Heads Rolling At USC

A day after firing the second developer to botch its failed Innovista “research campus,” the University of South Carolina today reportedly asked for letters of resignation from “Innovista Czar” John Parks (also the associate vice president for economic development at USC) and Chad Hardaway, associate director of Innovista and the school’s director of intellectual property.

If true, that would be three heads to roll in two days – all after The (Columbia, S.C.) Free Times exposed the shady past of Innovista developer Kale Roscoe, the second developer to be canned from this insanely expensive, taxpayer-funded boondoggle.

Sources tell FITS that the resignations of Parks and Hardaway are an attempt to shield USC President Harris Pastides from any additional fallout from the scandal, which is the latest blow to a crumbling government-run economic development scam that has utterly and completely failed to achieve any of its objectives – at a cost of tens of millions to South Carolina taxpayers.

Amazingly, Pastides – along with Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell – is still intent on pumping more money into this failed project. In fact, the USC Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet tomorrow to vote on whether or not to begin self-funding this money-sucking “Garnet and Black Hole” that has consumed acres of downtown Columbia with nothing to show for it.

And as there always is when tax money is being wasted, there’s a government-created sense of urgency here. After all, USC must have its next proposed empty research building financed now or else it will lose access to state matching funds made available through the RUIA, or Research University Infrastructure Bond Act – another massive taxpayer-funded boondoggle that was passed by the S.C. General Assembly in 2004.

Without those funds, you can stick a fork in Innovista – which would certainly be welcome news to taxpayers.

Also, as noted here on FITS yesterday, the story of this developer’s shady past is something The State newspaper was given exclusively over a year ago – and did nothing on. Sadly, that’s not surprising when you consider that the paper has served as the University’s cheerleader on this project for years.