In mid-July, Statesboro City Council approved a contract extension and expansion for Atlas Technical Consultants LLC to supply engineering and inspection services for city projects, particularly projects funded by the sales tax for transportation, or T-SPLOST, for one year at a “not to exceed” cost of $601,000. The cover letter from Atlas suggested that this amount would be for the services of four individuals.
More than half the total, $349,200, was shown in the “estimate for staff augmentation” as going to Atlas Technical Consultants for the services of John Washington, PE, RLS, who until he resigned or retired abruptly from city employment in March was Statesboro’s director of public works and engineering.
Washington, the city manager and assistant city manager all say that Washington will receive only a portion of the $349,200. But that is what Atlas would charge if he, now employed by Atlas as a “Project Manager 3” worked 1,940 hours (or 40 hours a week for 48.5 weeks) on Statesboro’s projects, according to the memo shown as submitted by Washington to the city’s current Public Works and Engineering Director Brad Deal and Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles on July 1.
Washington and Program Manager 2 Teresa Scott were shown as the two professionals providing engineering-type services. Scott was also listed with a billing rate of $180 an hour, but for only 250 hours (10 hours a week for 25 weeks), for a total of $45,000.
The estimate also included two individuals who would provide “construction engineering and inspection” services. These are listed as Joe Wilson, an Inspector 2, at $95 an hour for up to 1,940 hours, or $184,300 total for the year, and Will Murphy, “CM Practice Team Man 3” for $225 an hour up to 100 hours, or $22,500 total.
‘Renewed’ contract
Again, these were shown as part of an estimate, but the city contracted for the “not to exceed” $601,000 total on this basis. The contract proposal was presented, in a July 7 memo from Deal to Boyles and City Manager Charles Penny, as a “renewal” of a three-year “master services agreement” with Atlas and approved by the council in October 2024. The master agreement calls for one-year renewals, and the city had already used up the $224,640 limit for the first year, according to Deal in the memo.
“Staff negotiated with Atlas a proposed not-to-exceed cost of $601,000 based on the hourly rates in the existing (master services agreement),” Deal stated. “Actual costs will be based on hours worked by Atlas personnel, as approved by the City Engineering Department.”
The five City Council members had copies of the memo for the July 15 council meeting, where Mayor Pro Tem Shari Barr, presiding while the mayor was away, asked Penny if there was anything else the council should know.
“We entered this contract last year, and so we pretty much have spent those funds a lot faster than we thought we were going to need to,” Penny said. “But the good thing is, we need these services because we’ve got a lot of work to do and we don’t have human capital on our staff to be able to get it all done, and so by using a contractor, we believe it’s a lot more efficient.”
Washington’s July 1 cover letter, with the Atlas logo, stated that the city has “approximately 30 ongoing projects ranging from sidewalks to roadway improvements and other transportation projects.” “These total over $60 million funded by TSPLOST,” with the amount the city receives from the 1 percent sales tax for transportation purposes having grown to more than $6 million a year, the letter stated.
“The other thing is that we can also use T-SPLOST funds to help pay for the contract,” Penny told the council. “You can’t use T-SPLOST funds to pay the staff, but you can us T-SPLOST to be able to pay for the consultant.”
Under Georgia’s laws establishing the special taxes, revenue from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, and the similar multipurpose SPLOST and educational purpose E-SPLOST, may not be used to pay regular employees of local governments or schools, but they can be used in contracts for professional services related to capital projects.
Atlas Technical Consultants, Penny said, will manage some projects for the city, and the city also will be able to use the company’s expertise to ensure the work is done correctly while it is underway.
“This is not new,” he told the council. “In a lot of municipalities they use these type services in order to be able to get a lot of work done, and I would just say going into the future you’re going see even more of this just because of the sheer amount of work that we need to get done. I recommend it to you.”
Council approved the contract extension by a 5-0 vote on a motion from Councilmember Tangie Johnson seconded by Councilmember John Riggs.
Double the cost
The reporter later noticed that, in the materials in the council’s published agenda packet, the cover letter listed Washington’s name beside the $180 hourly rate and potential $349,200 total. In the city’s pay scale, the public works and engineering director is at Position Grade 26, which in this year’s budget is assigned a maximum annual salary of $181,531, and an hourly rate of $87.27.
So, the hourly rate listed for Washington’s services as a consultant is roughly double the city’s hourly for the division director over Public Works and Engineering. That doesn’t mean he will get the full amount, but it is what the city is expected to pay the company on an hourly basis for Washington or someone with his qualifications, to the maximum $349,200 for the contract year that ends June 30, 2026.
When Penny during a council meeting last spring noted Washington’s departure, it wasn’t announced with the fanfare of a planned retirement, and Washington had soon left the job. Penny later hired Deal, who had once served as city engineer and then went to work for the Bulloch County government for more than seven years as county engineer, to return to city employment as the Public Works and Engineering Division head.
In a late July phone interview, Penny was asked about the appearance that the city had let Washington go and would now pay more than twice as much for his services.
“First off now, John Washington resigned. Our contract is with Atlas, and who they hire is their business. That was not a prearranged anything for the city of Statesboro. It just so happened,” Penny said. “I think John may have worked with them previously, before we actually hired him. And so, his hourly rate, that’s the rate that the company charges for him, but that’s not what he gets paid. That doesn’t correlate that way.”
Boyles, who also took part in the phone conversation, said engineering consulting firms use a “multiplier” of “usually three to one or something like that” for the individuals’ hourly pay.
“That’s usually about what they charge, firms of that magnitude” he said. “This is a large firm with a whole plethora of services under their umbrella, and they typically charge somewhere around that. Smaller firms will probably be, maybe 2 or 2.5-to-1.”
“But I promise you,” Penny interjected, “I know John’s not making $349,000 off the city of Statesboro.”
Washington called
After the reporter told Boyles he would like to speak to Washington, he phoned the reporter next day.
“No, no, that fee goes to Atlas Technical Consultants,” Washington said. “I do not receive that amount directly. I work for Atlas Technical Consultants. I’m a senior project manager, working as a project manager for T-SPLOST program management for the city of Statesboro, and the city had sought me out to work with them in the capacity of the T-SPLOST program because of my knowledge of all of the road projects, sidewalk projects and everything else related to transportation within the city. …”
“So, no, actually, I’ve received a pay cut, if you will,” he added.
Washington said he will now be working at the direction of the city staff member in his former position, the director of engineering and public works.
“You know, that hourly rate (Atlas’s) pays for overhead and everything else that’s related to maintaining a position, Washington said. “There’s also other employees that are within this program that are being utilized. There’s inspectors, there’s another senior program project engineer and there are multiple other people that are within this contract that are able to be utilized at the discretion, or the direction, of the city.”
He said he “did elect to retire” from his job with the city, and when asked about this later, Penny said that Washington had put in for his Statesboro city retirement.
Washington came to work for Statesboro’s city government in June 2019 and was promoted to public works and engineer director that October, while also keeping the city engineer title. A graduate of Georgia Tech and of Southern Polytechnic, he has more than 40 years of experience in engineering.