Commissioners approve $440K and $2.34M school reimbursements and require change-order summaries

County staff presented two disbursement requests tied to the Washington Elementary construction project funded in part through the State's Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund. Reimbursement #12 covered planning and design work totaling $440,961.17 (State share $356,164.34; County share $84,796.83). Reimbursement #13 covered construction activity, invoiced at $2,340,106.50 (State share $1,890,104.02; County share $450,002.48). Manager Brian Alligood supplied invoice breakdowns and attachments; commissioners reviewed the state and county shares and the underlying invoices.

Commissioner Hood Richardson pressed for greater transparency: he asked that future reimbursement requests include a signed statement accompanying invoices listing any change orders and their dollar amounts so the Board can track project changes before authorizing payments. The Board approved both reimbursement requests and then passed a separate motion requiring that future claims for payment include a statement of change orders and a signatory confirmation that there were no change orders if none existed. Richardson said the documentation should be an explicit line item in future payment requests. The manager agreed to incorporate the request going forward.

The Board's action moves those reimbursements forward for payment; county staff will implement the new documentation requirement for future school-project payment requests and will return future requests with the requested change-order summaries.