S.C. panel to suggest ethics-law revisions

Members of a special S.C. House ethics committee will report within the next month how they believe ethics laws should change.

Former House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, appointed the committee in March as The State newspaper reported that dozens of lawmakers incorrectly disclosed campaign contributions and that there was little oversight of House members’ disclosures.

“South Carolina still has one of the most restrictive ethics laws in the country,” said Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, who is heading the committee.

“What we have learned, obviously, is that what few weaknesses we have recognized have resulted because of members’ misunderstanding or misinterpreting the law.”

The committee is reviewing a draft report, but Smith said he was hesitant to give too many details before it is finished. Smith said the committee likely will suggest creating a new reporting form for lawmakers.

Every elected official in the state files the same campaign finance form, and Smith said the committee believes legislators could use one specifically for them.

The committee is also considering “a good bit of cleanup” of state laws.

“Some statutes, because of the way they were written — like double negatives — were being misinterpreted,” Smith said.

Lawmakers also are trying to root out contradictory laws. For example, one laws says elected officials must report the occupations of their contributors. Another law, however, says officials must only keep those records — but not necessarily report them.

The State Ethics Commission, which enforces campaign finance law for every elected official except for legislators, requires elected officials to disclose occupations of contributors.

But the House Ethics Committee, which has jurisdiction over state representatives and House candidates, does not require it. The Senate had been requiring the disclosure until recently, when its Ethics Committee decided to follow the House’s lead.

Meanwhile, House Ethics Committee chairman J. Roland Smith, R-Aiken, has been hosting a series of voluntary seminars for House members. About 60 members have attended, Smith said, at no cost to the state.

Smith said that as the newspaper reported the problems House members were having with disclosure, he wrote to Wilkins and suggested the seminars.

The purpose, Smith said, is “to remind individuals of the state law and to remind them if there was ever any doubt, to contact us in the Ethics Committee and we’ll be happy to get them answers.”

Rep. Ben Hagood, R-Charleston, has attended one of Smith’s seminars.

“As a practical matter, we have fairly complex ethics laws,” Hagood said. “As a lawyer, I work pretty hard to understand the actual laws. But then there’s the whole filling out the form and the compliance side, the paperwork and documentation side that can be complex as well.”

The state’s ethics laws “could certainly be clearer,” Hagood said. “I think they are good laws, and I think everybody tries hard to comply with them. (However) there are definite traps.

“At the end of the day, you’re busy, and you’ve got things going on. You need to know how to do it and get it right.”

Smith said the House Ethics Committee is encouraging members to use the electronic filing system already in place for lawmakers. It allows legislators to enter campaign finance data on the computer and send it directly to the House or Senate ethics committee. The computer program does all the math calculations for lawmakers, which helps reduce errors.

By this time next year, Smith said, he hopes a wider electronic filing system is in place, where lawmakers are required to file over the computer. That data also would be accessible for free by the public, whereas now members of the public who want to see who is giving their elected officials money must pay for paper copies.

A new campaign finance law adopted in 2003 calls for the new electronic system, but the General Assembly just this year budgeted the money to create it. While the State Ethics Commission, charged with creating the system, has said it is doubtful that it will be up and running before the 2006 elections, Gov. Mark Sanford has publicly urged the commission to move more quickly.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.