Thursday, October 20, 2022

Ethics Commission SEI Woes - Holmes

Teresa Holmes, proud advertiser on a LAMAR billboard containing the line "Difference Don't [sic] Matter ... Kids Do", has more than spelling or grammatical problems.

Her 2022 Statement of Economic Interests Report, as filed with the S.C. Ethics Commission for the Calendar Year 2021, contains errors. 

It's a simple form that is filed electronically. You can view it (it's a public record) at ethics.sc.gov  Go the the homepage, then click on Public Reporting.

Under Ethics Filing Activity, click on Statements of Economic Interests.

Type in Holmes as the Filer, and select 2022 for the Report Year.

At the top left, notice the Viewing Version. It will show Amendment 1 (filed 9/29/2022). If you want to see the Original Version (filed 3/22/2022), just change the Viewing Version.

Two positions are reported: Candidate and Elected Official.

First, notice when she registered to run for office. "9/2023"

Private Income is what you earn if you are working (not as a school board member). Notice her two answers there. Apparently, she had no Private Income (non-school district earnings).

Then examine her Income from an SC Governmental Entity. 

If you believe what's listed, she earned $139,000 in 2021 ($12,000 + $9,000 + $59,000 + $59,000).

But did she? Wasn't it closer to $69,800 ($10,800 + $59,000)?

How important is it for a public official to have halfway decent comprehension and arithmetic skills? As School Board Chair for the 2021-2022 School Year, she led (if you want to call it that) a business with almost a billion dollars in assets and an annual budget of $300,000. 

And she blew right past her $7,000 annual travel allowance for the year ending June 30, 2022. Will she repay the $3,000 excess that she received from RSD2? Will the superintendent send her a bill and tell her to pay it? 

If she doesn't repay it, will the District send it to collection and report the debt to the major credit bureaus? If she doesn't repay it, does it become taxable income?

[Published 10/20/2022 9:30AM]