School board debates next steps after investigation into high school construction bid

School Board Chair Nancy Thrower listens during a meeting of the Marion County School Board in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

The Marion County School Board is debating sending the findings of an investigation to the governor for further review and potential disciplinary action after the findings showed undue influence and policy violations during the process of choosing a construction manager for the new high school project.

After allegations of tampering with the procurement process made against School Board Member Sarah James and members of Ausley Construction were confirmed to be true, the school board asked a consultant to recommend options for proceeding with awarding the bid for the high school. Given that the investigation found misconduct, including threats made by James and by Ausley Construction toward school district employees, the board has the option of sending the findings to Gov. Ron DeSantis for further review, as the board has done for misconduct allegations in the past.

Misconduct during the procurement process

In May, after Wharton-Smith Inc. Construction Group was awarded an over $120 million contract to build the high school in Marion County, District Superintendent Diane Gullett called for an investigation into whether Ausley Construction and James pressured the selection committee to award Ausley Construction the bid.

James, who was among the selection committee members who ranked the companies that applied for the contract, said district staff had not handled the scoring in a way that gave preference to local vendors, such as Ausley.

Based on advice from her attorney, Gullett decided to restart the interview process for the high school bid and called for an investigation. An attorney from the GrayRobinson law firm found that during the procurement process, members of Ausley Construction violated the district’s“cone of silence” policy, which bars any involved parties from discussing the selection process to protect the integrity of the procurement process and shield it from influence before the recommendation for the contract award is given.

In addition to the investigation, the district has also hired a consultant to generate a report with recommendations about changes to the rubric scoring criteria, local preference or weight of equitable distribution for the new interviews for the high school contract. The consultant’s report is expected on June 13, according to School Board Attorney Jeremy Powers.

Threats to school district staff

The investigation also found that James inappropriately influenced the scoring process at the district by making a “berating” phone call to Gullett after the superintendent decided to restart the interview process.

“During this conversation, witnesses reported hearing Dr. James tell Superintendent Gullett that Superintendent Gullett was on Dr. James’ ‘shit list’ and that Dr. James was prepared to ‘bring down this house of cards,’” according to the investigative report.

While discussing the results of the investigation at the June 11 school board meeting, James said she did not pressure Gullett to take any specific action during the procurement process or after Gullett’s decision to restart the interview process.

“The community had concerns about Dr. Gullett’s leadership during this process. I did not pressure Dr. Gullett to do anything. She could have very well proceeded in whatever fashion she wanted,” James said.

James also gave Gullett a lower score for her annual performance evaluation than the previous year, while all other school board members’ evaluation scores of Gullett remained the same or increased, according to the investigation.

“The superintendent works for us, the five school board members, and we the board members work for you, the community,” James said at the June 11 meeting. “Almost 45,000 voters in this county chose me to sit in this seat and represent your interests.”

Another allegation that James’ receipt of campaign contributions from Ausley Construction caused improper bias during the procurement process was found to be unsubstantiated. During the investigation, James denied awarding Ausley Construction any points in the bidding because of any campaign contributions. During the June 11 discussion, she said her objections to the scoring process were not brought up on Ausley Construction’s request but instead were based on concerns from “community leaders.”

“When the word about the selection of the high school ‘CCC’ construction manager got around, the community leaders, not Ausley Construction, contacted me. The community leaders had major concerns about our scoring criteria and processes,” James said.

James said she was contacted by Ocala/Marion County Chamber & Economic Partnership President Kevin Sheilley on May 3, who expressed concern over the interviews being rescheduled for the following Monday. James said she was unaware that the interviews had been rescheduled. Her phone conversation with Gullett where she expressed her discontent over the process occurred later that day.

“As board members, we have every right to have a pointed and stern conversation with our employee,” James said. “She was not forthright with me, and I was angry. My anger in a singular instance does not substantiate inappropriate use of influence.”

In addition to the threats toward Gullett, School Board Chair Nancy Thrower’s husband, Fred Thrower, said he received a call from Ken Ausley of Ausley Construction and Todd Duffy, the company’s chief operating officer. Nancy Thrower was in the room and heard part of the call.

“During the conversation, Mr. Duffy commented to Mr. Thrower that he wouldn’t want things to go badly for Chair Thrower’s political career because of the high school contract procurement situation,” according to the investigation.

Thrower has made it publicly known that she does not plan to run for reelection. Fred Thrower told the “Gazette” that because of this, Ausley said if the contract wasn’t awarded to a local vendor, the district’s request on the fall ballot for a half-cent sales tax increase to fund district construction priorities could be in jeopardy.

“I could not be more disappointed in a lot of what went down,” Nancy Thrower said during the June 11 meeting. “We sit up here week after week and go on and on about how people should be interacting with each other, and we are elected, and we sit up here to be public servants and role models. And is it easy to do in the moment when you’re really passionate about something? No, it’s not.”

School Board member Sarah James listens during a meeting of the Marion County School Board in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

The school board called for a similar investigation in 2022 after allegations of misconduct were made against former school board member Don Browning. The school board members now must decide if they will take the same route and send the findings of this most recent investigation to DeSantis.

Browning had been accused of making sexist and racist remarks to other school district employees. He was found to have not contributed to a “hostile work environment” but his words and actions were found to have amounted to “bullying and harassment” as defined by the school board’s policy. The findings of Browning’s report were sent to the governor for further review, and no disciplinary action followed.

Next steps

Recent developments in other construction projects have also cast a pall on the district’s move to expand facilities to meet rising student population demands. During the June 11 meeting, the school board rejected a proposed guaranteed maximum price of the Liberty Middle School expansion project, which will add a 16-classroom wing.

“Originally, School Board members approved another company for the project. However, District negotiations with that entity failed to reach an acceptable contractor price to manage the construction,” MCPS spokesperson Kevin Christian wrote in a newsletter. “That meant the backup bidder—WELBRO Building Corporation—re-entered the picture and presented the $9.3 million GMP rejected by the Board tonight.”

The $9.3 million project is now stalled, potentially delaying the anticipated June 2025 completion date to get students into those classrooms at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The proposal was struck down by 2-3 vote. James initiated a discussion over the cost differences between the bidders, addressing concerns to the facilities department. School Board Member Lori Conrad offered support to James while discussing the Liberty Middle School project and referred to the recent investigation over the high school bid.

“I just want to thank Dr. James for bringing this forward as later in the agenda we’re going to discuss the procurement process, and we’re waiting on a report to come back on that process,” Conrad said. “This to me just identifies that we still have room for improvement in working through these construction issues.”

As for what action the school board should now take with the findings of the recent investigation into James and Ausley Construction, Thrower said the board should act fairly and issue the same treatment with these findings that the board took in 2022 with Browning’s investigation.

“We sent a report up to the governor that wasn’t even substantiated. All that report said was that that board member was guilty of just globally not being all that easy to get along with and abrasive and using outdated language and on and on,’’ she said. “Now we’re sitting here with a report that has substantiated allegations…think about what message that is sending that community if we send up one with less (substance) and we don’t send up the other.”

Thrower said once the consultant’s report comes in with recommendations on how to proceed with the bid process, that the school board can then decide what to do with the findings of the investigation.

“The board is without authority to suspend, remove, reprimand or counsel a board member regarding potentially offensive, harassing or bullying behavior, with a possible exception of addressing such issues in public discourse. The third authority for any further action is solely to sit in the Office of the Governor under Article 4, Section 7, of the Florida Constitution,” Powers advised the board.

As for the dissonance among board members, outside stakeholders and the superintendent, Thrower asked the board to attempt to move past the recent events to ensure that everyone works together to serve the community.

“I can legit be threatened by somebody without being intimidated because I’m always going to stand for what’s right,” she said. “I’m always going to look to the future to make things better and to continue to do my level best as an individual board member to exemplify the values that we say we have.”