By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- County Commissioners voted 4-1 Monday for a new deal with the Durham Public Schools that should save the system $200,000 to $300,000 a year on construction projects, by helping it avoid state sales taxes.

Officials also hope the arrangement will save time in the offices of county Finance Director George Quick and County Attorney Lowell Siler, which now have to administer a somewhat different arrangement with DPS that's helped the system recoup sales-tax payments.

But despite the savings, approval of the deal didn't come without controversy, centering in part on how officials will make sure that construction contractors owned by blacks and women get a share of DPS' business.

Leaders of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People made it clear Monday they question the school system's commitment to that.

"You can't trust these folks," committee Chairwoman Lavonia Allison told commissioners. "They tell you one thing, and do something else."

But Siler and a DPS lawyer, Rod Malone, assured commissioners that the new deal includes ironclad language requiring the school system to honor county policy on opening doors for minority and women-owned contractors.

"If it says 'shall,' you will do it," Malone said, noting that the agreement's clause on the issue used exactly that word. "You don't get to debate it or discuss it. There's no waffling around the edges."

Malone also agreed to a provision that would give the county the right to cancel the deal if the system fails to correct any breach of its terms within 45 days of receiving notice.

The agreement formalizes a paperwork shuffle that applies to 19 existing or planned schools where DPS plans major construction or repair work.

Its terms give the county a lease to those properties, making it a tenant and not coincidentally qualifying them for a sales-tax recoupment that would otherwise be unavailable to the school system.

State law allows the county to claim a refund of any sales taxes on materials and other goods that go into its projects. School systems used to enjoy the same status, but the General Assembly voted in 2005 to take it away from them.

Durham and other counties around the state have responded with paperwork shuffles meant to shield the schools from the extra bills that would otherwise come due because of the assembly's decision.

Until Monday, Durham officials did so by making the county the formal owner of schools targeted for construction. The county government also issues all the necessary contracts, though DPS actually manages the work.

Siler, Quick and Malone said the new arrangement would simply the administrative process, cutting out steps that require hands-on work by members of the county staff. It would put the onus for awarding contracts back on DPS.

That's what bothered Durham Committee leaders, who said they don't think the school system has the controls in place to assure a place for minority and women-owned firms.

Malone acknowledged that the system's effort on that front has weaknesses. Among other things, it's never done the "disparity study" courts would require as evidence of past racial discrimination.

But he said DPS leaders would play ball by the county's rules, which, because they're backed with a disparity study, is "a lot more constitutional, a lot more defensible" than what they have in place.

Commissioner Joe Bowser voted against the proposal, arguing that if the General Assembly made school projects subject to sales taxes, local officials should not "try to circumvent" its wishes.

But Commissioner Ellen Reckhow noted that the county already had been doing that under the old deal -- and that other counties around the state have made similar arrangements with their school systems.

"Our legislators know full well what we're doing because we've explained it to them," she said.

Commissioner Brenda Howerton tried to back away from her vote for the measure after the result was clear. She said she still had unanswered questions.

But Siler, County Manager Mike Ruffin and commissioners Chairman Michael Page made it clear that for Howerton to change hers, the full board would have to reconsider the vote. She opted not to ask her colleagues to do that.