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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 05:39 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Hundreds of private citizens in South Carolina are appointed by elected officials to serve on state and county level boards and commissions. Most citizens who serve in these government positions are unpaid, but receive a few perks. And most seek these appointments for honorable purposes. They want to serve their communities, county or state to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the agencies they would oversee.

At the state level, appointed boards and commissions regulate the energy companies that operate a monopoly in the state and the department that contracts for road and bridge building and scores of others including medical and legal associations. Without adequate oversight, there are opportunities for these appointments to be enthusiastically sought after and very beneficial financially by those who would abuse their power.

In Greenville County, appointed boards oversee the operations and contractual business of numerous agencies, including the Phoenix Center, Bi-Lo Center and the organization that recruits new companies to locate in the county. These board members, like members of the school board, have advance information on contracts, site selection for new schools, businesses and other lucrative business opportunities that could be worth thousands, even millions of dollars to businesses with inside information. The opportunities for abuse are obvious.

Several years ago, Greenville County Council found it necessary to pass an ordinance prohibiting the appointment of individuals to a board or commission if contractual arrangements existed between the board candidate, his or her relatives or business partners and the agency the board governs. This discouraged insiders from directing business to themselves, their relatives or business associates creating unfair advantage for competing businesses.

More recently, it was discovered that the County Administrator was not enforcing the ordinance and, in fact, members of one or more board had lucrative business arrangements with the agency they helped govern. The practice was stopped and the ordinance is apparently now being enforced, at least on boards where violations were publicly exposed.

There is unhappiness on the part of those who were required to resign from board positions because of the ethics ordinance and others who have applied for board appointments to apparently enhance their business interests, but are unwilling to accept the position so long as the current ethics ordinance exists.

Council members are being pressured to change the ordinance and allow people to serve on boards who either have or would like to do business with the agencies they govern, provided they don’t personally vote to award contracts to themselves or their relatives or business partners.

The ordinance may be changed before this piece reaches the public. It will likely be voted on Tuesday night, March 19. It was voted down a few months earlier; however, Councilwoman Liz Semen is almost in panic mode to get the law abolished before the next group of candidates is appointed. It is speculated that she has enough votes lined up to make illegal activities legal and once again profitable.

A local business executive once informed me that “business is business and church is church – I don’t let one interfere with the other.” Some of the councilmen supporting this change have twisted reasoning. One view expressed by a councilman in an open meeting was that there is no ordinance prohibiting Greenville County Council members from doing business with Greenville County entities. Therefore, it is inappropriate for Council to set a higher standard for people they appoint to boards and commissions than they are required to meet. The solution to that situation seems obvious.

By the way, The Times Examiner has not and does not expect to ever receive any advertising revenue from Greenville County.

Is it ethical to make unethical activities legal and profitable when public funds are involved?

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