COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and City Council members broke no law when they accepted campaign donations from companies that do business with the city, the State Ethics Commission has ruled.

According to a decision earlier this month by commission director Herb Hayden, the mayor and council members did not solicit donations in return for a contract award.

"None of the ... complaints allege any such solicitation on the part of the public official," according to Hayden's ruling throwing out the complaint against Coble and current and former City Council members.

The complaint was made by Temple Ligon, business editor of The Columbia Star weekly newspaper. Ligon has run against Coble in the past.

"As I read the law, there are violations," Ligon said. "This needs to be addressed."

Ligon said he would now take his complaint to the state attorney general's office.

Coble, who had the largest number of questioned contributions, said he's glad the matter is settled.

"The 2006 mayor's race is finally over," he said Thursday. "The complaint was the last shot of the campaign by Temple (Ligon) and Bob Wislinski."

Wislinski is a local activist who ran Coble's re-election campaign in 1998 and 2002 but supported mayoral challenger Kevin Fisher in last month's election. Coble and two other City Council incumbents - Tameika Isaac Devine and Sam Davis - were re-elected.

Devine and Coble accepted money from several individuals and businesses that have profited from city contracts or have close relations with the city.

Accepting such contributions is not a violation of state ethics laws, according to commission officials.

Among the donors were a commercial landscaping company that has handled projects such as the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, an attorney who serves on a committee studying whether the city should change its form of government and the chairman of the University of South Carolina's Development Foundation that has partnered with the city and others to redevelop 500 acres downtown.

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Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com/