Highway commissioners' relatives hired at DOT

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Commissioner Marion Carnell of Ware Shoals told The Greenville News he asked agency officials earlier this year to interview his nephew and to give him "serious consideration" for a job if they found him qualified.

Commissioner Bobby Jones of Camden said he didn't ask anyone at the department to hire his daughter prior to her employment by the agency in 1999.

Both are classified as temporary workers, which means they do not receive state benefits, said Michael Covington, deputy director for executive support for the agency.

They each work about 20 hours per week, according to the department.

State ethics laws do not bar hiring relatives of agency board members as long as the board member does not take action that causes the hiring, according to Herb Hayden, executive director of the State Ethics Commission.

Marvin C. Carnell, a nephew of the commissioner, was hired as an information technology specialist in February, according to records provided to the newspaper under the state Freedom of Information Act. Susan Jones, a former teacher, helps direct a department training program.

Susan Jones and Marvin Carnell referred questions about their hiring to the agency's spokesman.

Agency Executive Director Betty Mabry did not respond to questions submitted through the department spokesman regarding hiring procedures at the agency and whether she played any role in hiring Jones and Carnell.

Susan Jones has an annual salary of $50,457, said Michael Sponhour, a spokesman for the State Budget and Control Board.

Carnell could earn more than $50,000 annually if he worked a 40-hour week; however, officials said he works about 20 hours a week and his "anticipated" salary is $29,222.

Also hired about the same time as Carnell is Fred Teeter Jr., a former lobbyist whom Marion Carnell described as a friend. Teeter works as a customer service representative out of the department's Greenwood office.

Teeter said the commissioner had nothing to do with his hiring and only found out about it the day he was hired. Agency officials said Teeter works about 20 hours a week and his "anticipated" salary is $28,056.

Temporary workers are used by the agency for jobs that are not permanent, he said.

Hayden said he discourages officials from getting involved in any way in a relative's hiring to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

"I don't know that making a telephone call and asking someone to interview and give them consideration if they're qualified would fall into the definition of cause," he said. "(But) I'm sure it always makes it questionable in some folks eyes."

John Crangle, executive director of the South Carolina chapter of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said Carnell's hiring is an example of "cronyism" that is pervasive in state government and should be addressed with amendments to the law or an ethics code that discourages such behavior.

"A commissioner really should not be in the personnel business in the sense that they are involved in the recruiting and evaluating and trying to hire relatives and friends," he said.

None of the other five commissioners, who oversee the agency in its management of 42,000 miles of roads and hundreds of millions of dollars, said they had family or friends who have gone to work for the department since they became commissioners.

The agency employs about 5,000, including 83 temporary employees, according to the department. Although a dozen temporary workers were hired this year, some temporary workers at the agency were hired as far back as 1999, according to department records.

Carnell said he did nothing improper in asking officials to give his nephew a chance because he told them to pick the most qualified candidate.

"I said, 'I would love for you to interview him and, if he's qualified, I'd appreciate you giving him serious consideration,'" Carnell said. "'But I still want you to hire the best qualified person for the position.'"

He said his nephew is a communications system specialist who worked for contractors prior to coming to the department.

Covington said Marvin Carnell has considerable expertise. "I'm told he's a pretty sharp guy and that's why they hired him as a temp," he said.

Carnell said he did not ask officials to hire Teeter, a former telephone company lobbyist. Carnell said they got to know each other during Teeter's visits to the Statehouse, where Carnell served as a representative going back to the 1960s.

Jones said he and his daughter discussed her department job in 1999, which then involved visiting schools to talk about keeping the roads free of litter. He said he did not try to influence agency officials in their selection.

"It had absolutely nothing to do with me," Jones said. "I didn't go to anybody and say, 'Will you please hire her because she needs a job?' If she hadn't gotten the job, she was satisfied in the classroom. She had a good teaching situation."