Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
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Sept. 23
The Post and Courier on policies that keep some South Carolina airport commissioners from being fired:
If you take a job that state law says comes without pay, the commission that oversees the Columbia Metropolitan Airport would be a pretty good choice.
As The Post and Courier’s Seanna Adcox reports, commissioners treat themselves to trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas and other sites of conference/junkets, the best seats and liquor-stocked hospitality suites at local sporting events, $35 and mileage every time they represent the airport - like, say, at golf tournaments and other marketing events - and free parking at the airport for themselves and anyone whose political support they think they might need.
Best of all: They can’t get fired for exercising lousy judgment. Like squandering all that money on perks while the airport loses business to competitors that have far more airlines and flights and far better rates.
Everything seems to be expanding at Charleston International Airport, including executive salaries.
It’s true that the perks don’t add up to enough to noticeably reduce Columbia’s high ticket prices. They aren’t in the same league with the $165,000 job that a politically connected Charleston County Aviation Authority member just landed with our airport. And when it comes to cultivating politicians, the parking passes the Columbia commission hands out to local legislators is nothing like hiring a state senator to run the airport, as Charleston’s did. But at least the Charleston airport is growing. Columbia’s struggles not to shrink.
Under S.C. law, Columbia airport commissioners can’t be removed before their four-year terms end unless they engage in “neglect of duty, misconduct, or malfeasance in office.” Neglect of duty can mean consistently missing meetings, but the two other reasons for removal essentially mean violating the law. And that takes us back to the first principle of employment: If your boss can’t fire you, you don’t have a boss.
So far, the commissioners’ bosses have shown little desire to fire them. Until Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian was elected to the state Senate last year, no one much complained about the commission, which provides free all-you-can-park passes to Lexington and Richland county legislators, local city and county council members, statewide elected officials, members of Congress and former airport commissioners.
And there’s not a long line to join Mr. Harpootlian’s protest. One representative routinely lends his parking pass to constituents who ask for it - a tiny thing, but the sort of thing that endears lawmakers to their constituents. Sort of like giving the passes to legislators endears commissioners to their not-quite bosses. Another representative asked how commissioners were supposed to get ideas for improving the airport unless they traveled on junkets.
We can’t be sure, but we’d start by calling up counterparts in Charleston, or Charlotte or Raleigh or Atlanta, which run much better airports with only a fraction of the perks.
It doesn’t make sense for local legislators to appoint airport commissioners, particularly since it’s the county councils that are required by state law to make up any shortfalls in airport budgets. But whoever appoints the commissioners ought to be able to remove them because they’re not happy with the jobs they’re doing rather than having to wait for them to violate the law.
Some officials need to be protected from being fired for political reasons: members of the State Ethics Commission and the State Election Commission, for example. But like Santee Cooper board members and members of countless other state and local commissions, the members of airport commissions do not need union-like job protections. Because some people who don’t have a boss act like they don’t have a boss, and put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the public.
Online: https://www.postandcourier.com
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Sept. 23
The Times and Democrat on the death of a longtime South Carolina educational, philanthropic and civil rights figure:
South Carolina State University, the people of the 6th Congressional District and South Carolina have lost one of their strongest supporters.
Dr. Emily England Clyburn, known to many as “Ms. Emily,” wife of nearly six decades to U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, is being remembered with home-going services Sept. 23 in Charleston. She died Sept. 19 at age 80.
A Moncks Corner native known far beyond the limits of Orangeburg, Emily Clyburn’s ties here are significant. She and the congressman met while both were students at S.C. State as the civil rights movement was unfolding in earnest. Clyburn often told the story of how they met.
Both were in jail after being arrested while protesting segregation at an Orangeburg drug store counter. The congressman said romance wasn’t on his mind as he was let out - he was hungry and just wanted something to eat.
Emily Clyburn walked up to him with a hamburger. As he reached for it, she tore it, keeping half for herself.
“I tell everybody she got me for half a hamburger,” James Clyburn said. They married just over a year later and were together since.
Emily Clyburn also is credited by the congressman with launching his political career. According to James Clyburn’s memoir, “Blessed Experiences,” she told him after a 1971 speech, “I just wonder when you are going to stop talking about South Carolina’s problems and do something about them.”
He has been “doing something” ever since.
Emily Clyburn built her own legacy as well.
She spent 30 years as a medical librarian at the Charleston Naval Base and Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia.
She established the Emily England Clyburn Honors Scholarship at S.C. State, which honored her with doctorate of human letters in 2010.
Along with the congressman, her philanthropic giving included raising more than $1.7 million since 2005 for the James E. and Emily E. Clyburn Endowment for Archives and History at S.C. State.
And in 2018, the pedestrian bridge over Chestnut Street leading to the S.C. State campus was named in her honor.
Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, introduced the legislation to rename the bridge. In October at the dedication ceremony, his words were a fitting tribute to Emily Clyburn: “I am blessed to have the opportunity to be able to name the bridge in honor of someone who has paved the way for future generations in our community and our state. Dr. Clyburn’s contributions will forever remain not only in the history books of South Carolina, but also in the hearts, minds and lives that will be touched and impacted by her work.”
At the same ceremony, S.C. State President James Clark lauded Emily Clyburn’s contributions to the university and referred to her family as “the first family of this university.”
While Congressman Clyburn’s contributions to the university, state and nation will continue, he will miss Dr. Emily Clyburn as the matriarch of the “first family” and a guiding force. So many others will miss her too.
Online: https://thetandd.com
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Sept. 19
Aiken Standard on the costs and benefits of consolidating school districts:
Tiny school districts always say merging with their neighbors won’t save any money. Of course, as we’ve explained before, saving money isn’t the main purpose. The main purpose is creating a larger student population, so districts can provide higher-level courses and extra programs like suburban districts offer. And reducing the number of superintendents and other top professionals you have to lure to rural communities, where they generally don’t want to live. And reducing the number of capable school board members you have to find.
But it’s true that consolidation doesn’t always save money. Sometimes, that’s because districts make sure it doesn’t.
This year, the Legislature essentially said to the state’s eight smallest districts: “If you consolidate with your neighbors, we’ll help cover transition costs. And if you don’t, well, you might not like what happens.” So two by two, tiny districts in Bamberg, Barnwell, Hampton and Clarendon counties put together plans to consolidate.
Even to those who know how school districts usually respond to consolidation demands, and who are really jaded, the preliminary requests were shocking.
As The Post and Courier’s Seanna Adcox discovered when she reviewed the consolidation proposals, two districts said they wanted $8.5 million to build a new administration building, even though administrators admit current buildings are just fine.
They also wanted $450,000 to give severance pay to redundant administrators - or hire them right back as consultants. Seriously.
Other districts said they’d need millions of dollars to build new schools and purchase signs and athletic uniforms. Combined, the eight asked for $2.1 million just to pay consultants and attorneys to help with the consolidations - which the state Education Department almost certainly would help them with at absolutely no charge. All told, the districts asked for $210 million - from a pot of $37.5 million available.
The good news is that those proposals were part of the districts’ notification of intent to merge and technically not funding requests. The S.C. Education Department used the information to measure what a spokesman called “perceived need” so it could design the actual application forms. They were sent to the districts Sept. 13 and are due Sept. 30.
Although the application forms are nearly identical to the intent forms, they come with instructions reminding districts that the state won’t fund administration buildings or sports facilities and that the state is especially interested in funding shared high school and career and technology education facilities.
We hope those messages will persuade district officials to focus on their actual needs rather than trying to run up the costs with wish-list requests.
If not, we trust that S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman and the state Board of Education will reject any unreasonable requests and allocate the funding to pay for actual needs, rather than trying to distribute the money equally.
We absolutely need to consolidate the tiny districts, but we don’t need to help any that are determined to prove that consolidations can be as expensive as they want them to be.
Online: https://www.aikenstandard.com
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