Most Beaufort County School Board members fail to meet income disclosure law

Most Beaufort County School Board members in recent years haven’t reported any of their board income or listed it for just some years, though state law requires disclosure, a review by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette found.

Before an open-records request by the newspapers, seven of the 10 board members who have served long enough to have been required to report their board income on their income-disclosure forms had failed over the past five years to consistently or accurately report their respective amounts, records show. Four board members — Laura Bush, Earl Campbell, JoAnn Orischak and Paul Roth — did not disclose any board income over that period.

Reported annual board income, which, in most cases, includes a base $7,500 stipend and $50 per regular meeting, has ranged in recent years from $7,500 to almost $11,000 yearly per member.

Board members cited a complicated filing process and a misunderstanding of the law as explanations for their years of incorrect forms.

Three board members — Chairwoman Mary Cordray, Orischak and Campbell — amended one or more of their income-disclosure forms with the State Ethics Commission after the newspapers filed a state Freedom of Information Act request on Aug. 11 requesting board members’ forms. Also, two board members say the disclosure forms were brought up to them by Superintendent Jeff Moss in an executive session Aug. 12.

Under state law, elected and other public officials must annually report government income earned during the previous year to the ethics commission by March 30. Officials are allowed to later amend their income-disclosure forms, called statements of economic interests.

Cordray and board member Bill Payne didn’t report their board income in some years of the five-year period reviewed by the newspapers, while board member Geri Kinton said she lumped her board income into other government income on her earlier forms, though she itemized her income sources on her most recent form.

Board members Evva Anderson, Joseph Dunkle and Michael Rivers listed income for each year. David Striebinger, the board’s newest board member who was elected in February, hasn’t been in office long enough to have board income to report.

John Crangle, executive director of Common Cause South Carolina, a government watchdog organization, said although school board income is relatively small and most of the public knows that board members are paid, a pattern of filing blank or incomplete income-disclosure forms raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.

“There’s no telling what’s left out,” he told the newspapers in a recent interview.

Form revisions made years later

Amending a previously filed form — even if it’s years later — is not considered a violation, said Herb Hayden, the ethics commission’s executive director.

Cordray amended her 2013 form to include her annual income on Aug. 11 — the same day a reporter filed a request to the school district for the board members’ forms.

She amended her 2016 form several days after that, on Aug. 14. As of late this week, her 2015 form was still incomplete.

Cordray, elected in 2012, said she was unaware of the newspapers’ open-records request for board members’ income-disclosure forms.

“It has to be (a coincidence),” she said. “If I didn’t include the school district money, it wasn’t intentional. Clearly, I should have been more diligent.”

District spokesman Jim Foster, to whom the newspapers’ request was sent, denied tipping off any board members that the newspapers were looking into the disclosure forms.

Cordray, who also serves as budget director for the University of South Carolina Beaufort, did report her roughly $65,000 salary from USCB every year during the five-year review period. She also reported her school board income on her 2014 form, so no amendment was needed.

Blank forms

When the newspapers began its investigation in August, board member Campbell had filed the required form for the past nine years, according to available online filings with the ethics commission.

But all nine forms were blank.

“I thought they were talking about income you make, and I’m retired,” said Campbell, first elected in 1990, when contacted by the newspapers.

After Campbell filed this year’s report in March, he said an ethics commission employee told him board income should be reported. He said a password issue prevented him from logging back into his online form and filing an amendment.

He reported his $7,500 stipend on his 2016 form on Sept. 1, one day after being contacted by a reporter from the newspapers.

He did not amend any of his forms from earlier years.

Hayden, the ethics commission director, says the law is clear.

“If they read the instructions for filing, they would have known that all income from a government agency is required to be disclosed,” Hayden said in an email.

Roth and Orischak both said they misunderstood their obligations.

“I wasn’t aware of that requirement,” Roth said when contacted in late August. “That’s no excuse, but I’ve never been sent notice of it.”

Orischak offered a similar explanation.

“With the intent of the (statement of economic interests) filing to address any conflicts of interest, I interpreted the personal income question to mean earnings from other governmental agencies I might be employed with,” she said in a Sept. 1 email. “I erroneously assumed that because our compensation as Board members is a matter of public record, it didn’t need to be listed.”

Lack of oversight?

The oversights appear to have gone undetected by the ethics commission. The commission will notify a filer by letter if the agency becomes aware of an incomplete report, Hayden said. But he said his office typically has no way of immediately knowing who receives income and who doesn’t.

The ethics commission has jurisdiction over statewide elected officials, including the governor; local elected officials, including school boards and city, town and county councils; candidates for public office; and chief administrative employees.

Crangle, the Common Cause director, said the state agency lacks the resources and staff to do a systematic audit of income-disclosure forms.

“They’re like a fire department,” he said. “They don’t go out looking for fires. They wait for a call.”

Crangle said he suspects that many public officials are not properly reporting their government income, given that the commission’s enforcement strategy relies on the general public or news outlets to alert the agency.

Hayden didn’t return emails from the newspapers seeking a response to questions about oversight.

To look up your school board member’s filings, go to apps.sc.gov/publicreporting.

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Most Beaufort County School Board members fail to meet income disclosure law."