beaufort county money.
If anyone has information about this that contradicts what is apparent, please share it...cause it sure seems like this arrangement with Sodexho is muddy.