I'm hiding... I'm hiding ...

Remember the old joke about "I'm hiding"?

Amelia McKie attended last night's Richland 2 School Board meeting by telephone. Where was she?

In most public bodies, when a member attends by telephone, not only is that announced at the beginning of the meeting (as it was last night), but also a vote is taken by those present in person to allow that absent member to attend by phone. Last night it wasn't.

Also, the member's absence is usually explained to the public and to the other board members in public. Last night it wasn't.

This is the second meeting in 2020 that she has missed in person. Why? Was she sick? Traveling on business? Or just hiding out, since she owes $51,750 in fines and penalties to the S.C. Ethics Commission, has a judgment filed against her in Richland County Common Pleas Court for that amount, and missed the January 10, 2020 deadline for filing her Campaign Disclosure Report by more than 30 days.

Does McKie have a business or income? On her latest Statement of Economic Interests Report (SEI), filed yesterday with the S.C. Ethics Commission, she lists private source, personal consulting income from ILLC. No amount of income is required to be disclosed by the Ethics Commission. By allowing her to identify the source as ILLC, it is impossible to determine what ILLC is and whether there might be a conflict of interest, which is the purpose of the SEI. (The S.C. Department of Revenue should be quite interested in that, because it might be able to latch onto it is partial settlement of her $51,750 debt to the Ethics Commission.

McKie must not have any friends on the board, although I'm sure she would claim otherwise. Apparently, not one of her "friends" bothered to remind her that she had failed to file that Campaign Disclosure Report on time. The Ethics Commission allows a five-day grace period for filing and then assesses a $100.00 penalty after 30 days. With friends like those, who needs enemies?

McKie took a big shot at me from hiding, when Item 13.1 came up last night. I can't wait to replay her comments, as soon as the District posts the video-recording on YouTube later today or tomorrow. She was the first to mention the e-mail I had sent to all board members, asking them to vote down the expected motion to change the date of the second Regular Meeting in March.

McKie was really sucking up to the superintendent. Why would a board member do that? The same question could be asked of others on the board. I was just waiting for a giant sucking noise to sweep through the room.