Commission to address litany of questions, includes USC dean
South Carolina has a history of political mischief, and Gov. Nikki Haley wants to do something about it.
So, she’s created a new bi-partisan panel, including a dean from USC, that will attempt to tackle South Carolina’s ethics issues in a number of areas this year.
In August, the state was given an “F” and ranked 45th in the country in the State Integrity Investigation, a survey conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International.
The group, the Commission on Ethics Reform, will include 11 members.
So far, 10 have been appointed — eight by Haley, one by Attorney General Alan Wilson’s public integrity unit and one by Roland Smith, chairman of the House Ethics Committee. The final member will be tapped by Wes Hayes, chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.
Among them: Two former attorneys general, past members of the state Ethics Commission, former U.S. attorneys and two representatives of the media.
Charles Bierbauer, the dean of the college of mass communications and information studies, fits in the latter category, along with Bill Rogers, the executive director of the S.C. Press Association.
Their inclusion, Bierbauer said, marks a focus, at least in part, on the state’s open records and sunshine laws — how long agencies can take in responding to records requests, what they can charge for documents and what meetings are open to the public, among others.
Still, Bierbauer said, the scope of their deliberations hasn’t been set yet, and the group hadn’t met or gotten word from its co-chairmen by Friday afternoon. The group is headed up by Henry McMaster, a former Republican attorney general who works as a fundraiser for USC’s School of Law, and Travis Medlock, a former Democratic attorney general.
“It may not be in its infancy; it may only be at conception,” Bierbauer said.
An executive order issued by Haley charges the panel with tackling a litany of questions, from how ethics laws are enforced and what politicians have to disclose, to what constitutes a conflict of interest and how public officials use state-owned planes.
“What we have to do first is lay out an agenda of those things that need first to be reviewed that already exist, then determine what might need to be amended or revised and then do a gap analysis that says, ‘What’s missing here?’” Bierbauer said.
They’ll consider those and others over the next three months, and they’re required to submit their final suggestions of how to reform ethics to Haley and the state legislature by Jan. 28, holding at least two public forums along the way.
The question of ethics reform has been raised much lately.
It came just months after then-Lt. Gov. Ken Ard resigned after he was indicted for misusing campaign funds.
It came up again last month, when House Speaker Bobby Harrell came under fire when The Post and Courier raised questions of how he was reimbursing himself with his campaign account. Harrell has maintained he didn’t break any state laws.