WASHINGTON: State Ports Authority board member Bill Stern and state Rep. Rick Quinn were business partners during a time when Quinn’s father held consulting agreements with the maritime agency, The Post and Courier has learned. Stern and Quinn did not acknowledge having business ties when first approached by the newspaper two weeks ago. Neither mentioned a past association. But Quinn revealed his interest in S Q Investments in his annual financial disclosure released on Monday. He confirmed he was partners with Stern, though he sold his interest in the company to a Columbia real estate developer last year. Stern spoke strongly in favor last month of keeping the ports authority’s contracts with Richard Quinn & Associates, opposing a board vote to suspend the agreements because of Richard Quinn’s connection to the ongoing Statehouse corruption investigation that has so far netted indictments of three lawmakers.
Ports board chairman Pat McKinney would not discuss if Stern should have abstained from voting on the Quinn agreement but noted “in the past, I know other board members have recused themselves from voting when their businesses were even peripherally involved with the issue on the table.” Stern said Friday he saw no need to recuse himself from the vote on the Richard Quinn contracts because he thinks the ports board should not be micromanaging contracts with the agency. Ports President Jim Newsome and his staff should decide on hiring — and suspending — contractors, including Richard Quinn & Associates, Stern said. He noted that Newsome told the board recently that Quinn had done a good job for the authority.
