Opinion ID: 1266394
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Agreements with financial advisors, bond attorneys, a bond insurance company, and a trustee

Text: The School District's procurement code applies to the expenditure of public funds irrespective of their source. See District Procurement Code § 1-102. Thus, generally speaking, the School District's procurement code would apply to contracts the School District enters into with financial advisors, bond attorneys, and other similar parties, provided that the contracts require the School District to spend public funds. In the instant case, however, the resolution and its attendant agreements provide that the Corporation, not the School District, will enter into several of the challenged contracts with financial advisors, bond attorneys, a bond insurance company, and a company acting as a trustee. Unless the School District is a party to these contracts, we can discern no basis upon which to conclude that the School District's procurement code is applicable in these circumstances. Because the record indicates that the School District is not a party to these contracts, it naturally follows that the School District's procurement code, in these events, is inapplicable. Second, § 2-101 of the School District's procurement code generally provides that all contracts awarded by the School District are to be awarded by competitive sealed bidding. This requirement is not absolute, however, and one exception to this procedure applies to contracts for professional services which are normally obtained on a fee basis. See id. at § 1-103(i) (listing attorneys, accountants, physicians, and dentists as examples of these types of services). The School District argues that any contracts or agreements it has already formed or will form with bond attorneys or financial advisors will clearly fall under the procurement code's professional services exception. The Plaintiffs do not dispute this assertion, but instead argue that the School District's professional services exception is invalid because the South Carolina General Assembly repealed a similar exception from the South Carolina Consolidated Procurement Code in June 2006. [10] We disagree with the Plaintiffs' contention. This argument is unpersuasive. The General Assembly's repeal of the Consolidated Procurement Code's professional services exception has no relevance to the validity of the School District's identical exception. The Plaintiffs do not argue that Act No. 376 directly repealed the School District's exception, nor do they suggest that the act implicitly repealed the School District's exception. Instead, the Plaintiffs suggest that Act No. 376 amounts to a determination that a professional services exception no longer embodies sound principles of appropriately competitive procurement within the meaning of S.C.Code Ann. § 11-35-50 (Supp.2005). We hold that this conclusory statement is insufficient to present any issue to this Court for review. The Plaintiffs' brief presents only this blanket conclusion and provides no authority supporting their argument. Thus, the Plaintiffs have effectively waived this argument. See Solomon v. City Realty Co., 262 S.C. 198, 201, 203 S.E.2d 435, 436 (1974) (an exception was deemed effectively abandoned where the argument relating to the exception consisted solely of an inaccurate bald conclusion). Accordingly, we hold that the School District did not violate its procurement code by entering into contracts with financial advisors or bond attorneys. Furthermore, we hold that the School District's procurement code is irrelevant to contracts the Corporation may enter into with financial advisors, bond attorneys, a bond insurance company, or a company acting as a trustee.