Richland 2 School Board Trustee-elect Amelia McKie still owes $51,750 to the South Carolina Ethics Commission!
Why hasn't she paid even one penny toward this debt?
The Ethics Commission filed a $51,750 judgment against McKie in the Richland County Common Pleas Court on July 10, 2019. That was one year after the Ethics Commission's Decision and Order that covered fines for several violations of ethics laws over a period of years.
The S.C. Department of Revenue is the agent for the Ethics Commission and is supposed to be collecting this debt. Why isn't it doing its job? Why doesn't the DOR garnish her wages that the District is illegally paying her for the board position?
I refer to McKie as "trustee-elect" because that is her legal title. McKie has never taken the oath of office legally. She did take an oath of office on November 13, 2018, but she was not eligible to do so because she had not filed her Statement of Economic Interests (SEI) with the Ethics Commission. She filed that SEI on December 4, 2018, but she has never taken the oath of \office since.
Why the five legal members of the board have tolerated her unlawful position on the board is anyone's guess. It's actually not too hard to figure out. She is getting "a little help from her friends" - those who make up the majority of the Richland 2 Board. They seem not to be concerned with laws or ethics.
Why did the Board reward McKie with the nomination to serve on the board of the South Carolina School Boards Association? She cannot legally hold the SCSBA Region 8 Director position.
McKie is not a legal member of the Richland 2 School Board; not because of her $51,750 debt, but because she has never taken the oath of office legally. How simple it would be to do so. It would take one minute to be sworn in legally. Then the Richland 2 District would have to wipe the mud off its face and nominate her properly to the SCSBA.
And the SCSBA would have to wipe the mud off its own face. It knows about McKie's illegitimate occupancy of the Richland 2 board position.
(This article appeared as a Letter to the Editor in The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County.)
