Monday, Nov. 23, 2009

Ethics panel eyes checks in Myrtle Beach

The South Carolina Ethics Commission is looking a little further into a group of donations given to Myrtle Beach City Council incumbents and several other regional and state lawmakers, but does not classify the inquiry as an investigation.

Ethics Commission Attorney Cathy Hazelwood said commission Director Herbert R. Hayden Jr. sent letters to the four council incumbents - Mayor John Rhodes and councilmen Chuck Martino, Wayne Gray and Randal Wallace, all of whom were up for re-election this year - asking for copies of 24 $1,000 checks given to each of them by several individuals and limited liability corporations.

Each of the corporations and individuals also gave $1,000 checks to members of Horry County's legislative delegation and $3,500 checks to U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-3rd District, who is running for S.C. governor. All told, the contributions added up to more than $300,000.

Hazelwood said stories in area newspapers prompted Hayden to want a look at the checks, some of which were cashiers' checks - not typical of campaign donations.

However, she has said, there is nothing illegal about LLCs making political contributions as long as they are within legal limits and the LLCs were not set up specifically to make donations.

As of Tuesday, Hazelwood said, responses had been received from all four Myrtle Beach incumbents and were sitting in Hayden's inbox.

"He's not taking any calls this week. We're dealing with Gov. [Mark] Sanford this week, so there's no way Myrtle Beach is going to jump to the front of the line," Hazelwood said. The Ethics Commission heard details Wednesday of a three-month investigation to decide if there's evidence that Sanford broke state ethics laws.

She also said at this point, Herbert simply wanted to see the checks, and that no complaint has been filed against anyone.

"He just wants to look and see what the checks say on them," she said.

Martino said he did not have copies of the checks, though the contributions had been logged in his campaign ledger and reported to the ethics commission as required.

They are reported in all four incumbents' filings posted online at the ethics commission's Web site.

Gray said his campaign staff did make copies of all contributions and was able to send those to the ethics commission director.

"It's nothing unusual. They open a file on every call they get and look at it to determine whether there needs to be an investigation," Gray said.

Wallace said he also had saved copies and submitted them late last week, as did Rhodes.