It’s not unusual to see the Mahomet-Seymour Board of Education approve facility projects. Over the last decade, the district has erected an elementary school, put on an addition and renovated the building; made upgrades including a new roof and bathrooms in Lincoln Trail Elementary; updated the Mahomet-Seymour High School fieldhouse and administrative offices, to name a few projects.
What the public sees is the price tag associated with the vendor bid. By law, a public body is required to take the lowest bid on any project over $25,000. Anything under $25,000 does not have to go out to bid, though.
What the public also sees is an architect, since 2015, BLDD Architects, guiding the process. Not only does the district’s architect of record report to the board frequently, the firm also prepares bid documents and sees the project to completion. The public doesn’t always see that price tag up front, though. Because the architect is not selected for each project, but, as the architect of record, those fees are often just listed in the board’s consent agenda. Professional services do not have to go through the bidding process.
It’s no secret that BLDD Architects have been in the forefront of the Bulldog Blueprint initiative. In the June consent agenda, BLDD was paid $20,000 for leading the community engagement sessions, and will receive another $40,000 should the referendum pass on June 28.
In 2022, BLDD also received $6,438.75 and $15,806.52 for assisting the district in looking at turning the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High “mat room” into classrooms. Those bids were rejected because bids came in over budget with the HVAC scope, and the timeline of the project went past the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
Of course, BLDD is getting paid for work they did for the district, just like any other vendor.
In looking at board agendas that are available on the Mahomet-Seymour website, the district has paid BLDD $250,487.24 since July 2017. Through FOIA, the Mahomet Daily learned that BLDD has been in the district’s purview since 2015 when Middletown Elementary School was being torn down. Through the process of building Middletown Prairie Elementary, Mahomet-Seymour also paid Ittner Architects to complete the Pre-K-2 building. Board agendas show that Ittner was paid $158,000.17 from July 2017 to August 2018.
For transparency purposes, the Mahomet Daily has included invoices from BLDD and Ittner Architects from 2010-March 2022 at the end of this article.
That FOIA request also asked to see invoices from Creative Entourage and Stifel. Creative Entourage is a contractor through BLDD who has helped with the promotion of the Bulldog Blueprint initiative. That firm will see part of the $60,000, should the referendum pass.
Stifel Nicolaus, a brokerage and investment banking firm, earns its payment when the district borrows money. For this reason, the FOIA request turned up no invoices from Stifel.
Yet, another FOIA request looking at communication between the district and Stifel to confirm that plans to build a new Mahomet-Seymour Junior High were, in fact, established prior to the Bulldog Blueprint initiative, also turned up information about a donation Stifel made to the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation.
Within the Stifel “Underwriter/Placement Agent Engagement Relating to Potential Municipal Securities Transaction for General Obligation School Bonds” engagement letter, Stifel recognizes several donations made to the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation at the request of the district:
“Dealer-Specific Conflicts of Interest Disclosures
While Stifel does not believe that the following represents a potential or actual material conflict of interest, we note that:
• A charitable contribution of $500.00 at the request of the Issuer (Mahomet-Seymour School District) was made to Mahomet-Seymour Educational Foundation for the Silent Auction held in January, 2019.
• A charitable contribution of $500.00 at the request of the Issuer (Mahomet-Seymour School District) was made to Mahomet-Seymour Educational Foundation for the Bulldog Bash held in February, 2019.
• A charitable contribution of $500.00 at the request of the Issuer (Mahomet-Seymour School District) was made to Mahomet-Seymour Educational Foundation for the Bulldog Bash held in March, 2020.”
The April 2022 board of education packet states that the district purchased items for a donation basket ($106.65) for the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation’s Bulldog Bash using funds from donations made by Stifel, BLDD, Prairie State Bank. To see those donations, the Mahomet Daily sent a FOIA request for all donations to the district. The provided list included “anonymous” donations, but none listed from the three entities. This appears to be the first time a donation to the Bulldog Bash has been made in this manner.
The Attorney General’s office was notified of the incomplete response after Superintendent Lindsey Hall did not answer an email asking for more detail in those anonymous donations. The AGs office has notified the district that they are to provide the complete response to their office for review. That response was expected to come to the AG’s office on June 21. The response deadline was pushed to June 24, according to an email with the AG’s office. At this time, the Mahomet Daily has not received that information.
BLDD and Stifel were also listed as vendors who provided dinner and hors d’ oeuvres for district staff and a few board members at the 2021 IASB Conference in Chicago.
