Horry County Council Chairman: $300,000 fine for missed paperwork

An attorney for the state ethics commission is contradicting statements from Horry County Council Chair Liz Gilland.

Gilland told News13 on Tuesday that said she learned through media reports about fines from the state ethics commission.

Kathy Hazelwood, with the ethics commission said Gilland was sent a first class letter on September 9, 2008, advising her that quarterly campaign disclosure forms had not been received and late filing penalties were being levied, then a certified letter dated October 2, 2008, was sent, again advising Gilland to file quarterly campaign disclosure forms. After that, in a letter dated December 4, 2008, Gilland was advised that a complaint had been filed against her and attempts were made to contact Gilland by telephone. Then on January 5, 2009 Gilland contacted the Commission office and spoke with Kristin Smith who explained the process to her. Then notice of hearing was sent by certified letter on March 24, it was refused and mailed first class on April 24. Hazelwood said a hearing was held July 15, 2009.

In response to the timeline from Hazelwood, Gilland told News13, ” I have never refused a certified letter, maybe I haven’t picked one up and it got sent back, sometimes that happens.” Gilland also said, “Yes, months ago I spoke with someone from the ethics commission about missing paperwork from the last election.”

According to the debtors list from the ethics commission’s website, http://ethics.sc.gov/aboutus/reportsandpolicies/Debtors+List.htm, the total for the eleven counts of violating election ethics laws for failing to file paperwork, adds up to more than $300,000.

Gilland said she has spoken with the commission and they tell her the fine will be reduced.

She plans to go to Columbia this week to talk to the commission about what she said is incomplete paperwork from a previous election, “I guess it's easy to have a mistake with your paperwork that you're unaware of when you don't do you own reports. After the first time I ran for office, the reporting process was so dreadfully confusing to me and so difficult that I have never done it myself since, I find someone who is willing to do that and finds that a lot easier than I do and have someone do it for me, a volunteer.”

Hazelwood said as of Wednesday morning, there was nothing on anyone’s schedule at the commission related to Gilland.

Gilland said she did not make an appointment with anyone at the commission, she told News13 she just plans to go to Columbia on Friday and speak with someone.

Hazelwood said the ethics commission does have an open door policy.

Gilland told News13 it’s important to note that the violations are for paperwork and not something she would consider a much more serious offense, like a financial or moral indiscretion.

Hazelwood said, “You don’t wake up one morning and have this happen and don’t know about it. The time for excuses has passed.”

In response to that statement, Gilland said, “I knew about the missed paperwork, but did not know about the fines.”

And not related to the fines being levied by the ethics commission, Gilland also spoke with News13 about her frequent use of a county vehicle.

Gilland said, until recently, she had almost always driven her personal car for county business.

But after signing out one of the pool cars for county business trips to other parts of the state, she decided to sign out the vehicle more often. “I’ve got a 2005 Toyota that has 60,000 miles on it and I would be willing to bet that less than a thousand is from my personal use. And it’s not just about gas mileage; the traveling also puts wear and tear on my car.”

Gilland said she has brought up the issue a couple of times to other council members about needing an official vehicle. “I though it was only fair that I have a county vehicle, every other elected official has a county vehicle, the administrator does, the three division directors, many of our department heads, many of the code enforcement folks drive their cars home, some public works people do, public safety, I mean on and on and on and are legitimate reasons to have a car or to drive it home because they do so much of their county business in their car, but it also is the same reason the county chairman should have a car."

Gilland said she does have a travel budget that would reimburse her for mileage, but she said doing so would eat away at annual $7,500 travel budget. And she said if she used the money from that budget for mileage, she would not have enough left to pursue economic growth interests for Horry County.