COLUMBIA – A 15-year-old was shot multiple times just
outside of Blythewood (29016) after a gunman approached him and asked if he
(the teen) had any weed, Richland County officials reported.
Deputies are investigating the shooting, which occurred in
the Palmetto Palms mobile home park located in the 9400 block of Wilson
Boulevard near where it intersects with Killian Road.
About 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 26, deputies were called
to the mobile home park where the teen told them he was standing behind a home
when a male approached him wearing a black mask and black hoodie and asked if
the teen had any weed, according to an incident report.
The teen stated that when he said, “No,” the masked male
pulled out a pistol and shot the teen several times. The victim stated in the
report that the gun used appeared to be a Glock.
The report stated that the masked gunman then ran away on
foot.
K-9 units responded and attempted to track the subject but
with no results.
The injured teen was transported to Prisma Health by EMS.
There is no information about his condition or whether he Is still
hospitalized.
More information will be provided as it becomes available.
Anyone with information about the Wilson Boulevard shooting
can call Crime Stoppers at 1—888-274-6372 or visit midlandscrimestoppers.com
and click ‘Submit a Tip.’
WINNSBORO – It will cost $338 before the Fairfield County
School District will disclose expense records from the superintendent’s
discretionary budget, which one board member characterized as a sort of ‘slush
fund.’
It’s from the superintendent’s account, also referred to as the superintendent’s contingency fund, that the district quietly paid for costly, out-of-state trips for the Griffin Bow Tie Club.
Exactly how much is spent on the student groups and other
things remains a mystery.
In a letter to The Voice, Superintendent Dr. J.R. Green said
the newspaper would have to pay an $84.50 deposit before the district would
even process the request.
“This District will provide you with copies of the requested
information upon receipt of an appropriate deposit, as authorized by the FOIA,”
Green wrote on Oct. 21. “Upon receipt of the deposit, the District will
undertake the work necessary to respond to your request.”
Green’s response came 10 business days after The Voice’s
request, the maximum allowed under state law.
The Voice contested the $338 charge in a reply sent Oct. 27,
noting that state law allows public bodies to waive or reduce fees when “the
agency determines that waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest
because furnishing the information can be considered as primarily benefitting
the general public.”
The district took another 10 business days to respond to The
Voice’s reply, saying it would not reconsider the $338 fee.
Jay Bender, an attorney with the S.C. Press Association, of
which The Voice is a member, said when public bodies slow walk public record
requests, they’re sending a message that they want taxpayers kept in the dark
about government activity.
“It says this district does not want constituents to know
how it’s spending its money,” Bender said. “They’re going to drag it out as
long as they possibly can and set the charges as high as they possibly can to
dissuade people from finding out actually what goes on.”
Bender also challenged the legitimacy of the district’s
charges. He said it shouldn’t take much effort or paperwork to provide credit
card statements, cancelled checks or other documents specifying how the
district spends taxpayer money.
State law allows the public to review records at no cost.
The intent is to help information seekers mitigate costs by identifying
specific records to reproduce.
Green has not responded to multiple requests from The Voice
to inspect documents showing how money is spent from the superintendent’s
discretionary account.
“The law is clear. You’re entitled to see information taken
in any account or voucher, so unless they have some obscure accounting system,
you should be able to look at checks written on that fund,” Bender said. “And
it should be itemized with respect to that fund. It shouldn’t [cost] anything
to look at it.”
The district’s obfuscation of financial records isn’t
limited to the general public or press.
Board Trustee Paula Hartman said she’s tried unsuccessfully
for years to shed light on how the superintendent spends discretionary funds.
She noted concerns over transparency in Dr. Green’s annual evaluation earlier
this month.
In June 2017, she and former trustee Annie McDaniel quizzed
Dr. Green and other district officials about how superintendent discretionary
funds are spent, but never received a detailed answer.
“Quite a few years back I asked for that,” Hartman said. “He
(Green) had told us he would let us know what was spent out of there each year
and he hasn’t done that.”
Green eventually acknowledged the fund does pay for trips
for student clubs, such as the Griffin Bow Tie Club and the Elite Ladies of
Fairfield County School District.
The Voice requested more detailed expenses from the
superintendent’s discretionary fund because it’s not itemized within the school
district budget.
In 2018-2019, the school board budgeted $404,874 for the
superintendent’s office, but the budget doesn’t break out the discretionary
fund. The 2017-2018 budget also doesn’t itemize the fund.
Previous budgets between 2012-2013 and 2016-2017 were not
available because links to those documents on the district’s website are
broken. A district office representative couldn’t be reached before press time
because the school district is on winter break until Jan. 3, according to the
district’s website.
Hartman asked about the account again this past June,
specifically asking how much money was spent to send members of the Griffin Bow
Tie Club to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Green couldn’t say, and
six months later, an accounting of the trip has not been provided.
Hartman also asked Green why the multi-day trip had not come
before the board for approval as required by board policy.
“I’d have to go back and check. It very well could’ve been
an oversight,” Green said at the June meeting.
“At a later meeting he confirmed that the trip had not been
presented to the board for approval,” Hartman told The Voice. “We actually were
not even informed that he was taking them to Kentucky, which is against board
policy.”
It’s also unclear how the Churchill Downs trip aligned with
learning standards mapped out by the S.C. Department of Education. That
information was not available since Green did not request board approval for
the trip.
Company Brings $50M Investment and 250 Jobs to Fairfield
Cutting the ribbon for the grand opening of MLILY USA are, from left: Fairfield County Director of Economic Development Ty Davenport, Operations Manager Chad Reinsel, Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy, Rep. Annie McDaniel, State Senator Mike Fanning, Chairman and CEO of Healthcare Co., Ltd. James Ni, S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, Fairfield County Council Chairman Neil Robinson, President of MLILY USA Stephen Chen and Suns Jian, president of Healthcare Co., Ltd.’s global sales and marketing. | Photos: Barbara Ball
WINNSBORO – The grand opening last week of MLILY USA,
Fairfield County’s new memory foam mattress factory, was an international event
covered by Chinese television and newspapers as well as local and state media.
MLILY is owned by Healthcare Co., Ltd., China’s largest mattres manufacturing
company.
Industry officials from China flew into the Fairfield County
airport on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, they joined state and local
government, business and industry leaders for the open house and ribbon cutting
at MLILY’s renovated 650,000 square-foot manufacturing facility located at 1
MLILY Way just off Highway 321 in Winnsboro.
S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt
Prior to the ribbon cutting, there were comments by company
officials as well as S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt and Fairfield
County’s Director of Economic Development Ty Davenport. A tour of the facility,
conducted by Chad Reinsel, operations manager, was followed by lunch.
Barely a year ago, Fairfield County Council finalized an
agreement with MLILY to bring a nearly $50 million investment into the county
and restore the idle factory – previously owned by Mack Truck and later Guardian
Building Products – to produce a line of sleep products for the U.S. market. In
addition, the company announced it would hire 250 employees.
So far, about 64 employees are already on the payroll.
“And most of the folks hired so far are from this area,”
Fairfield County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport told the 100 or so
in attendance.
Fairfield County Director of Economic Development Ty Davenport
“We’re thrilled when the people who live here are the people
working here. Revenue from this plant is going to flow to the town, the schools
and will be used to further our county’s economic development,” Davenport said.
“We’re going to see benefits from this plant for a long
time. Things are looking up for Fairfield County. We already have other new
industry coming in,” Davenport said. “We’re on a roll, and MLILY helped put us
on that roll. I can’t thank you enough,” he told MLILY officials.
Hitt said the open house marked a landmark day for
Fairfield.
“The Fairfield County government routinely works hard to
make our community attractive to companies from all over the world,” Hitt said.
Turning to Stephen Chen, Hitt continued, “Your investment in
Fairfield reinforces that this is the business address, sitting right here
above the state capital, in a very modern, progressive county.”
Chen thanked Davenport, “for guiding the MLILY team through
each step of the process to establish a factory in Winnsboro.”
MLILY USA President Stephen Chen looks on as James Ni, Chairman and CEO of Healthcare Co., Ltd. addresses those attending the open house.
MLILY’s factory will supply the company’s North American
retail customers with mattresses, pillows and toppers made in the U.S. – a
shift in the mattress manufacturing business where many companies are looking
at off-shore production to maintain costs.
In addition to the general cleanup and renovation of the
plant, which had been dormant for nine years, MLILY has installed equipment to
manufacture, fabricate and distribute mattresses including springs, memory foam
and other proprietary foams.
“This is an exciting time for our company as we continue to
grow in the United States. Our U.S. customers will now be able to get their
products from Winnsboro, made by American workers,” James Ni, chairman and CEO
of Healthcare Co., Ltd., said, drawing a burst of applause from the audience.
“The investment in this factory allows us to develop and
supply MLILY products that appeal to U.S. consumers, and it provides us with
the opportunity to expand our product reach in this country. I’m thankful to
our leadership team and our employees for their work in getting this plant
ready and operational, as well as to the local and state government officials
who have welcomed us into the community,” Ni said. “We look forward to playing
an important role in the community.”
Ni is credited with not only building Healthcare Co., Ltd.
into the largest mattress manufacturer in China, but expanding operations
throughout Asia and Europe.
Ni said he saw a huge opportunity in the United States. To
that end, his company built a North American headquarters in Knoxville,
Tennessee.
“The company’s mattresses, pillows and sleep accessories are
now all manufactured in state-of-the-art factories located in China, Thailand,
Spain, Serbia and, now, Winnsboro,” Ni said, “The factories located in China
span more than 6 million square feet.”
Davenport emphasized that MLily’s economic impact on
Fairfield County will be significant.
“Two hundred fifty jobs will mean 250 families are better
off. It’s a great thing for any community,” Davenport told The Voice, “but it’s
a huge one for ours, so we’re very thankful for that. “It’s a great way to
start the new year. I think it’ll be a good place for our residents to work.”
Mattresses move along a conveyor belt where they are inserted into mattress covers.
Mattresses are rolled up by another piece of equipment and packaged for shipping.
During the plant tour, Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor and the county’s Director of Economic Development Ty Davenport, County Councilman Clarence Gilbert and Council Chairman Neil Robinson talk with Wally Wang of the S.C. Department of Commerce.
BLYTHEWOOD/FAIRFIELD
COUNTY – Need some extra cash to pay off some of those Christmas bills
that are adding up? Then you might want to consider entering The Voice’s annual
College Bowl U-Pick-‘Em contest that can be found on page 8 of this week’s issue.
Three $100 dollar bills will be presented to the winner by
contest sponsor Chris Griffith, owner of Alltemp Comfort Services. The winner
will be announced after the Jan. 13 College National Championship game.
This is the last week that the contest entry form will be
published in The Voice. Only one entry per person, no photo copies of entry
forms, and all entries must be postmarked by midnight Dec. 27. Do not drop them
by our offices since the envelopes must be postmarked.
And don’t forget the tie-breaker! Last year, one person lost
just because he had not included the tie-breaker on his entry.
RIDGEWAY – While the Barclay School is not out of the woods
financially, the head of the school, Gillian Barclay-Smith, said it seems like
everyone associated with the school as well as complete strangers, are trying
to move mountains to keep the school open after she learned two weeks ago that
an IRS rule change had impacted a major non-profit funding source for the
school.
“It seems everyone has read about our plight and they want
to help,” Barclay-Smith said. “It’s been overwhelming. We’ve received a lot of
small donations, our landlord, MEKRA-Lang, has given us free rent for 2020, and
others have done other things to help us in other ways. One of our parents
cleaned up our website and revamped our online presence, literally overnight,
which has actually helped our fundraising effort tremendously. So far, we have
raised about $20,000 of the $50,000 we need to stay open until Christmas.”
But that’s not all the school needs. It must have $150,000
to stay open until the end of the school year. But the $50,000 will give us
time to put together a new funding plan for the future, according to
Barclay-Smith.
“One of our students’ parents who actually has a background
and expertise in fundraising, is giving us invaluable help and advice,”
Barclay-Smith said. “It’s literally round-the-clock work for all of us right
now just to raise the $50,000. But we just have to stay open.”
Barclay-Smith said some local media outlets have erroneously
reported that the school’s funding is merely delayed.
“That is not correct,” she said. “We will no longer get that
funding. It’s that simple.”
Begun more than a decade ago in a house on the campus of
Columbia College, the Barclay School moved five years ago to Ridgeway. She said
the town has welcomed the children with open arms.
“We work with all children who learn differently. So, some
of our children are on the autism spectrum, we have children with Down
[Syndrome], we have children who struggle with reading and writing, we have
children who struggle with anxiety. We are a hodgepodge of diversity and glad
to be so,” Barclay-Smith said.
She describes the school as a community where the children
celebrate each other’s victories, where there’s no homework or “drill and
grill” instruction, where chores and social graces are taught along with
academics. There’s a farm-like collection of class pets, and the calendar is
broken up with frequent field trips and downtown shopping excursions.
Another important aspect of their learning is community
service. The children participate by helping with Meals on Wheels, making
cards, decorating downtown, and anything else that they can do to learn how to
give back.
“We’re a very different kind of school. We focus very much
on what’s called strength-based learning, which basically flips the paradigm
upside-down. Instead of focusing on everything we can’t do,” Barclay-Smith
said, “we’re way more interested in what you can do. Where’s your passion?
Where’s your love? For a lot of our children it’s music, it’s the arts, it’s
drama. We try to find the children’s strengths, and it’s truly metamorphosing
when they come here.
“There is a great need for schools like ours,” Barclay-Smith
said. “These children are special. They learn here and they love it here. When
they left school this week for Christmas break, they all said to us, ‘we’ll see
you after Christmas!’
LEXINGTON – After being sought by Lexington Police for
almost two weeks for assaulting a woman, the suspect, a Winnsboro man, was
arrested on Dec. 16.
Simpson
Officials said Calvin Simpson, 38, is facing two counts of
third-degree assault and battery after officials say a woman at a mobile home
park on Sunset Boulevard reported that Simpson punched her in the eye during an
argument that turned physical at her home.
According to the incident report, the woman told police that
Simpson was a former boyfriend.
The attack took place Dec. 4. After fending off her
attacker, the woman told police that Simpson asked her to drive him to a nearby
Bojangles.
The students at Barclay School celebrate the joys of the season despite the worry that their school may close.
RIDGEWAY – After an IRS rule change impacted a major
nonprofit funding source, a special needs school in Ridgeway is hoping for a
Christmas miracle to help keep its doors open in 2020.
The Barclay School, which currently serves 16 special needs
children, has become a valued part of the community in the last few years as it
has grown, says Gillian Barclay-Smith, head and founder of the school.
Begun more than a decade ago in a house on the campus of
Columbia College, it moved five years ago to Ridgeway, a town of about 300,
which she says has welcomed the children with open arms.
“We work with all children who learn differently. So, some
of our children are on the autism spectrum, we have children with Down
[Syndrome], we have children who struggle with reading and writing, we have
children who struggle with anxiety. We are a hodgepodge of diversity and glad
to be so,” says Barclay-Smith.
“It sounds really trite, but we really are a family; the
feel here is different. We meet the children where they are and not where the
calendar says that they probably should be.”
The school’s funding uncertainty going into the new year has
a lot to do with a change to IRS rules for tax deductions disbursed through
programs like South Carolina’s Exceptional SC, the nonprofit charged with
distributing funds donated by taxpayers through an education-focused tax credit
program.
The organization currently helps to fund 142 special needs
schools across the state, with funding distributed through a formula based on
enrollment. At the Barclay School, this funding supplements the revenue
generated by tuition that’s charged on a sliding scale.
“I love this program because it redirects tax dollars to do
something government is not very good at – these kids. It’s not that they can’t
learn; they just learn differently,” says Chad Connelly, executive director of
Exceptional SC.
“Once you get a program in place like ours [for] five or six
years, they come to count on it – and when something like this happens, what
the heck do you do? It puts everybody in a bad fix.”
The IRS rule change, he says, capped the amount an
individual donors can claim a federal tax deduction for at $10,000. So while
donors still receive a dollar-for-dollar match in state tax credits at a higher
amount, the limit on federal deductions discourages larger contributions.
The limit does not apply to corporate donors, but corporate
taxes are low in South Carolina, he says – so limiting individual donors has
cost the program big time. Last year, Exceptional SC raised $17.5 million in a
day and a half; this year it raised just $6 million – and that took six months.
Barclay-Smith says that for a small school like hers,
funding received through the program is a big deal. Now, she says, they need to
raise $150,000 to get through the end of the school year – $50,000 of that is
needed by Dec. 25 to stay open – which will also buy time to put together a new
funding plan for the future.
The community response so far has given her hope in this
tiny town, whose iconic main street is fit for a Hallmark movie.
When the school’s landlord MEKRA Lang North America – a
major industrial employer in Ridgeway – heard what had happened, they offered a
valuable Christmas gift – free rent in 2020.
Small donations have started to trickle in from the
community: a $300 check from a town community fund, a local tea shop’s pledge
to host a fundraiser, smaller donations from individuals giving what they can.
It’s a good start – but it’s still a big hole to fill.
“People tell me Ridgeway is Mayberry. It’s an amazing little
place. And if we could run on kindness, we wouldn’t have a problem,” she says.
But it takes more than love from the community to cover
bills and payrolls taxes. It takes dollars. And while they’ve set up a donation
page (savebarclay.com) and parents are mobilizing to help raise funds, it’s a
big task. They’re hoping more people will join in the effort.
For Barclay-Smith, who herself struggled with learning
issues as a child, education is a lifelong passion. The Barclay School began 11
years ago with a handful of parents who asked Barclay to work with their
children using her holistic teaching methods.
Her own story is an interesting one. After failing a
high-stakes test as a middle-school student in her native England, she was sent
to a school for low-performing students. But that school taught differently,
and the next time testing came around, she went from failure to prodigy
overnight.
“I knew that I hadn’t changed,” she says. “The only thing
that had changed was the approach in how I was taught.”
She went on to earn a master’s degree in Germany and a Ph.D.
in education from the University of South Carolina. At the Barclay School, she
says, the teachers understand their students because they too have struggled
with issues like dyslexia and ADHD.
In addition to the school’s five full-time and two part-time
teachers, they also rely upon two employees provided by Goodwill, two volunteer
art teachers, help from college students studying to become teachers, and
countless community groups that help with everything from lessons on gardening
to talks on practical life-skills topics to weekly trips to the library.
Barclay-Smith describes the school as a community where the
children celebrate each other’s victories, where there’s no homework or “drill
and grill” instruction, where chores and social graces are taught along with
academics. There’s a farm-like collection of class pets, and the calendar is
broken up with frequent field trips and downtown shopping excursions.
Another important aspect of their learning is community
service. The children participate by helping with Meals on Wheels, making
cards, decorating downtown, and anything else that they can do to learn how to
give back.
“We’re a very different kind of school. We focus very much
on what’s called strength-based learning, which basically flips the paradigm
upside-down. Instead of focusing on everything we can’t do,” Barclay-Smith
says, “we’re way more interested in what you can do. Where’s your passion?
Where’s your love? For a lot of our children it’s music, it’s the arts, it’s
drama. We try to find the children’s strengths, and it’s truly metamorphosing
when they come here.”
In the end, successful education is not about money, Barclay
says. It’s about mindset. As a small, independent school, they’ve always
operated on a shoestring budget. Still, it takes something.
“Pretty much every desk, every chair, every book in this building
was given to us or we went through Goodwill or we dug it out,” she says. “We’ve
got this far on string, so let’s see if we can keep going.”
To make a donation, go to savebarclay.com or call
803-629-6318.
WINNSBORO – In small counties like Fairfield, a single state
senator routinely has unilateral authority to nominate magistrates.
That would change, however, under a new bill recently
prefiled by two Republican state senators.
Senate Bill 903 would expand nomination responsibilities to
a county’s legislative delegation, which include both state House and Senate
members.
Dubbed the “Magistrate Reform Act of 2020,” the bill strikes
existing language that gives senators exclusive power over nominations.
If adopted, S. 903 would appoint magistrates “with the
advice and consent of the legislative delegation of the county in which the
magistrate shall serve,” the measure reads.
“An appointee receives the advice and consent of a
legislative delegation if the appointee receives a majority of the weighted
vote of the Senators in the legislative delegation and a majority of the
weighted vote of the members of the House of Representatives in the legislative
delegation,” the bill continues. “If the legislative delegation provides advice
and consent to an appointee or if the legislative delegation rejects an
appointee, then the legislative delegation shall report to the Clerk of the
House of Representatives, the Clerk of the Senate, and the Governor.”
While the bill would affect every South Carolina county, its impacts would be most directly felt in smaller counties. Among them is Fairfield County, where Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Great Falls, has direct control of Fairfield appointments.
If S. 903 becomes law, Rep. Annie McDaniel, D-Winnsboro,
would also be able to nominate magistrate candidates.
McDaniel said she supports the general premise of the bill,
saying more than one person should be involved in nominating magistrates.
However, she wanted to reserve comment on the bill’s specifics until she could
read its full text.
“When you have just one person, it lends itself to some
concerns,” McDaniel said. “Any time you have more people involved that means
you’re empowering the people.”
In addition, S.903 prohibits the family member of any state
lawmaker from being nominated. Family members of former lawmakers must wait two
years after the lawmaker leaves office to become eligible.
Another provision, aimed at curbing magistrates serving in a
“holdover capacity,” magistrates may not serve more than 90 days after the date
that their term expires, according to the legislation.
When a “non-lawyer magistrate” sentences a defendant,
magistrates hearing any appeals must possess a law degree, and any case that’s
appealed begin from scratch, the proposed law states.
Introduced Dec. 11 by Sens. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort and Tom
Young, R-Aiken, the bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
according to legislative records.
Young is also the sponsor of a second bill that targets
magistrates with stains on their record.
S. 905 states that “any magistrate or magistrate candidate
who has been reprimanded by the supreme court or any other disciplinary
authority may not be appointed or reappointed unless approved by a majority of
the senate after the senate is informed of the reprimand or disciplinary
action.”
If passed, S. 905 could impact Chester County Magistrate
Angie Underwood, who previously was hit with a one-year suspension by the South
Carolina Supreme Court.
Nominated by Sen. Fanning, Underwood is the wife of former
Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood, who’s now under federal indictment.
Angie Underwood was also part of a panel that interviewed candidates for
Fairfield County magistrate vacancies earlier this year.
“I support magistrate judge reform and am both sponsoring
and cosponsoring separate bills that are filed right now to implement
magistrate judge reforms,” Young said in an email sent to The Voice.
S.903 and S. 905 come in the wake of investigative reports
by The Voice about four controversial magistrate nominations in Fairfield
County. When Fanning nominated the magistrates last spring, none had law
degrees and all were appointed without taking tests that are required by state
law to be passed by nominees before they are appointed.
Two of Fanning’s appointments required multiple attempts to
pass the basic, sixth-grade level competency exam.
One candidate required at least three tries before achieving
a passing score, according to judicial records that The Voice obtained.
Two Chester County candidates that Fanning nominated also
had to take the exams multiple times, records show.
In June, following The Voice’s initial reports about magistrate appointment irregularities in Fairfield County, the S.C. Governor’s Office instituted a new policy requiring proof that magistrate nominees have passed their competency exams before being appointed.
Since then, the Post and Courier (Charleston) and ProPublica, a non-profit investigative newsroom, published a joint report highlighting abuses in the nomination of magistrates statewide.
Both news organizations also published a report highlighting
potential conflict of interest issues between Magistrate Angel Underwood and
her husband, the former sheriff.
“And yet, just months after returning to her magistrate duties, the judge [Angel Underwood] secretly aided the sheriff’s office in drafting a complaint against her colleagues on the bench,” Post and Courier reporter Joseph Cranney wrote in This judge is married to the sheriff. Ethics complaints have piled up.
The report also notes that Fanning has removed six of 10 magistrates in his district while retaining Angel Underwood in spite of her having received a suspension from her magistrate duties after conflicts involving her husband, the sheriff.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County has finally developed a formal
process to dispose of land and property forfeited to the county, ending more
than 30 years of non-compliance with state law.
On Nov. 11, the Fairfield County Forfeited Land Commission
held its inaugural meeting, where it appointed officers and adopted policies
and procedures. “Its primary function is to effect the sale of lands forfeited
in pursuance of the South Carolina Code of Laws,” according to the Fairfield
County website.
“The Delinquent Tax Collector at the tax sale submits the
bid on behalf of the Forfeited Land Commission equal to the amount of all
unpaid taxes, assessments, penalties and cost,” the site states.
County Administrator Jason Taylor said he was unaware a
forfeited land commission had never been established. He estimated that the
county has a backlog of 120 undisposed properties, and that none have sold
since 2008.
“They go back a long, long time. Before that, I do think if
somebody researched and decided they wanted a piece of property, they’d inquire
about it and possibly purchase it,” he said.
Taylor noted the county uncovered forfeited lands in droves
while working on the Zion Hill renovation project. He couldn’t say why the
issue hasn’t arisen sooner, but surmised Fairfield County’s comparatively low
property values may be one reason.
“The goal is to get these properties out of unproductive
status and into a productive status,” Taylor said.
At the Nov. 11 commission meeting, county attorney Tommy
Morgan said in many cases, the parcels are small and virtually unnoticeable,
but remain in the county’s possession, nonetheless.
“Some properties that are in the commission’s name already,
for example, are nothing more than a driveway,” Morgan said.
Miriam Woodward, the county’s tax collector, said there’s
never been any direction from past county councils to address forfeited lands.
She said it wasn’t until recently that the forfeited lands were deeded.
“Now we’re just playing catch-up in getting the properties
out there and available to the public,” Woodard said. “I just never, ever had
the time to get all the information together and all the deeds drawn up.”
Tim Smith, a spokesman with the S.C. Department of Revenue,
said via email that every South Carolina county is required by law to establish
a forfeited land commission.
The commission’s purpose, he said, is to ensure that bids at
delinquent tax sales satisfy the delinquent and current tax amounts.
“The FLC may sell any property in its portfolio in any way
possible, as long as the sale is determined by the FLC to be in the best
interest of the county,” Smith said. “The point is to get the property back on
the tax rolls and contributing to the tax base of the county.”
Smith couldn’t say what consequences a county might face for
not establishing a land commission.
“It is a requirement in the statute, but we don’t know who
would challenge that to enforce it or who would suffer damage,” he said.
The Fairfield commission consists of three members: Peggy
Hensley, county auditor; Judy Bonds, register of deeds; and Norma Branham,
county treasurer. Branham was appointed commission chair. Jim Thompson with the
assessor’s office was designated the agent of the commission.
Also at the Nov. 11 meeting, commissioners voted to adopt a policies and
procedures manual that lists the duties and powers of the commission and its
officers.
It also delineates who has first rights of refusal of a
property, and the order in which a party can place bids.
CHESTER – As they did when facing their first round of
federal indictments, suspended Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood and two
former deputies entered “not guilty” pleas on new charges in federal court
Tuesday.
Tuesday’s proceedings were quick and to the point.
Underwood, Robert Sprouse (a former chief deputy) and Johnny Neal (a former lieutenant)
acknowledged they understood the charges. They entered their pleas and the
state indicated it was fine with the bond conditions continuing as is. Those
conditions include that none of the three may possess a firearm or contact any
potential witnesses in their cases, including any employee of the Chester
County Sheriff’s Office. All three were forced to relinquish their passports
and they may not leave the state without permission of the court.
New Charges
The most recent indictments say Underwood, Sprouse and Neal
used their positions as law enforcement officers to intimidate others, took
“family members on trips (while) charging the cost to the sheriff’s office,“
directed “payments for contracted security detail services through a particular
sheriff’s office bank account to avoid tax payment,” used “sheriff’s office
employees to conduct manual labor that personally benefitted…Underwood while
the employees were actively working for the sheriff’s office” and “establishing
a climate of fear within the sheriff’s office to direct and secure obedience
among subordinates.”
According to the indictments, Underwood and Sprouse took
their wives to Reno, Nevada in 2017, using the county procurement process and
money while claiming their wives were employees of the sheriff’s office.
Underwood also took his wife (Chester County Chief Magistrate Angel Underwood)
to New Orleans that year, again using the county procurement policy and money.
Upgraded Travel
It is not mentioned in the indictment, but the trips nearly
always also included upgraded travel and hotel room and chauffer services all
paid for with county tax dollars. The indictment notes that Underwood and
Sprouse provided personal checks to cover the expenses incurred by their wives
on those trips in March of this year, nearly two years after the trips took
place and only after they had been questioned about the expenses by the
Charleston Post and Courier.
Avoided Paying Taxes
The indictments also indicate that from 2015 until 2019,
Underwood, Neal and “others known to the grand jury, directed security-detail
payment to flow through accounts…for the purpose of avoiding employment taxes.”
Chester County Council recently learned that in the past few years, $238,000
has essentially been paid under the table to deputies for outside security
work. New W-2 forms will have to be issued to 70 impacted employees and the
county may end up on the hook for paying more than $30,000 in back FICA taxes.
Underwood is also alleged to have used on-duty deputies to perform manual labor
at his home, including renovating a barn.
The three were originally indicted in April after allegedly illegally arresting Kevin Simpson of Fort Lawn in November of 2018. Simpson’s arrest was streamed live on Facebook and when the three discovered that, they allegedly returned to his home without a warrant, took his phone and tried to delete the video. Those charges ranged from creating a false incident report, to violating Simpson’s rights and causing him bodily injury, to lying to federal investigators and evidence tampering.
This article was reprinted with permission from The Chester News and Reporter.
