SC House candidate seeking to represent Lowcountry says he will address unpaid fines

A Hampton County official who unseated a longtime state lawmaker in primary voting last week says he will address unpaid ethics fines resulting from late campaign reports two years ago.

Shedron Williams, a Hampton County Council member, owes the S.C. Ethics Commission $10,000 in fines related to not filing two required reports on time in 2014 and 2015, said Meghan Walker, director of the Ethics Commission. Williams defeated longtime state Rep. Bill Bowers in the Democratic primary to represent S.C. House District 122 on June 12.

Williams was fined $10,000 in September 2016 for delays in filing a 2014 campaign disclosure report and a 2015 state of economic interests in violation of state ethics law, Walker said. The fine was reduced to $3,000, including a $500 administrative fee, if Williams paid within 120 days.

He was granted an extension on the reduced fine until April 1 of this year. But the fine still wasn't paid and the amount owed has reverted to $10,000, Walker said.

Williams said Monday he was unaware of the deadline on the reduced fine and that his attorney is dealing with the commission. He said he believes he can settle for an amount between nothing and $3,000.

He noted the long list maintained by the commission of public officials with unpaid fines and said, unlike others, he is working to resolve his.

"Whatever the final (number) is, I'm going to address it," he said.

Williams said he informed the commission last year in an effort to reduce the fine that he was without a job and that his father and mother-in-law had recently died during a short period.

Williams is in the final year of his second term on the Hampton County Council. He unsuccessfully ran against Bowers in the 2016 primary for District 122, losing a runoff by a narrow margin.

He said the result prompted him to try again this year, and he earned 52 percent of the vote in the district encompassing Hampton, Jasper and Beaufort counties. Bowers had been a state representative since 1997.

This story was originally published June 18, 2018 at 5:09 PM with the headline "SC House candidate seeking to represent Lowcountry says he will address unpaid fines."