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I think it is time that you come to Lancaster, S. C. and expose some of the shady deals that our County Administrator and County Council have been doing. One for instance, Giving incentives to a gold mine company that has come to Lancaster, S.C. to dig for gold and the gold is only here. Why do they need to give them any kind of incentive, the gold is here but they gave them a big one. Ben Snipes-803-289-7821-email brs_inc@comporium.net, there are lots more stories that we could tell you right here in Lancaster.
Thanks for the comment Ben. We’ve passed your info along to our director in charge of Citizen Reporters. She’ll be in touch with you soon.
The State Department of Education has controlled purchases possibly through kickbacks. Child Nutrition Directors in South Carolina have told me that they are being steered by the state to use the bid list and not attempt to the get 3 bids which could result in lower pricing than the bid list itself. I don’t see the benefit of attending their annual SNA show due to the fact that they purposely have left us out of testing. I would to request that some leadership here contact the executive director of the SNA and inform them that our company can’t attend the SNA due to the actions by the Equipment Alliance to not test any of our products and virtually block purchasing of our product in their state. Gregg Ferguson at the Equipment Alliance will take any calls anymore. We have referenced happy school districts with our product. I have talked to other committee members who like our product. Here are some links below to connect the dots of why is hard to do business in South Carolina.
Equipment Alliance Buying Committee Purpose
http://ed.sc.gov/agency/os/Health-and-Nutrition/EquipmentAlliance.html (Testing and Bid Time Frames section shows that they discuss testing equipment annually every October)
Rip Off Report Special (I don’t know how accurate this is, but it is discouraging)
http://www.ripoffreport.com/government-corruption/state-of-south-carol/south-carolina-corruption-rea-xf9fa.htm
“The school system is so antiquated that in the National Rankings South Carolina ranks at the bottom or next to the bottom depending on the year the results are reporting on. Some School Officials have been convicted of FRAUD for using state monies for personal purposes such as lavish vacations and cruises.”
Come on South Carolina, elect some better officials in your state to get better results!
Subject lawsuit should be admended to include the 15% reassessment cap- a clear violation of equal treatment under the law
Here’s what’s happening in the Town of Irmo: Currently, three of our council members are trying to hire/appoint one of their wives to be the paid festival administrator of the Okra Strut. At the Council meeting on February 7, 2012 Councilman Hoots recuses himself. According to SC Ethics Rules of Conduct Section 8-13-700 he is not to, in any way, make, participate in making, or in any way attempt to influence other public officials. But in the beginning, he takes it upon himself to read “out loud” his recusal letter (which he is required to give to presiding officer to handle). The letter only needs to state he is recusing himself and why. He continues to read his recusal letter which includes his wife’s qualifications. “She has many years of experience and is a certified festival planner!” The “recused” does not speak again to other council members during the heated discussion, but he does something else to influence! The Mayor during this agenda item is standing alone against their attempts to hire “family”, while Councilman Hoots is actively texting on his phone to the other two councilmen, giving them direction on what to say, and do, to counteract the Mayor’s stances on this issue. I sat in this meeting, and I suspected what was going on. The Town of Irmo posted the video of the meeting on Thursday and there is no question to me Councilman Hoots is working very hard (without speaking) to make sure things go his way. In the video you will see him create a message, place the phone next to the Councilman Younginer beside him and wait for him to read it, pick it up again, etc., etc. It’s kind of like a “dumb criminal” video. I guess he forgot … a few months ago he voted to have their meetings on video for “full disclosure”!! 🙂
Here’s the link: The discussion starts at about the 54 minute point and lasts about 38 minutes I think.
http://vimeo.com/user9315106/review/36455092/4bbd95e857
It is humorous as a “dumb elected officials” video, but from an Irmo citizen’s point of view it is appalling.