Posted on Tue, Sep. 26, 2006

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S.C. comptroller general apologizes for vacation in state minivan

JIM DAVENPORT

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom apologized Tuesday for taking a state-owned minivan on a 2004 vacation to Minnesota and paying for fuel with a state-issued gas card.

"I would like to take this opportunity to make a humble apology to the people of South Carolina for an imprudent decision I made two years ago," Eckstrom said in a statement Tuesday, almost a week after the trip was made public.

"Although the law and historic practices provide constitutional officers a vehicle to use at their discretion, including individual use, appearances matter," Eckstrom said. "I realize how this appears to the public that I serve. I deeply regret that I used this vehicle as I did. I wish that I had not. ... I made a mistake in judgment. I ask for your forgiveness."

The incumbent Republican noted he had repaid the state for the trip. He wrote a $669.40 personal check on Sept. 15 cover fuel and vehicle use costs for the 3,615 mile trip to Grand Marais, Minn.

Democratic nominee Drew Theodore, as well as some state legislators, have criticized Eckstrom for the trip and called for changes in the law to curb future use of cars.

Eckstrom's apology came about five hours after Theodore said at a news conference that Eckstrom had broken the state's ethics laws.

"Did he violate the Ethics Act? I think he did," said Theodore, son of former Democratic Lt. Gov. Nick Theodore. "Under ethics, he can't use state resources or state property for personal gain." However, Theodore said he would leave pursuing an investigation to someone else.

Theodore read Eckstrom's statement and told The Associated Press "this isn't an apology" because Eckstrom continues to say the law allowed him to use the car.

"He broke the law," Theodore said. "I really don't think he understands what he did was wrong."

"Breaking the law is breaking the law," Theodore said. "Going back and apologizing for breaking the law is not fixing what happened."

The statement doesn't change the need for the Ethics Commission or attorney general to look at Eckstrom's trip, Theodore said.

The state Ethics Commission can't take complaints within 50 days of an election, a window that closed last week, said Herb Hayden, the commission's executive director.

Hayden can't recall a past Ethics Commission ruling or opinion on personal use of cars for vacations. However, he recalls a ruling allowing a sheriff to use his county-issued car to campaign as long as the campaign reimbursed the county. The sheriff had to have access to the law enforcement vehicle at all hours, Hayden said.

Hayden was "not aware of any law that allows a constitutional officer to use a state vehicle for anything other than official business."

At a new conference earlier Tuesday, Theodore said he had set up GotWasteSC.com, an Internet site for citizens and state workers to report fraud, waste and abuse.

The state auditor's office once ran a fraud and abuse hot line, but it has been out of service for several years, interim State Auditor Richard Gilbert said.

Theodore would have no legal authority to pursue investigations, but he said he would look at complaints "through the Freedom of Information Act - anything we can do as citizens right now." And if elected, he'd make the Web site part of the comptroller general's operations.