City vendors say they went unpaid. After FOIA, here is what we got.

David Hucks

MyrtleBeachSC News received confidential information that 4 vendors who work with the City of North Myrtle Beach went unpaid in July.

So as to confirm these statements, we reached out to Lauren Jessie, Public Information Officer at the city.

We asked, “Could you please provide me with any correspondence between the City of North Myrtle Beach and unpaid vendors?”

On Friday, July 26th, we received the below:

The City of North Myrtle Beach wrote: In response to the first portion of your request, “Could you please provide me with any correspondence between the City of North Myrtle Beach and unpaid vendors?”

The records for FOIA-2024-215 have been located and will be time intensive for staff. These will be processed pending receipt of a 25% deposit. Your 25% deposit is $8,437.50. Please see the attached invoice for full balance details.

Please let us know if you wish to modify your request to narrow the scope. Narrowing the scope will help to reduce the time and cost. To do so, you can provide a date range and/or more details regarding your request.

To pay the deposit or the full balance, visit the Public Portal (https://nmbsc.justfoia.com/publicportal/home/track). Enter your Request Number and Security Key. Then click the Credit Card Icon on the bottom right-hand side of the screen. Follow the prompts to complete the payment. You will be given the option to pay the “Balance” or to pay “Other Amount.” If you wish to only pay the 25% deposit at this time, click “Other Amount.”

Sincerely,

Public Information Officer

City of North Myrtle Beach

_______________________

Mike Mahaney
Mike Mahaney, NMB City Manager

This comes after our news team reported last week that North Myrtle Beach City Manager Mike Mahaney applied for a job in Fernandina Beach, FL.

This comes as MyHorryNews also reported last week, “The city [of North Myrtle Beach] refused to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request asking for City Manager Mike Mahaney’s personnel file following a special meeting in April, mostly held in private, to discuss his performance.”

Could there be some tension between North Myrtle Beach City Council, Mayor Hatley and current City Manager Mike Mahaney?

Several local municipalities have informed MyrtleBeachSC News, off the record, that this unpaid vendor data can be acquired by a simple computer search under the querry ‘Unpaid Vendors.’

We will be reaching out to municipalities across S.C. to confirm this with written statements on the record.

If this data is easy to access, why send a $33,750 bill for an inquiry we are told a computer can print out in minutes.

How many unpaid vendors can North Myrtle Beach possibly have?

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