What was the question?

The question was and still is "WHY"

The question isn't "What was the question?" The question is "What is the answer?"

Seems to me that question is soon to be answered.

You did answer one question I've had, tough. If Cindy Wilson has received everything she has asked for "in triplicate" we know why her critics claim she's cost the county so much money. She's been billed THREE TIMES AS MUCH for that information as she should have been asked to pay. Surely, Deepthroat, even YOU think that's outrageous.

Oh, and I believe it would be illegal to "plunder" Finance Department files. Did I miss something?

I understand the issues, Plumbbob. I was just playing with Deepthroat (yeah, I know - sounds kinky, doesn't it?)

No matter how Deepthroat tries to spin it, Cindy Wilson had to jump through those unnecessary hoops to get information. A sitting member of County Council should NEVER have to PAY to get financial information he or she needs to make decisions.

The double creation of this thread was inadvertent.  Sorry.  Cindy has gotten some things in duplicate because she asked for the same dam-ed thing over and over again.  Cindy, and later Bob, chose to play the FOI game.  The FOI policy is in place for any citizen who chooses to avail themselves of it to get information.  Council members obviously don't have to do that.  But it makes for great theater when they do use FOI (and pay with a personal check) for information they could otherwise get for free as a council member. Don't you agree?  Neither of these characters are apparently flush with cash.  Otherwise, one of them wouldn't be using campaign funds instead of personal funds to pay their attorney to sue the county in SC Supreme Court.  And they wouldn't be so worried about whose going to pay attorney's fee for action against them, as reported in yesterday's newspaper.  There's a simple solution to the financial burden for lawsuits against you personally.  Act like a responsible elected public official, quit slandering and harrassing people, and obey the law so nobody is ever likely to sue you.  We all, including you, will only tolerate so much agression directed at us before we seek some type of legal remedy. As for credit card documentation, I would presume that whatever is there and has been requested would have been provided.  If not, then I would say you (they) have a point.  Aside from the legal vendor files which Council as a whole (the client) voted to direct the Administrator not to release due to attorney-client privilege, there is nothing else that should have been withheld.  Has any credit card backup information been denied Cindy, Bob or any other FOI requestor?  I would really like to know this.

Alright, Deepthroat, let's cut to the chase here. You seem to be well-connected with the inner workings of Anderson County Administration. At least, you continue to claim, with obvious 100 percent certainty, that Cindy Wilson has gotten all the information she's ever asked for "in triplicate" (I did notice you reduced that to "in duplicate" in your last post - what happened, couldn't find the third copy?)

Deepthroat, here's the deal here. I'm neither a supporter of Cindy Wilson - her goals are noble, but I personally think she and Bob Waldrep have gone totally overboard at times in their methods - nor a rabid critic of Joey Preston. I've defended both of them at times, and I've criticized both of them at atimes. And as for Joey, I've said repeatedly here that it's none of anybody's business what he does in his private life, or whose picnic table he uses.

I also am not one to demand each and every detail of each and every transaction involving the county. I spent years working with state and Federal grants, and I know very well how hard it is to cross every "t" and dot evern "i" on those expenditures.

But as an outsider looking in over the past two years or so - and there are advantages to being an outsider, since it makes it easier to be at least somewhat objective here - I do have questions about a few things. Most of the allegations against Anderson County administration, quite frankly, are nothing more than spin as far as I'm concerned. When you're in a job like Preston has, you're going to pi** somebody off if you're doing that job. It comes with the territory.

Let me list a few of my questions for you that don't involve what would be pure spin:

1. The Sheriff's Office a couple of budget cycles ago went over budget by about $2.5 million. County Council wasn't told about that until late in the budget process. In order for the Sheriff's Office to pay its bills during that fiscal year, somebody would have had to transfer $2.5 million from the GENERAL FUND to the SHERIFF'S OFFICE ACCOUNT, which would take a vote of COUNTY COUNCIL unless that transfer was made in a series of 1,000 transfers of $2,500 apiece (Joey's limit for transferring funds, I understand, is $2,500 without Council approval.) QUESTION: Who authorized the transfer of $2.5 million from the General Fund to the Sheriff's Office fund prior to having received Council approval?

2. In late 2006, Mr. Holt Hopkins, in Myrtle Beach for some sort of workshop for his department, used a county credit card to pay a bill at Greg Norman's Australian Grille. There were (if memory serves me) NINE people, including him, who were authorized for that trip. There were 16 people whose bills were paid that night, which means Hopkins used taxpayer funds to pay for the meals of seven people who were "friends and relatives" of those authorized to spend county funds expense account - in direct violation of state ethics law. QUESTIONS: What portion of that total bill went to pay the bill of those not authorized to be on the county's expense account, and has that money been returned to the county's coffers?

3. Questioned about the purchase of alcoholic beverages on the county credit card, Preston said a portion of Eco-Devo's travel and entertainment budget was funded by contributions from industries and businesses. I personally have no problem with that, but ... QUESTION: Is there clear documentation that those contributions went directly into those travel/entertainmet accounts - including the source of each contribution - or was that an after-the-fact "CYA" claim?

Now, Deepthroat, I'm not one who agonizes over pens and paperclips disappearing. I mean, Lord knows that over the past 40 years I'm probably either even or slightly behind the count on losing pens to the kleptomania of others and gaining pens through my own, uh, absentmindedness. And I don't care if an employee on a road trip buys alcohol as part of his per-diem or not (that's a policy, not a law we're talking about there.)

But the three items I listed above are serious questions, and while getting fired isn't a consequence other than for Item 1 and, possibly, Item 3, they deserve serious answers.

Anderson County doesn't need a full forensic audut - it would be a big waste of money to examine anything beyond specific questioned accounts - but Anderson County does need a serious examination of travel and expense accounts, roads and bridges accounts, and internal administrative tranfers from one account to another without Council approval. And, I'll say here, a close look at the solid waste fund would probably be useful, although most of the questions I have about that process have more to do with money exchanged OFF THE BOOKS than with that that passes hands officially.

Deepthroat, since you insist over and over that these questions have already been answered and that anybody is entitled to those answers without having to file a Freedom of Information Request, I would ask you a favor: Next time you're in the Finance Office (tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m., maybe) could you possibly pick me up a copy of the answers to my three questions that were, according to you, already provided to Cindy Wilson and Bob Waldrep and forward them to me?

None of them are that difficult to answer, even. If the Finance Department or the Administrator can't answer them fully and honestly with less than an hour of research, in fact, they ALL should be replaced.

Perhaps, Deepthroat, since you seem to know everything already, you could just answer them yourself?

Thanks. You've been ever so helpful.

Thanks, Deepthroat. If Joey Preston had taken that attitude a few years back, Anderson County wouldn't be facing this dilemma today.

By the way, if you see Holt Hopkins anytme soon, tell him JDTippett isn't really on HIS case over that Myrtle Beach charge. Really, I'm not totally comfortable that his name was even brought into the discussion after it happened, given that he's county staff and not an elected official or contract employee (although as a department head, he IS a public figure.) And, I think if he did, indeed, get approval from Preston, then he's pretty much off the hook.

I just want to see the policy clarified and state ethics law emphasized to employees who find themselves in situations like that. I really suspect that's already been done, but one never knows about these things since they fall under that "personnel issues" category under the FOIA.

JaneDoe said "Why is the former Deputy Chief's "security firm" being paid to "guard" the Animal Shelter during the day when there are less expensive options? If the only reason is to watch the inmates who help there, why aren't we using a corrections officer, rookie deputy or Park Policeman?"

The answer is very simple to me but others will try to make a big No No out of this.  The reason is simply a huge 'Thank You from Joey to the former Deputy Chief for everything you have done for me personally.'

Yeah, PAPPY, the cars could account for part of it. But I understand that was a $1 million purchase, with payment spread over (I think) three years under one of those lease arrangements that counties are so fond of lately. At most, there would have been $333,000 (or one-third of the total amount of the purchase) in an authorized account for that payment - and my guess is even THAT would have been in the following year's budget if they had followed the process that was approved.

I agree with you, by the way, that whatever happened to put the entire amount of the payments on the books in that one year should have happened. But that falls under those "internal controls" that auditors are so fond of talking about. Is it possible the county's auditor just missed that, or (hint, hint) did they just not LOOK for something like?

"Certified audit" or no "certified audit" it's a question that lingers out there. I'll give Deepthroat the benefit of the doubt here and see if he/she can get that answer which, I understand, somebody already has.

Unlike some here, though, I don't know that anybody needs to be fired or put on administrative leave over it. It just needs to be explained fully.

"why didn't the finance dept. stop the request for full payment and insist that it be paid over a term of years ?"

The Finance Dept. has been completely ineffective as a watchdog over our taxdollars and this is but one example that is being brought to light now.  I think there will be hundreds more that will be forthcoming as the lights are turned on.  Gina has let our county down and should resign at once.

Plumbob, the closest I've ever come to calling Cindy Wilson a name is when I said something like, "She may be crazy, but she has a right to information regarding the county's finances" in response to somebody else's allegations.

I've watched this unfold with some fascination since the birth of The Cocklebur. The questions I asked are questions that, as a former reporter and former (Pickens) county employee, I still have. Apparently (at least according to Deepthroat and others) those questions have already been answered.

It's time to let everybody see those answers if that's the case. Personally, I don't think they HAVE been answered yet, but what do I know?