Friday, April 12, 2019

Is "moral turpitude" involved?

Today's The State newspaper reports the sentence imposed on former Richland County Council member Kelvin Washington, who pled guilty on October 1st to first-offense DUI and two counts of second-degree assault and battery. The charges resulted from a DUI crash on February 27, 2016.

The wheels of justice do slowly turn in Richland County; right? Read the article to see the slap on the wrist administered to Washington by the court.

Included in the article was mention of Washington's removal from office a month after the crash (March 2016?) by former Gov. Nikki Haley. But she didn't throw him out of the office because of the DUI or assault and battery charges. She threw him out because of his conviction for "failure to pay three years' worth on state income taxes," according to the article in The State.

Gov. Haley considered that as "moral turpitude" and gave Washington the boot.

I suppose the key element there was not just that he hadn't paid three years' worth of state income taxes, but that he was convicted of that. And how long did that case take?

Which brings me to Richland 2 School District. (I imagine you were just waiting to find out.)

McKie filed a Statement of Economic Interests on August 15, 2014 and never filed another report with the South Carolina Ethics Commission until December 4, 2018.

On December 4, 2018 McKie filed Statements of Economic Interests for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The filing of the 2018 Statement on December 4 made her eligible to take the oath of office following her re-election to the School Board, but she has not taken an oath since then. She did take the oath of office on November 13, 2018, but that was in violation of S.C. Code of Laws Section 8-13-1110(A).

In 2019 McKie filed (late) Campaign Disclosure Forms for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

McKie's debt to the Ethics Commission is $51,850, as of April 1, 2019.

If a person failed to file required Campaign Disclosure Forms with the South Carolina Ethics Commission for four years and also didn't file a required Statement of Economic Interests Reports, and god fines thousands of dollars for that, would that decision by the Ethics Commission constitute a "conviction" and open the door for the current Governor to remove said person from the School Board for the reason that Gov. Haley used when she removed Washington?

Is it optional for the Governor to do that? Or is it incumbent upon the Governor to do so?

The Governor's Office has told me that he doesn't have the authority to remove a school board member. That's untrue.

No comments:

Post a Comment