South Carolina government corruption
From Sunshine Review
 | ||||
| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
Private Email and Public Business: Anything Goes in S.C
This week The Nerve, a new website from the South Carolina Policy Council, reported that the South Carolina has a serious lack of transparency regarding state emails.
Stimulus funding, budget vetoes and spending transparency are among an array of state business South Carolina public officials discussed through private email correspondence during the past year.
But despite potential problems involved when government isn’t conducted in the open, South Carolina has no prohibition against using private emails for public business. In addition, many state agencies don’t even have email retention policies in place to establish preservation standards for email and instant messages sent or received on state servers.
Report: S.C. Short on Transparency
South Carolina counties collectively have earned the state a top-10 ranking in a new nationwide analysis of online government accessibility and transparency, but they still have a long way to go.
For its part, state government earned a not-so-flattering B-minus in the transparency grade from Sunshine Review. The state’s grade could be considered surprising because S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom has vigorously advocated Internet-based government transparency, which has mushroomed into a growing movement in South Carolina and across the country.
Eckstrom, a self-described bean counter, is a certified public accountant whose job essentially is to act as state government’s bookkeeper. All spending by nearly every S.C. agency goes through his office.
A transparency Web site, sunshinereview.org, compiled the report. Sunshine Review is a nonprofit headquartered in Chicago.
The Nerve: Bringing Accountability and Transparency to government in South Carolina
The South Carolina Policy Council has launched thenerve.org, a new website that will bring together veteran investigative reporters and citizen reporters for independent reporting on government and the politicians who run it.
There is a void in South Carolina for substantive, well-researched news about how our government is run, how the legislature operates and where our tax dollars are really going. The Nerve will report on matters that the mainstream media has failed to thoroughly examine and give citizens the real story on what government is doing.
Statehouse Leaders Continue Hydrogen Push Despite Shortfalls
Despite negligible results after pouring more than $40 million in state tax dollars into hydrogen research, and followed by the federal government's recent admission that the technology won't work, South Carolina lawmakers continue to press for even more funding.
For several years, South Carolina lawmakers have opted to pursue economic development by trying to pick winners through directing tax incentives to businesses and industries, rather than implementing broad-based reforms that could benefit all businesses and make South Carolina more competitive nationally and internationally.
Using Taxpayers' Dollars to Convince Them What They Need
The South Carolina Energy Office has been awarded $109,000 by the federal government to help generate market acceptance for offshore wind energy development in South Carolina and Georgia.
The SC Energy Office will collaborate with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, utilities and other in-state partners.
One has to be just a little wary when government officials admit “a concerted, multi-faceted effort from various statewide stakeholders will be necessary to obtain public support” for any program. It is yet to be seen whether or not this push for wind power will end up being a wasteful expenditure of tax dollars, like hydrogen and ethanol have largely been over the years.
Palmettovore Campaign Wastes $50,000 Attacking Free Trade
The first image on the webpage for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s Palmettovore advertising campaign is a hen laying a big fat egg. That’s entirely appropriate because Palmettovore, unveiled last month with great fanfare, is one of the sillier promotional campaigns in recent memory. Worse than that, it’s an outright waste of South Carolina tax dollars -- nearly $54,000 for the current fiscal year.
In less than two years, the department has paid out more than $2.5 million to Columbia advertising agency Chernoff Newman, which created the Palmettovore campaign and also handles the Certified SC Grown effort. And given that Palmettovore didn’t launch until mid-May, it’s likely the agriculture department’s tab with Chernoff Newman will be much higher.
The rationale for the Palmettovore initiative is that South Carolinians should eat more local produce and products because they’re fresher, they’re healthier, better for the environment and doing so will boost the state’s economy. In reality, Palmettovore is nothing more than economic protectionism and a subsidy for the SC agriculture industry dressed up in feel-good pseudo economics.
Innovista: State-Driven Economy Struggling Despite $140 Million in Taxpayer Support
When plans for Innovista, the University of South Carolina’s 500-acre research campus, were rolled out in 2005, it was touted as a can’t-miss project that would become a driving force for the area’s economy. Today, some $140 million has already been poured into Innovista, most of it state and local tax dollars. But the if-you-build-it-they-will-come approach has reaped few results.
The empty floors that dominate much of Innovista offer harsh proof of the dangers involved in letting government attempt to drive the economy, rather than leaving it to the private sector. Taxing profits away from individuals and businesses to help fund risky research by academics and advocacy groups is a waste of scarce resources and almost always generates a poor return.
South Carolina divided over taxpayer-funded lobbying for in-state universities
Many of the public universities in South Carolina use tax dollars to employ lobbyists. The expense for these lobbyists is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The College of Charleston, for instance, employs two lobbyists; with salaries of $81,600 and $85,000 respectively. Other universities that employ highly-paid lobbyists include Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and The Medical University of South Carolina [1].
Private emails could be fair game for FOIAs in South Carolina
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford unintentionally created a new public record by conducting state business from a private email account.
"Private email accounts routinely used to conduct public business can create a FOIA situation," said an open records attorney.
Governor Mark Sanford set a new precedent for the disclosure of personal emails, amounting to just under 200 of the 3,000 emails his office released last week.
Rec Commission Continues to Evade Public Disclosure
"One of the issues the Richland County Recreation Commission board has been talking about behind closed doors, and refusing to identify before doing so, apparently has come to light — the retirement of commission director Lewis Leopard.
No less, the commission, a special-purpose district critics assail as an unaccountable fiefdom, is being tight lipped about Leopard’s retirement package, too.
As reported exclusively in Free Times on April 1, the commission board is engaged in a practice that appears to violate the S.C. Freedom of Information Act."
FOI case in Anderson moves forward
"An attorney for Anderson County is seeking to have a lawsuit thrown out that contends the county did not follow the state’s Freedom of Information Act rules.
Attorney Kurt Gibson filed paperwork Monday asking that the lawsuit contending that Council Chairman Eddie Moore did not follow FOIA guidelines be dismissed."
Bluffton holds second closed session
"The Bluffton Town Council met again Tuesday in a closed-door session that was described only vaguely, despite a requirement in the state's Freedom of Information Act that public bodies announce the specific reasons for secret meetings.
The meeting came a week after the council held a similar closed-door session without announcing the specific reason.
The FOIA states that a public body must say specifically why it is going into executive session before doing so. Opinions from the state attorney general's office underscore that requirement.The opinions, issued in 1988 and 2004, were provided by the attorney general's office last week."
Public bodies cannot act outside of the law
"A representative democracy cannot function in secret.
The state Freedom of Information Act specifically forbids secrecy, and outlines a number of ways that the public's right to know supersedes a government body's desire for secrecy.
Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka and the Town Council need to study the Freedom of Information Act. Bluffton needs to hire a town attorney who knows the law and appreciates how important it is for public officials to obey the law. Town attorney Terry Finger gave the Bluffton Town Council bad advice Tuesday when he told the council it could thumb its nose at the Freedom of Information Act."
Businessman adds lawsuit against Anderson County
"Another lawsuit against Anderson County was filed Monday afternoon.
The suit, filed in Anderson Circuit Court, claims that Council Chairman Eddie Moore, in his official capacity, refused to follow the Freedom of Information Act and missed a 15-day deadline on a request for public information.
It could not be determined at press time how many lawsuits are now pending against the county, but at least a half-dozen have been filed since the new council took office in January."
SC Audits and information
"School districts shouldn't have to pay for additional audits when a more open spending process would produce the necessary result.
State Rep. Joey Millwood has introduced a bill that would force school districts to pay the Legislative Audit Council to study their spending. He wants the council to audit 20 percent of the state's school districts each year.
Millwood's bill is a response to the news of spending at Spartanburg County School District 7, where parents and taxpayers were distressed to learn that the district had made an agreement to pay $325,000 to the Country Club of Spartanburg so district golf teams could play there."
Scott’s suit against SJS dismissed
"A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by former state Sen. Randy Scott that sought to block the Summerville Journal Scene from obtaining tapes of closed hearings held last May during Scott’s DUI trial.
Despite the dismissal, however, the Journal Scene still has not obtained the audio recordings."
Will the S.C. House protect integrity of election process?
"The results of the Minnesota Senate recount are still in doubt two months after the election because of questionable decisions being made by the Minnesota Canvassing Board. But South Carolinians need not look beyond their borders for such political high drama.
The Palmetto State boasts its own electoral soap opera, complete with inaccurate voter registrations and a state election commission that refuses to enforce the law."
City Council discusses Willowbank condo lawsuit
"Just a bare quorum of Georgetown City Council met in a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss one of several lawsuits. The specific case being discussed was the Willowbank condos lawsuit.
Another series of issues with Thursday's meeting had to do with apparent violations of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Executive sessions are permitted for the purpose of receiving legal advice. However, an executive session has to come after a formal opening of a meeting of a governing body, such as a City Council. Members must vote in public to go into executive session, and when that session is concluded the Council members must return to a public session and specifically state that no votes or actions were taken while in executive session.
None of that happened Thursday afternoon."
Sheriff to stop limiting records access
"The Beaufort County sheriff says he'll give the media reasonable access to crime reports on weekends and holidays after the South Carolina Attorney General's office said limiting access to weekdays violated the state's open records law.
The Island Packet of Hilton Head and The Beaufort Gazette had objected to a new policy Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner adopted in November that blocked the media from looking at reports on weekends and holidays when administrative office are closed. Reports are processed by administrative staff who work Monday through Friday, Tanner said."
Where did the money go?
"County treasurer reported that nearly a million dollars has been spent from the landfill fund, but neither Brown nor Pasley has provided any information on where this money has gone.
Williamsburg County Supervisor Stanley Pasley told The Weekly Observer on Dec. 10, that he believed in open government, and the rest of the requested records would be provided shortly, however, as of deadline day, Friday, Dec. 19, none have been received from the county supervisor’s office or the county treasurer, though they are nearly a month past due."
[edit] More information
|
|
| |||||||
Cite error:
<ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
