COLUMBIA – Gov. Henry McMaster wants to beef up a pair of
watchdogs that investigate government misconduct, make the Palmetto State’s
scandal-scarred sheriffs attend ethics training, and shine more light on
special interests that secretly influence city and county councils.
The Columbia Republican will package those proposals into
his soon-to-be-unveiled executive budget, calling on lawmakers to spend some
$3.4 million more per year on measures meant to repair South Carolinians’ faith
in their government.
The governor’s agenda would tackle some of the problems
exposed over the past year by Uncovered, a project in which The Post and
Courier has teamed up with 17 other newspapers across the state, including The
Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County, to investigate public corruption
and expose the systems of oversight that fail to hold politicians accountable.
More than 120 S.C. public officials have been arrested on
criminal charges related to their government work over the past seven years,
the investigation found. The state’s sheriffs keep getting arrested for
breaking the laws they swore to uphold — more than a dozen have been charged
with crimes while in office since 2010. But as newspapers and other watchdogs
have declined, many other officials in small-town South Carolina have evaded
scrutiny.
The governor’s proposals come ahead of a budget cycle where
lawmakers will have a mountain of cash to spend. The Legislature expects the
state budget to grow by nearly $900 million next year and will have nearly $2.2
million to spend on one-time projects, making McMaster’s request a drop in the
bucket.
“The governor doesn’t think there is any more worthy
investment than making sure government is more accountable to the people and
transparent,” McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes told The Post and Courier.
Strengthening watchdogs
McMaster’s proposed budget would more than double the
budgets of the State Ethics Commission and Office of Inspector General, giving
the pair of government watchdogs more money to hire investigators and enforce
laws that are already on the books.
Both could use the help.
The State Ethics Commission has a staff of just 18 to
monitor campaign spending and fundraising, track lobbying activity at the
Statehouse, and investigate complaints of misconduct against politicians and
public officials.
In part because it employs just four investigators, the
agency has historically let public officials off the hook with warnings and
minimal fines after investigations that sometimes disregard serious
allegations, an Uncovered investigation found last year. And even when it does
fine politicians, it has trouble forcing them to pay up, another Uncovered
story revealed.
The Office of Inspector General, an eight-person agency,
also has its hands full with investigating fraud, abuse, waste and misconduct
within the state’s 106 executive agencies.
Led by former FBI investigator Brian Lamkin, the agency
typically fields hundreds of complaints a year against state employees and
programs. In one high-profile case last year, the Inspector General’s Office
determined that a former state agency executive director helped her husband win
a $600,000 contract with her agency.
In another, the office investigated and scolded the
Governor’s School for Agriculture at John de la Howe after an Uncovered report
first revealed ethical breaches and questionable spending there.
In addition to giving the Inspector General’s Office at
least three more investigators, the governor also wants to expand the agency’s
jurisdiction beyond just state agencies, his office said.
McMaster will support efforts to empower the office to
investigate any agency or group that gets state tax dollars, his office said.
That includes school districts, cities, counties — even nonprofits that get
state grants.
The state’s 170 legislators haven’t seen the governor’s
proposed budget yet. But two necessary allies, the chairmen of the House and
Senate budget committees, told The Post and Courier they support the idea of
strengthening the Ethics Commission and Inspector General’s Office.
“I’ve spent my entire Senate career fighting for efficiency
and accountability in government,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Harvey Peeler, a Gaffney Republican who was first elected to the Senate in
1980. “While I haven’t seen the details of the governor’s proposals, they will
be strongly considered if they lead to those two items.”
Local scrutiny
McMaster also wants the state’s 46 sheriffs to undergo
annual ethics training, a response to a steady stream of arrests and criminal
convictions of the state’s top lawmen.
The Post and Courier’s 2019 series “Above the Law” showed
that one in four of South Carolina’s counties in the past decade had seen their
sheriffs arrested for breaking laws. By the end of that year, three more
sheriffs had been indicted and removed from office. In all, 15 sheriffs since
2010 have been arrested on charges ranging from drug dealing to driving under
the influence.
Ex-Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood is currently
awaiting sentencing after his federal conviction on corruption and abuse of
power charges. Meanwhile, Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon was indicted
last month and suspended from office on charges of ordering a deputy to
repeatedly jolt a suspect with a Taser in the county jail.
The governor’s budget requests $200,000 to pay for the training.
It also calls for a public listing of which sheriffs attend and which skip out.
“Over the years, we have seen far too many instances of
sheriffs abusing their office,” said Symmes, McMaster’s spokesman.
House budget committee Chairman Murrell Smith said he likes
that idea. The Sumter Republican would even support expanding ethics training
to all public officials across the state.
Smith, a lawyer, noted that even after graduating law school
and passing the bar exam, attorneys are required to receive regular training.
He thinks politicians should do the same, especially in an age where technology
has made it easier than ever for everyday taxpayers to scrutinize elected
officials’ dealings.
“There is more scrutiny on people about their ethics than
there was 20 or 30 years ago,” Smith said. “It’s time for us to make sure that
we put more emphasis on ethics and compliance and training.”
McMaster’s ethics agenda also calls for more scrutiny of
local government. Currently, political operatives who are paid to influence
decisions at the Statehouse have to register as lobbyists with the Ethics
Commission. But no such requirement exists at the local levels. That allows
businesses and special interests to wine and dine city and county council
members free of oversight.
As he has in the past, McMaster will call on lawmakers to
close that loophole by requiring local lobbyists to register with the state.
McMaster’s executive budget is just the first step in a long
legislative process where proposals can be fine-tuned or outright rejected. The
governor can also make his case at the Jan. 19 State of the State address, a
speech in which governors typically tout their achievements and lay out their
priorities for the year ahead.
