Friday, Oct. 16, 2009

Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce denies candidate offerings

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday denied claims posted this week on a Web site that it made campaign contributions to reward elected officials for approving the 1 percent sales tax for tourism promotion.

The story, posted on DiscoverMyrtleBeach.com, said that it's not a coincidence that all four incumbents running for re-election in the Nov. 3 Myrtle Beach City Council elections - Mayor John Rhodes, Councilman Randal Wallace, Councilman Wayne Gray and Councilman Chuck Martino - received donations of $1,000 each from the same 24 companies.

The city officials say they have not received any donations from the chamber.

In May, the council unanimously passed the tax for tourism efforts that is expected to raise between $14 million and $18 million annually for the chamber to use for out-of-state marketing. It went into effect Aug. 1.

Brant Branham, the chamber's chairman, said the donations were an effort taken on by him and a few other businessmen in town to support pro-business and pro-tourism candidates.

"We certainly think more of our councilmen and elected officials. That's something that we wouldn't have anything to do with, and I'm sure they wouldn't either," he said. "That's just not how we do business."

Only three of the 24 companies listed on the Web site as "The Big 24" are members of the chamber, chamber officials say.

Raymond Elling, owner of DiscoverMyrtleBeach.com, said there were no plans to remove the post from the site, despite the chamber's denial of the claims.

"It is not our story, but we looked into it, and we had it posted up there, and we put up there that people should look into it themselves. We're not passing any judgment on that," said Elling, who added that the site posted the response issued Wednesday by the chamber.

"If it's a payoff, that's for someone else to decide, not for us," he said.

Rhodes said he has not received money from the chamber for his campaign, and that these checks, as hard as someone might try to connect them to the chamber, did not come from there.

"These are from people who have been raising money for my re-election, and that of the other incumbents, and they've obviously done that because they are happy with our leadership of the city," Rhodes said.

He said his assistant collects checks that are sent to his house and his post office box and deposits them in groups.

"I'm getting money in every day," Rhodes said. "When she comes in tomorrow, there will be more to deposit. I've got nothing to hide from. These are facts."

Wallace said he let a lot of people know this year's campaign was going to be "vicious and tough."

"I've raised a lot more than $24,000," Wallace said. "Some chamber members have helped me raise money, but I have not received money from the chamber of commerce. My employer has helped me; Sam Lauren has helped me. There are lots of business people who have helped me."

Gray said he didn't receive any money from the chamber. So far, he said, he has raised about $50,000 and has filed his documents with the S.C. Ethics Commission on time, contrary to the allegations on the Web site.

"I've received more than 24 $1,000 checks," Gray said.

Martino said he doesn't see any connection between his campaign donations, which total about $40,000, and the chamber as some sort of payoff.

"I got no money from the chamber, I got no money from Brant Branham, no money from Brad Dean," he said. "If you check my ethics filings, I have always been lucky enough to have a lot of $1,000 contributions. Literally, every day, I'm getting contributions from people."

Branham said the posting of the claims were depressing and distressing for the chamber and the entire community.

"I don't know if this is Elmer Fudd or what this is," he said, referring to a person who posted under the comment sections of several stories on TheSunNews.com in August that the Horry County Sheriff's Office had conducted raids at the chamber and other businesses. Sheriff's officials said there had been no raids.

In September, the chamber filed a defamation lawsuit, claiming that the comments were false.

"I'm disappointed in whomever would bring this up, and to do this anonymously, unnamed, I think is cowardly. It's disappointing that it would get to this level," he said.