Several individuals included on the South Carolina State Ethics Commission’s Debtors List for failing to pay late filing penalties and enforcement fines say they are trying to pay their debts, but they also cited the need for improvements in how the debt can be collected more efficiently.
The commission states on its website that the fines are levied as part of the agency’s mission to enforce the Ethics Reform Act. The Debtors List (https://ethics.sc.gov/sites/default/files/Documents/Debtors/Debtors%20List%20July%202021%202.pdf) includes public officials, public members, public employees, lobbyists, lobbyist’s principals, candidates and committees who have failed to pay late filing penalties and enforcement fines.
The majority of individuals listed from The T&D Region were fined for failing to file a statement of economic interests, which involves the annual disclosure of certain personal investments, interests in real property, sources of income, gifts, loans and business positions. All public officials who make governmental decisions that could affect their personal financial interest must disclose an annual statement of economic interest.
The current amount of penalty due may differ from the judgment amount as a result of partial payments or accrual of additional penalty. Since the last update, some taxpayers may have resolved their debts listed below and may be in the process of being removed from this list.
In the meantime, some officials have said that the electronic filing system through which the statement of economic interests must be filed is not easy to navigate, or that notifications of debts due are not issued in a timely fashion as fines continue to pile up.
Bamberg City Councilwoman Bobbi Bunch, $18,986
Bunch said she is aware of her fines, which were incurred for failing to file a statement of economic interests. Her default year is listed as 2019.
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“It is something I’m aware of. They have a system of you have to go in and each year you have to do that. But they don’t remind you. They don’t send a reminder, and the computer system is kind of hard to use. So I am aware of it, and we’re working on it now. You have to just go back and sign in, and you just have to work on getting it paid back and making sure it’s signed in and done. It does happen sometime,” Bunch said.
She said she is “certainly” working to get the debt paid down.
“We have to follow the state rules and guidelines and if we don’t, we have to pay our fines just like everybody else. We have to do that. They’ve been very accommodating. They’ve been working with me,” Bunch said.
“They say once you get some of the things under control, they’ll reduce some fines for you. It’s hurting rural South Carolina leaders, though, because they are asking that we have all these fundraisers and money that they think we have, but we don’t fundraise in rural South Carolina politics.
“You’re a citizen and you do what you can for your city and you do above and beyond, and then they slap you with these fines. But that’s OK, we’re going to work with them and get it done,” the councilwoman said.
Bunch said the state Ethics Commission does not “let you know in enough time to get it under control and it goes on too long.”
“And then once it goes on too long, you can’t get the fines back down. They’re wanting to hold you to those fines. They just don’t have a good communication. I have just gotten a letter form something I did three years ago. So it’s a lack of communication on their end,” she said.
Bunch continued, “You get a banking statement stating you owe this, this and this. It’s not coming like that. So it’s kind of hard to read, and it’s not an easy website to browse. But, other than that, we’re working on it and getting it done.”
Calhoun County Coroner Donny Porth, $5,200
Porth has racked up his debt for failing to file a statement of economic interests, with his default year listed as 2020.
“In my opinion, the state Ethics Commission should be sending out notifications of bills due. In my opinion, they don’t do that. They don’t give elected officials enough time to respond. Everybody forgets things to do. I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s done that, but normally if you forget to pay a bill, then they’ll have a follow up on it. … But I don’t think they do that in a timely manner,” Porth said.
He said he is working on paying his debt down.
“It’s a fine for not filing on time, and then after a certain amount of time, they tack on some astronomical charges, let’s put it that way. Like I say, they don’t make a notification. It’s just like, ‘Well, I thought I filed that.’ You look back and say, ‘Well, maybe I didn’t file it.’ So most of those expenses are fees and everything else tacked on to it. So it’s not necessarily the fine,” Porth said.
He continued, “I never have gotten in this situation before. I have been late filing, and I was notified and I made the filing fee deadline. But I never incurred $5,000 in penalties. So most of it is just penalties. The first time I’ve incurred that kind of astronomical penalties. I’m just trying to work out the details of it and come up with some type of solution for it. They do have the authority to garnish your tax returns.”
State Ethics Commission Executive Director Meghan Walker said, “For an individuals who does not pay their fines, the debt is turned over to the Department of Revenue for collections.”
“In certain situations there may be a lien put on a person in their county of residence, but people remain on the Debtors List until the debt is satisfied,” she said.
Walker continued, “Sometimes a judgment will be filed in the county of residence for an individual if they don’t pay the fines involved in a complaint. For noncompliance matters that don’t reach a complaint, once the individual doesn’t pay their fine, then it’s referred to the Department of Revenue, who can recoup those funds via GEAR (Governmental Enterprise Accounts Receivable Collections Program) or Debt Setoff.”
Elloree Town Councilwoman Kim Gidron, $100
Gidron was in debt for not filing a statement of economic interests, with her default year listed as 2016.
“I did fail to do that. I’m suffering with COVID. So I haven’t been making any type of meetings or nothing, no deadlines, no municipal meetings, no nothing. So, yeah, I probably am on there,” Gidron said, referring to the debtors list.
She said she does plan to pay the money back.
“Yeah, once I get back to work and get my health together, I sure do. I’m not even worrying. Do they even know what’s going on with people, sicknesses and stuff, or no?” Gidron said, noting that the commission had had an incorrect home address for her.
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“I think they sent me the letter notice. … Somebody pulled it out of the box for me because I wasn’t even able to check my mail. So they had pulled it out the box, and I said, ‘Wait a minute! They go the wrong address.’ I didn’t know they were going to put nothing in no system or whatever, but they don’t even the right address for me. So I don’t know how they even did that,” the councilwoman said.
Gidron continued, “I’ll just go ahead and probably try to call up and see because they just pulled that out of the box — a notice for me (about the fines) — when I couldn’t get to the mailbox, and that was just this year. So I didn’t get the chance to talk to them yet.
“They did have the right address, but I never got a chance to call them because of sickness. I was like, ‘I’ll think about it once I get stuff back together.’ I’ll just try to give them a call and see what is going on. But, like I said, they didn’t have the right address for me.”
Bamberg City Councilman Leslie B. Hayes, $5,000
Hayes has racked up $5,000 in debt for failing to file a statement of economic interests, with his default year listed as 2021.
“I’m trying to figure out why I owe $5,000. I contacted them and they couldn’t give me a valid explanation of it, other than they say I didn’t complete a form that I was supposed to complete in 2017. So I’m trying to research my stuff now to try to figure out what I can do. I got 30 days to get that information into them,” he said, something which he said he would be working on.
“I’m trying to get it right,” Hayes said.
Denmark City Councilman Calvin Odom, $7,572
Odom also incurred debt for failing to file a statement of economic interests, with his default year listed as 2015.
Commission records indicate Odom failed to file an annual statement of economic interests which was to have been filed prior to March 30, 2014. He was sent a couple of notices notifying him of the fact in February and April of 2015. His total debt has included a late filing penalty of $100.
According to his notices, if the statement was not filed within the first 10 days of his receipt of the letters, additional penalties would be levied at $10 per day for the first 10 days, and $100 per day for each additional day until the penalty reached $5,000.
It was in September of 2015 that he received a noticed of the commission’s intention to submit and/or resubmit his debt to the state Department of Revenue through the Setoff Debt Collection Act and/or Governmental Enterprise Accounts Receivable Collections Program, or GEAR, until the debt was paid in full.
“I didn’t think it was fair because I wrote them a letter concerning that. At the time, I was working part-time as an adjunct professor at Denmark Tech. The work time that I had at Tech, I was still eligible to receive funds. Not the full amount of unemployment at the time, but I was still eligible for unemployment. I wrote them several letters concerning that matter,” Odom said.
“What was transpiring at the time at Denmark Tech, say if I started working July and I think my first check was a month after I started. I notified the ladies at the unemployment office, and they said that was OK. I told them the amount that I would be receiving, and they told me what I was eligible for. And they tried to disqualify my wages. They never really did look into the matter,” the councilman said.
Odom said the commission had not sent him “any information” and that he didn’t know anything about a statement of economic interest and owing anything concerning that.
“No, the only thing I was in debt on was money received during unemployment time some years ago. I don’t owe the ethics office anything. I file every time. I’ve gotten that straight. I’m going to have the (Denmark town) administrator look into that. I didn’t know they had something down from the ethics office,” Odom said.
He continued, “A little marginal job. I didn’t accrue any campaign funds when I was running. I just used my personal funds for a few little fliers here and there,” he said, noting that he was surprised he was on the Debtor’s List. I’m going to have the (town) administrator check into that for me.”
Odom said he was waiting to hear from the commission’s compliance officer on the matter, stating that he had “paid all the necessary fines.”
Former Branchville Mayor Glenn Miller, $1,589.42
Miller served as Branchville’s mayor from 2012 to 2016 and said his fine was levied because of his parking the town truck at his home at night, a complaint he said stemmed from “disgruntled councilmen.”
His default year is listed as 2016.
“I’m aware of it. It was because I was driving the town truck at home at night because we didn’t have no safe place. That’s why I went up there,” Miller said, noting that he was not using the truck unauthorized.
“It’s a long story. … I had one worker who did not have a driver’s license. I had to be the one to take him from A to B. At the time, our water system was in bad shape. … I would have to go pick him up. He lived out of town. One particular councilman, he was hell bent on making problems for me, and that’s how that came about,” he said.
He continued, “I didn’t live but about less than one quarter of a mile from town hall. I would put the truck in the yard. Never after 5 o’clock would I move it unless it was for town business. But somewhere in the policies and stuff, I should have signed some kind of form.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t read it, didn’t know it. I realize ignorance is no excuse, and that’s what happened. I felt that I was truly whipped for no reason at all, but it is what it is.”
Miller said he found out about he required form during a hearing he had before the state Ethics Commission board in 2014.
“I found this out when I was the hearing in Columbia. I never did get a form and didn’t fill it out, and I never did use the vehicle for pleasure, and the councilman knew I didn’t. But one in particular told me when I was elected mayor that him and his cronies were going to chew me up and spit me out,” Miller said. “They were hell bent and somehow one must be talked to someone and found out they could create a problem, and they did that.”
He said he does not have the money to be able to pay his debt.
“The truth is the money is just hard for me to pay. My doctor bills are taking up all of my retirement. I wrote a letter explaining that to them. In fact, I wrote one even to (former S.C.) Gov. (Nikki) Haley,” Miller said.
He said he’d be willing to be placed on a payment plan.
“That would be one way. I don’t know the minimum monthly I would pay. I don’t know what to say, to be honest. There are times when it just goes off your mind. I do realize I was fined that $1,500. … So it’s not something that I don’t think about. … I’m just at a crossroads, at odds on what to do,” Miller said.
The former town mayor said he has to live with the commission’s ruling.
“Eventually I know I’ll have to pay them. I don’t have a good answer. That’s a poor excuse, but the truth is the truth,” Miller said.
Branchville Town Council Candidate Charles Bamberg, $37,600
Bamberg has racked up one of the largest debts included on the statewide debtors list at more than $37,000. His default years are listed as 2009 and 2011 for failing to file a statement of economic interests.
The former council candidate did not respond to repeated calls for comment.
Miller said he knew Bamberg, but that he wasn’t going to get involved in anybody else’s case.
“I know him but, believe me, I’m not going to get involved with no one else on that. I’m going to tell you that straight from the shoulder,” he said, noting that Bamberg lives in Branchville.
“I don’t know what his story is, but mine was just so sleazy because I put hours night and day and labor not for no recognition, but because I know the town needed it,” Miller said.
The former mayor continued, “I had one person to help run the town. One, and he didn’t even have a driver’s license. I refuse to knowingly let someone use a town or government vehicle without a license.
“I didn’t have no problem. I just saw nothing with it. I didn’t give it a second thought. Had I known there was some kind of form I needed to fill out. … Once again, ignorance is no excuse, and I’m not making any.”
Branchville Town Councilman Michael Blankenship, $200
Blankenship also failed to file a statement of economic interests, with his default year listed as 2019.
The councilman did not respond to repeated calls and emails for comment.
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