Posted on Fri, May. 12, 2006

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Ethics panel dismisses complaints against city

By GINA SMITH

gnsmith@thestate.com

An ethics complaint against Columbia Mayor Bob Coble as well as current and former City Council members has been dismissed.

Last month, Temple Ligon, the business editor for The Columbia Star weekly newspaper, filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, claiming council members violated a state law when they accepted campaign contributions from firms that have been awarded “no-bid” contracts to do work for the city.

Council members and city staff fired back that the city does not award “no-bid” contracts and therefore no violations exist.

A May 8 decision from Herb Hayden, director of the State Ethics Commission, threw out the complaint, stating Ligon’s complaint “failed to allege sufficient facts to constitute a violation of the Ethics Reform Act.”

Hayden’s letter went on to say, “In order for the public official to be in violation ... the public official must have solicited the campaign contribution in return for the contract award. None of the ... complaints allege any such solicitation on the part of the public official.”

In other words, a City Council member must promise a contract to the person making the campaign contribution in order for it to be a violation.

When contacted Thursday, Hayden said he could not comment further because of a state statute that prohibited it.

Ligon says he won’t stop here.

“As I read the law, there are violations. This needs to be addressed and if the Ethics Commission fails, the next logical step is the S.C. Attorney’s General office,” Ligon said. “The Ethics Commission has no teeth, no time and no temperament for this.”

Meanwhile, 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.”

Ligon, who ran against Coble in 1990 and 1994, has said he filed the complaint after speaking with Bob Wislinski, 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.

The complaint came on the heels of last month’s election in which City Council incumbents — Coble, Tameika Isaac Devine and Sam Davis — were re-elected.

Devine and Coble accepted money from several individuals and firms who have profited from city contracts or who have close relations with the city. Accepting contributions from such people is not a violation of state ethics laws, according to commission officials.

Those individuals include:

• Louis Lynn, founder of ENVIRO Ag Science, a commercial landscaping company that has handled such projects as the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

• Columbia attorney Bill Boyd of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd who also serves on a committee studying whether the city should change its form of government

• Thomas Suggs, chairman of the USC Development Foundation, which is buying land for the university’s future needs and has partnered with the city and others to redevelop 500 acres downtown

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462.