Author: Paul Gable

Senate Advances Ethics Reform

A S.C. Senate sub-committee Tuesday made major changes to an ethics reform bill the House had rushed through last week to meet the May 1 crossover deadline for legislation.

The amended bill would make major changes to the way in which ethics violations against members of the General Assembly are investigated as well as requiring new income source disclosure for public officials throughout the state.

The amended legislation takes investigation of allegations of ethics violations against House and Senate members out of the hands of legislative committees and puts a revamped state Ethics commission in charge of all ethics investigations.

The House bill proposed elimination of the House and Senate Ethics committees, replacing them with a Joint Committee on Ethics, a body that would include eight legislators and eight members of the public chosen by legislators.

Ethics investigations of legislators would have effectively remained in the control of legislators with this committee.

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Mark Sanford Returns to Washington

Republican Mark Sanford will be returning to Washington to again represent the citizens of the South Carolina 1st Congressional District after a nearly 12 ½ year break.

Sanford easily defeated Democratic opponent Elizabeth Colbert Busch in a special election to fill the seat after former representative Tim Scott was elevated to the Senate earlier this year when Jim DeMint resigned to head up the Heritage Foundation.

Despite turning off some voters with his 2009 antics of disappearing for several days to visit his Argentinian mistress while serving as governor of South Carolina, Sanford was never really in danger of losing this election.

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The Case Against Flow Control

A bill that would make flow control illegal in South Carolina currently rests in the S.C. Senate Rules Committee awaiting a majority vote to put it on the calendar for full Senate vote.

Flow control is the term that means establishing monopoly control over the flow of the solid waste stream in an area, in this case a county.

It is illegal for private companies to establish flow control over a waste stream, but, currently, not for county government to do so. Horry County currently has a flow control ordinance in place that makes its Horry County Solid Waste Authority the monopoly arbiter over county waste.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was in Myrtle Beach earlier this week to push an initiative for oil and gas drilling off the coast of South Carolina.

Gingrich spoke at a forum of oil and gas industry representatives who want Congress to allow exploratory drilling and development of possible offshore oil and gas resources.

One of the issues at the forefront of talks about oil and gas drilling off the U.S. coast is the number of high paying jobs such economic activity will bring to the area.

If those types of jobs would become available, it would certainly help the Horry County area which consistently ranks dead last in average worker income among the 335 largest counties in the nation.

The irony here is that wage levels in Horry County have been consistently depressed because of the tourism industry. It’s just over 50 years ago that Horry County business leaders met with then Sen. Strom Thurmond to stop plans for extending I-20 to the coast. They worried an interstate would bring industrial development that would rob them of low wage workers in the hotels, restaurants and tobacco fields in the county.

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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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Myrtle Manor Notoriety

Myrtle Beach’s very own Reality TV show ‘Welcome to Myrtle Manor’ received some unexpected notoriety in the last few days when three of the cast members were arrested in a 48 hour period.

Amanda Adams was arrested for DUI Friday morning followed by the Sunday morning arrests of Lindsay Colbert for DUI and Taylor Burt for Criminal Sexual Conduct with a minor.

The show’s ratings have reportedly been tanking in the last several weeks prompting some to speculate that these run-ins with the law are publicity stunts. However, it’s hard to see DUI and criminal sexual conduct with a minor as publicity stunts.

If attention getting publicity is what the show needs to rebound with viewers, why not bring in the Anna Nicole Smith connection?

After all, cast member Gina Thompson Shelley (the hairdresser) has close ties with the Smith saga that played out after Smith died in a room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Seminole, FL in February 2007.

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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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