DRAINED: SC city leaders looking for those responsible for $3M storm water 'failure' to pay 

Politicians are getting too greedy. It used to be that they would at least build the stuff correctly while skimming funds off a project.

I guarantee you, the city manager who left 2.6 years ago, the city accountant, the former mayor and a couple of former city council members are going to be found to have received substantial kickbacks. Those sinkholes around the manhole covers screams "no sealed connecting joints", the city public works director and his/her supervisory engineer should have caught this after the second major storm, the signs of improper construction would have shown not long after. The city and county building/construction inspector signing off needs to be added to the kickback list. When a project starts to incur cost overruns, that is the time to take a very close examination of the contractor, and it's quality of work! Kickback written allover on this mess!

I think we can all agree that there was NO shortage of incompetence at every level of this project. I feel sorry for the residents!

Latham collected $336k for consulting. That's stunning, given that the original estimate for the project was $500,000.

Combining sewage with storm water has been against federal law since 1957. Thus we have violations of federal law which someone approved . Someone needs to go to jail.

It's always the citizens who end up paying for the mistakes of those who have no idea what they're doing!

Good story well presented. The city will now choose a 10 member team to form a committee, every salary in excess of $100,000, to write a report.

As an engineer that has done this type of work, there is negligence all around! Complete incompetence by city officials, which is probably nearing criminal. I suspect another prime example of "going with the cheap guy and getting what you paid for"...... When you do work of this magnitude, you are not just comparing quotes, you are vetting the contracted companies involved. I would be digging up a few sites and running rovers in the pipe system to determine how bad the install was. No inspectors for the city?

Keep these stories coming. We must know what our governments are spending OUR money on at all times

Thank you Jody! Your work is desperately needed in this country.

Jody Barr is a REAL JOURNALIST

The City Attorney along with the Law should clawback those funds and put them back into the City accounts. Then a fine for the City and issue a tax refund to the residents! Great work Jody! This is classic pay to play that goes on everyday in every part of Government

imagine not having an engineer overlooking the project before paying 3 million dollars to start it. all of them need to go to prison

Great job once again Jody! Solid reporting as always. Sounds like a big game of finger pointing is either happening or going to. Bet nobody was wondering where to cash those checks.

I smell corruption by companies involved. I hope the city manager gets this corrected. The description of the stench and the sink holes do not seem to be signs of a project well executed.

Double dipping is a crime. She should be jailed and fined if they find she was in fact the administrator.

I always get excited when a Jody Barr story series is shown to us. Thank you Jody for all your hard work and efforts.

They need to stop calling people who elected them "customers".

It looks like some forensic financial investigations of the personal finances of those involved with this project need to be done.

Many people must have stolen from the projects.

Sounds to me like there needs to be a forensic audit for that project to find out where the money went and who was paid off. Obviously the one contractor is shady, but were there people in the city government also complacent

The push for accepting more bids from miniority contractors over experienced companies is leading to very substandard work. Sewer project currently being done in my neighborhood was a awarded to a hispanic landscaping company. Not hardly qualified for major sewer replacement. It has been a 6 month nightmare that will continue well into fall of 2024. There has been no oversight by city engineers, even though residents have complained. The company that is doing the work has not even been on site for the past 2 weeks. On weekends, private vehicles come in the neighborhood and borrow the bobcats, which they return by Sunday night, at which time they load up on supplies....gravel, dirt, pipe. It's disgusting the amount homeowners have had to pay in monthly sewer fees and tax increases for this project, while being helpless to do anything about the theft of supplies and shoddy workmanship. It seems to be a trend for city, state and federal officials to just not give a shit about the taxpayers.

We need more reporting like this, nationwide.

Mr. Barr aught to teach journalism. He still does it the right way. Keep being one of the good guys.

Send those people who posed as qualified contractors to jail. For a long time .And anyone else involved!

You might be the best reporter in the country, local or otherwise. Fantastic depth and clarity in every series I've seen!

Great reporting ✊✊✊✊✊ thanks Jody

the smell from the water in that ditch was the sewage coming out the overflow in a combined sewer

Has anyone else noticed how everyone in this piece who was interviewed (even if they didn't have much to say) were very civil and polite ? I say that has a bit to do with the culture in the area , but also the journalist was hard investigating but polite with everyone . This is what good reporting looks like , and I don't have a dog in the fight there , just saying from PA , I noticed .

Every water custimer should sue the city for fraud.

"I gotta go. I have an appointment" You said it all brother

I'D be curious to look into the contractors bonding. I've had competors bids thrown out because their bonding was fake and the city didn't investigate

Why on earth would engineers, contractors go ahead and construct a pipeline to prevent flooding, but a poor job of sealing pipes together. Seems No one involved choosing the engineers who planned it, the contractors who assembled it did much research on finding competent participants to plan or construct it. What a waste of money, without solving the issues they intended.

Great job, Jody! Keep up the good work. Fair winds and following seas to all.

I see somebody exercised their failure options. So we have to back up. What caused the project scope change? Who was involved with approving the revised scope? If it was that lady submitting and winning the grants... Well that would be the turd at the top of the hill. Then we need to sort out the parties responsible for engineering selection.

Lifetime to a government official is only the amount of time they are in office.

My mom works for a civil engineering firm. They've done forensic engineering for cases, as well. This is BAD.

Thanks for sharing this story and exposing this corruption by theses thieves!!!1

Seems like a combination of Contractor incompetence (design &/or construction) coupled with inadequate &/or incompetent oversight by the City. And contractually, if exclusions were accepted for things like subsequent failure, or if re-work was to be done for a fee...the city will ne paying unless they can prove contractor negligence. Seems Jody needs to speak to contract language for a fuller picture of this debacle.

Jody Barr is a blessing to every community he protects by his excellent journalism.

Why is no one talking about a "Performance Bond" or the lack thereof?

The civic administration is derelict I do not believe the city did not know the project was tofu. Levels of corruption I suspect at the city and contractor cmon where was the site inspection during the constructuon? Oversight lack equals corruption

This is a mayor every city in this country needs.

Giving jobs to the lowest bidder or your buddy from college isn't the cause? It seems like it may have been a bad idea to me. State inspectors must have been on vacation that month. If my company was neck deep in this bs, I'd be in my office trying to find a solution. He must be on vacation too. Get your $hit together before your residents start filling paperwork.

Stormwater inspector here. This is why I take my job extremely seriously.

I worked as a surveyor for a City Engineers office. The inspector from our office that was supposed to stay on site and ensure that a sanitary sewer project was done according to the specifications/plans had a young son. The contractor hired the son as a flag man and until the public works department ran a tv camera thru the line and discovered big sags full of water, no one knew how badly the sewer was constricted. Backfill is supposed to be placed in lifts of maybe 18" max and compacted thoroughly which of course takes considerable time. The inspector would go to lunch and upon his return find that blocks of sewer line had been miraculously backfilled. Why didn't he object? Compacting the backfill stabilizes the soil around the pipe to prevent it from sinking or floating during backfilling. Every sag will gradually fill up with sand and require Public Works to manually drag buckets attached to cables thru the line to remove it. This wasn't as bad as catastrophe in the video but there was definitely corruption involved.

It truly is a failure of ALL parties involved. City: Design engineer selection, Engineering design review, Design project administration, City budget insufficient to advertise/award a construction contract (typically illegal if not), Did City review Contractor past work quality/ fitness for constructing drainage project (calling other clients for references), City inspection to ensure project constructed per plan, was construction warranted for 1 year? this is typical for a public works contract. Did contractor build everything per plan? Where is sewer water entering the ditch/drainage system? They don't seem interested in stopping the pollution.

His answer at the end says EVERYTHING

Awesome work Jody!

Before covering the piping there had to be city, county and state inspectors looking at the installation of all this and approving the progress of the work as it was being done, otherwise progress and final payments would not have been approved.

Overbid, cut corners, and pocket the difference. Follow the money!

Jody, you put on a clinic anytime you investigate and present. It is a shame that we have two news affiliates in this area and they never reported on it.

Sounds like a government contractor pulling a scam. I would bet that this is not the first time these people have done this. Unfortunately, the city government of the time seems to have been equally dishonest. They all need to go to jail.

Wow! Absolutely appalling. How many unscrupulous people lined their pockets over this bogus storm water project.

Great reporting. It is a good look all around at what is needed to make these things work. It would appear some oversight was lacking. Someone dropped the ball, in part it seems to be the engineering, but also the construction does not appear to be done right. This happens in part when the lowest bidder is always selected. That said, this drainage project may or may not always be intended to work. What I mean by that is capacity issues. One would think that all drainage projects have a capacity, and rainfall can at times exceed that capacity. One may not want to build a proper project to handle the max capacity, because it may be possible to build a cheaper project that can solve most of the problems. The areas here previously drained naturally, and so there was limited to to no bad consequences if that continued. (houses did not flood) Installing the drainage solved the mosquito and the stagnant water problem. In mass rain events, it appears the water still backed up. This may be ok, and may be part of the design. Being pragmatic about these things is one of the ways to keep costs in control. Here they appeared to spiral out of control. One could could do 6 500,000 projects for the cost of one three million dollar project. Most cities have lots of problems, and one would think hiring engineers one would get good results. But at the same time, the actual cost of the orginal estimate 500,000 was probably the cost it would have taken bubba with a backhoe to dig the ditch. After all the land acquisition people, lawyers, public meetings and more took place you probable run that cost way up. And you probably upgraded to underground pipes (more expensive) and more. Now they may have paid $3 million and got a $500,000 project. This is where it gets complicated. Sometimes it is cheaper to fix things multiple times, than to do it right the first time. I know this is long and rambling, I guess I am just saying I see where it gets complicated, I hope others can also see it gets complicated.

It would seem easy enough to get the plans for the project and compare them to what was done. This would tell you if it was the planners or the builders, or a combination .

That poor man with the stinky yard.... 😢❤ Here's hoping this mess gets fixed before the rainy season!!🙏🙏🙏

At least the city did not cover it up and will go after the contractor’s insurance??? Did any city inspectors look at the work before back fill or did the contractors engineer’s sign off in work in place????

In the state I live, state or county inspects projects every step of the way. Don’t they do this in SC? I couldn’t even build a deck without a pre inspection, mid inspection and post inspection from the county I live in. I know that’s private property but I’ve also worked construction, and inspectors came in at least several times a month to check the work that was being done. My dad who was in construction had to redo parts of jobs because they didn’t pass inspection (not due to him but his boss trying to cut corners). If these projects are to be inspected, I would also fault that the city is on the hook for their failure in properly overseeing the project. Unfortunately, again, it’s the tax payers footing the bill for someone not doing their job. Jody, please find out what the city’s responsibility, if any, is in this. Govt at every level has checks and balances and I find it very hard to believe that no one from the county or state inspected this project as it progressed or upon completion. And if they didn’t, then that is a huge gap in oversight that needs to be corrected. On another note, you’re an excellent reporter and a breath of fresh air. You’re what a news reporter used to be. Keep it up!

They didn't say who's life time. I think they based that on who ever was the oldest person there.

When people of culcha are in charge, what other outcome is expected. SMH!

TY for shining light on this fiasco.

So nothing being done to the politicians that were responsible for this project? At worst the city is threatening to sue the construction company and engineer... and even then they are being given almost another full year to run or dodge the system. At some level welcome to what home owners deal with though. Dodgy construction companies that go bankrupt or change their names to avoid lawsuits. Pretty sad not even the City could apparently investigate a company better to pick a better contractor.

Great to see someone investigating. Sometimes, the cost construction bid is not the way to go.

They left with fat pockets

All bad actors should be held liable in a civil suit and held responsible

I’ve worked in civil engineering for a long time, and it’s hard to understand why this wasn’t caught early, early on. If the pipes are undersized, that should have been apparent when the plans were inspected. Even the draftsman should have known something was wrong. Who is approving civil plans for Darlington? Who was the Project Manager? Who did inspections for the city as the work was underway? Just so hard to understand this level of incompetence.

The engineer and contractor belong in prison.

Well if it don't rain it don't flood. That killed me. Some real wisdom in that quote.

Did the city or county inspect the pipes or pressure test the pipes before accepting the project as complete?

The engineers, the "inspectors" who set up and designed all this MUST be held accountable! Ridiculous. The inspectors, typically inspect and sign off. why didnt they? and that "consulting" firm.. what a sham.

Remind me to never move to Darlington..😂😂 Have mercy, that's just nuts.. Talk about crooked politicians..

This problem is thought the state of South Carolina

Great piece of investigative journalism.

You get what you vote for South Carolina

Yep need to hold those accountable, such BS. Who approved engineering and should have watched where the money went.

So where are the criminal charges against the CITY project manager, accountants, engineers and inspectors?

The smelly water, use an air compressor and an aeration stone. It'll change organic decomposition from anaerobic to aerobic, which doesn't smell as much.

Keep up the good work!!!

$7k to apply for a grant. That's 64 hours of work at her $108/hr rate!

The city was way in over their head and obviously didn’t have competent city employees overseeing the project.

I cannot say this enough... WHAT HAPPENED TO JOURNALISM/INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING?!?!?! At least we have Jody carrying that torch. Very fortunate to live in his area... Woodward, Bernstein, Cronkite, Barr...

Corners are being cut to fill certain peoples pockets. Same with fires everywhere, we pay for clearing undergrowth but it's misappropriated

Bioswales within the urban areas, and rainwater harvesting starting in the foothills will lessen flooding, while increasing yearlong water supply. The cost is cheaper while overall benefits are added to exponentially.

I’m grew up in a rural area and there were ditches in just about everyone’s yard. The water never stayed so long it stunk.

The entire group of personal connected with project need to be fired there’s no way anyone did their job or if they claimed to have they were incompetent and must’ve made false claims about their knowledge that was needed for their work.

I tell ya, seems like Mr. Alva Mac is such a good soul and extremely patient to have put up with this since the early 80’s.

Don't cities have inspectors and engineers that are supposed to be knowledgeable enough to prevent a faulty design from getting installed in the first place?

"You all, need to do some investigating reporting". They are, just saying

That's pretty standard for government workers in government contractors. When you mix nepotism with greed, this is what happens.

A performance bond is a type of contract construction bond that guarantees a contractor will complete a project according to the terms outlined in a contract by the project owner, also called the obligee. The obligee can be a city, state, or local government, as well as the federal government or a private developer.

Solid local reporting… good job

Horrible development oversight. Everybody in the system is greased!

There will be no settlement there is no accountability anywhere. We are doomed

Often things don’t go as planned especially when water is involved and any number of things could cause settling around drains. I’m glad the first thing the legislative bodies think of is filing suit against everyone and everything. :/

Name and Shame the contractors AND the inspectors who signed off on each stage of that project.

To start a project like this and NOT have all the monies secured before turning a shovel of dirt is reprehensible/illegal ! To tack on the shortage to taxpayers is unconscionable and the 2 responsible (former mayor and Ms Larham)know what they did, they committed fraud and abused public trust ! Both women should be investigated for their part(s) in creating this disaster........

If I build a house in my town I have to post a bond I don't get back for 5 years for the sidewalk I already have to pay to build so that walk fails it can be fixed.

I bet the city leaders have immunity to prosecution for any actions they took while in office.

Aren't contractors who do municipal work generally required to have a bond or some sort of insurance to cover cost like this? What happened to that insurance/bond fund?