Saturday, April 20, 2024
A good first step toward ethics reform in South Carolina would be to fire S.C. Ethics Commission Executive Director Herb Hayden.
Last month, Richland County Circuit Judge Alison Lee approved a consent order ruling Hayden propagated a “falsehood” to a state ethics watchdog agency and in responding with a falsehood violated the Freedom of Information Act.
As part of the settlement, Hayden and the ethics commission maintained the falsehood was inadvertent and unintentional.
A request for a judge to rule the S.C. Ethics Commission violated the state’s FOIA law has been entered in a lawsuit brought against the commission by the S.C. Public Interest Foundation.
The motion for summary judgment results from the S.C. Ethics Commission’s apparent attempts to hide the contents of a letter to Gov. Nikki Haley from commission attorney Cathy Hazelwood.
In the letter, Hazelwood requested Haley to reimburse the state for the cost of travel for Haley and her campaign staff to a fundraising event in North Carolina last year.
When the internet publication “The Nerve” requested a copy of the letter from the commission, it was reportedly told by commission director Herb Hayden, “No letter was sent to Gov. Haley.”
You have to give Nikki Haley credit for consistency. Whenever the governor comes up against a law she doesn’t like, she ignores it.
The latest comes with having her campaign reimburse the state for the costs of state law enforcement officers providing security while she is on the campaign trail.
Haley’s latest end run around state law results from a trip to North Carolina she made in June where Haley attended an event held by a foundation supporting N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory. During the course of her attendance, Haley picked up a total of $34,500 in campaign donations.
Speak Up…