Tag: South Carolina

Ethics Reform – Not So Fast

A House bill on ethics reform passed the important second reading vote Tuesday, which will allow it to pass with a majority vote in the Senate, if one can be arranged, before the end of the current legislative year.

However, before we get too excited about ethics reform occurring in South Carolina, let’s consider some of the provisions of the proposed legislation.

The bill would do away with the House and Senate Ethics Committees and replace them with a Joint Committee on Ethics to hear complaints filed against members of the General Assembly.

The committee would be made up of sixteen members, eight legislators and eight members of the public.

The makeup of the legislators would be four senators, two each elected from the majority party and the largest minority party in the body. Four house members will be elected to the committee in the same manner.

The eight public members would be elected four each by the House and Senate with two each from the majority caucus and the largest minority caucus in each body.

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Chad Connelly and the SCGOP

A heated battle for the chairmanship of the South Carolina Republican Party has brought some interesting details to light as the contest enters its final days.

Last week, current SCGOP chairman Chad Connelly and the party were named defendants in a lawsuit alleging Connelly slandered Cherokee County GOP member Brian Frank in an e-mail and during a speech to upstate party members. Frank has been active in supporting Sam Harms, Connelly’s challenger in the upcoming chairman’s election at the SCGOP convention Saturday.

An e-mail from Harms claimed he was denied access, by SCGOP headquarters, to the list of county delegates to the state convention from 44 of the state’s 46 counties. Apparently this denial was in the hope that Harms’ campaign for chairman would be hurt by this denial.

An e-mail from Connelly, allegedly endorsed by 90 county party officials and members, claimed to “set the record straight” on Connelly’s record in his two years as chairman. However, while claiming facts about Connelly’s actions while chairman have been distorted by his opponents, Connelly’s e-mail contains its own distortions.

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Making Municipalities Fiscally Responsible

With over thirty municipalities throughout the state in violation of South Carolina’s law requiring them to turn in a yearly audit to the State Treasurer, one might say something is not working!

The current law gives municipalities thirteen months to turn in an audit after the end of the fiscal year. If they don’t turn it in by the end of the thirteen months, then the Treasurer is supposed to halt all payments to the municipality until they are in compliance.

Obviously, the system is not working and something needs to change.

In light of this problem, Reps. Goldfinch, Clemmons, Hardwick, H.A. Crawford, Loftis, Barfield, Bedingfield, Hamilton, V.S. Moss, Rivers and G.R. Smith are sponsoring H. 4031. This bill seeks to promote more fiscal accountability on the municipal level.

A common excuse that the municipalities use for not having an audit is lack of funding. The bill requires that all municipalities include funding for an annual audit in their budget; that takes care of that!

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Malice Aforethought

It’s not a unique event, but the SCGOP and its Chairman Chad Connelly will be defending another lawsuit in the coming weeks, this time over the verbal bombs Connelly has been dropping on fellow Republican Brian Frank over the last week.

According to party records, the SCGOP has spent approximately $366,000 in legal fees during the nearly two years of Connelly’s tenure as chairman. This is all expense that diverts the party from its primary mission of getting candidates elected.

However, that’s another story.

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Brian Frank – Chad Connelly’s Chosen Villain

As a result of a controversy created by Chad Connelly as he seeks to be re-elected as state party chairman at next week’s SCGOP convention, I decided to take a closer look at Connelly’s designated antagonist Brian Frank.

As we reported yesterday, Connelly viciously attacked Frank through e-mails last week and during the Cherokee County GOP meeting Monday night (captured on video).

The only apparent reason for these attacks is that Frank has been actively supporting Connelly’s opponent for the post of state party chairman, Sam Harms, primarily through the use of You Tube and Facebook.

During Connelly’s diatribes, he has inferred Frank is similar to the recent ‘Boston bombers’, accused him of “rant(ing) endlessly hateful stuff” and said Frank “has threatened me and my family.”

It is interesting to note that Frank attended the Cherokee County GOP meeting Monday night without speaking to Connelly. When Frank was prevented from taking video of Connelly’s speech, he chose to leave the meeting. It was only after Frank’s departure that Connelly, pointing to Frank’s empty chair, gave his 47 second rant against Frank, which was captured on video by another individual.

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Awendaw’s Missing Money Partie Deux

According to a source with significant knowledge of the town’s finances who spoke on conditions of anonymity, Nichols had done audits of four prior years, all at the same time, after the S.C. Municipal Association had gotten the town’s financial records in order. The town, reportedly, had not had audits performed on an annual basis since the 2002-03 time frame.

Mr. Nichols reported nine significant deficiencies with town records. The lack of documentation and the lack of internal controls led Nichols to issue an adverse opinion on the audit.

According to the source, 41 percent of the town’s transactions were not approved with 30 percent of the funds spent not approved, a sum of over $200,000, according to our source.

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Awendaw’s Missing Money

We are hearing the town of Awendaw may be missing money from its public coffers as important bills are not being paid on time.

According to several sources who have contacted us, the town missed its required payment of approximately $270,000, due March 1st to Charleston County for fire service, and nobody’s giving any answers.

Money for the fire service payment comes from a special fire tax district that was set up by town voters to levy taxes, specifically for fire service.

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Elizabeth Moffly Slams Good Ol’ Boys Network

First Congressional District Republican candidate Elizabeth Moffly scored big at the expense of her Congressional race opponents when she slammed the Good Ol’ Boys network that has controlled politics in South Carolina for too long.

Moffly, the only woman among 16 Republican candidates in the March 19th primary, told it like it is about her top competitors in the race in a You Tube video that complements her “Good Ol’ Boys” radio ad.

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Who is Teddy Turner?

Voting is three weeks away in the SC 1st Congressional District special election primary and I am still wondering who Teddy Turner is.

We have been told he’s a conservative Republican because he spent four years at The Citadel and two years in the Soviet Union.

We have heard over and over at candidate forums that he is not his father. Frankly, his standup comic routine about his father can be rather funny, but, unfortunately it is his stump speech.

We also know he is not Jane Fonda. Both are probably happy about that.

But, who exactly is he? I defy you to find one policy position Turner has enunciated.

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South Carolina’s Transportation Infrastructure Problems

The battle to save South Carolina’s transportation infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, seems to be joined in the state government this year.

A bill to do away with the State Infrastructure Bank and roll its responsibilities into the Department of Transportation appears to have a chance of success as does one that would require prioritizing road projects with maintenance and repair of existing roads as the top priority.

In her State of the State address, Gov. Nikki Haley urged state lawmakers to fix crumbling roads and bridges.

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