No violation found: Ethics complaint against former Port Royal official dismissed
The South Carolina Ethics Commission has dismissed a complaint filed against the former head of the Port Royal Redevelopment Commission, finding no probable cause that an ethics violation occurred, but the case may not be over.
At issue was whether Bernadette Clayton used her public position as the Redevelopment Commission chairperson to help Friends of the Port Royal Cypress Wetlands, where she served on the board of directors, in obtaining a $39,000 T-Mobile grant in late 2021.
In a Feb. 3 ruling, the South Carolina Ethics Commission cleared Clayton, writing it could find no evidence that she used her public position to gain an economic interest for Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands.
“I’m delighted that they saw the facts and ruled the way they did,” said Clayton, who had previously described the complaint as frivolous. “I felt confident that’s the way it would happen, but until they officially did it, it was a weight on my shoulders for over a year.”
Clayton is no longer chairperson of the commission and has since moved out of the area.
Mare Deckard, a former member of the Redevelopment Commission who filed the complaint, said she isn’t giving up. She has new evidence, she says, from documents she received from the town sometime after she filed the initial complaint. She says she plans to ask the Ethics Commission to reconsider its original finding based on that newly acquired evidence.
Complaints can be refiled with new allegations.
Deckard first proposed that the Redevelopment Commission apply for the T-Mobile grant to help fund economic development initiatives in the town. Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands, a not-for-profit that promotes the wetlands, later applied for the “hometown” grant for use on the wetlands boardwalk, amphitheater and observation deck projects.
Deckard filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission, claiming Clayton violated State Ethics Law, which requires that a public member of a board recuse themselves if they have an economic interest in an issue that’s before the board.
Clayton served on the Redevelopment Commission from May 1, 2018, until her resignation on June 15, 2021, when she also served on the board of directors of the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands.
The issue first came up at May 18, 2021, when Deckard sparked a discussion about whether the Redevelopment Commission had the authority, on its own, to apply for grant funding without approval from the town. Deckard noted that T-Mobile provided grants for projects to build community spaces. Deckard thought it was OK for the commission to apply for such grants on its own, but other board members questioned whether that was allowed.
Clayton wasn’t at the meeting but watched it the next day, on May 19, and using her personal email account asked Town Manager Van Willis, Mayor Joe Devito and fellow Redevelopment Commission members Kevin Phillips and Virginia Eads about the commission’s authority to unilaterally borrow or receive money. Willis replied that the board did not have the authority to act alone.
Clayton later reviewed the grant information that was available on T-Mobile’s website and concluded that it could be a potential source of funding for the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands.
On May 26, Clayton emailed Willis using her Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands email address and asked for the support of the town in the group’s application for the grant but received no response, according to the Ethics Commission ruling.
On June 15, 2021, Clayton resigned from the Redevelopment Commission Board but remained on the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands Board, which on Aug. 9 discussed applying for the grant the following quarter. On Sept. 24, 2021, with letters of support written by town officials, the not-for-profit applied for the grant, which was awarded Dec. 8, 2021.
In its ruling that Clayton did not violate the state ethics laws, the Ethics Commission noted that Clayton was not present at the May meeting where the T-Mobile Grant was first discussed. And in her May 19 email to her fellow board members, she referred only to general grant funding and the Redevelopment Commission’s authority to pursue grants without approval from the town.
“Moreover, the quarterly grant funding applied for and received by the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands was distinct from that discussed by the Redevelopment Commission,” the Ethics Commission ruling stated. “The application for the quarterly grant discussed at the May 18, 2021, Redevelopment Board meeting was due June 30, 2021.
“Not only did the Redevelopment Commission not meet again prior to this deadline, but the application for the grant funding applied for and received by the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands was for the following quarter. Because the grants were awarded on a quarterly basis, the Friends of Port Royal Cypress Wetlands had no economic interest in the quarterly grant funds discussed by the Redevelopment Commission on May 18, 2021.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
