County Council Approves 2014-2015 Budget

Anderson County Council approved a $125 million FY2014-2015 budget for the county Tuesday night, after a lively discussion between a couple of council members and Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper.

The budget passed by a vote of 4-3 following a discussion on a $15,000 transfer request from Skipper for audio equipment which would allow law enforcement to hear through walls in hostage or other emergency situations.

Anderson County Councilwoman Cindy Wilson questioned Skipper's transfer of personnel funds to pay for the equipment.

Skipper, repsonding partially to Wilson's question and partially to leftover business from Tuesday's budget workship questioning management of his department, particularly Emergency Services, defended his office. 

"State law says an elected official can move money as he sees fit," Skipper said. "The reality is I control the budget once you give me that number at the top. Once you approve my budget, that I have x number of dollars in my budget for a given year, I can spend it."

"You may disagree with it, but if you do you might want to talk to your lawyer."

Skipper also came to defense of Emergency Services, who had been strongly criticized Tuesday night.

"The Emergency Services Department is not mismanaged, no matter what you have been hearing," Skipper said, adding that the department was about to become a nationally acredited 911 center. He said the recognition was an honor and not given to departments which were not properly managed.

"I am elected official and I take responsibility for what I'm over."

He also reminded council that his employees were not compensated properly in comparison to other counties in the state.

Former Senator Howard Baker Dies at 88

Howard Baker's question sliced to the core of Watergate: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

Repeated over and again in the senator's mild Tennessee drawl, those words guided Americans through the tangle of Watergate characters and charges playing daily on TV to focus squarely on Richard Nixon and his role in the cover-up.

Baker's famous question has been dusted off for potential White House scandals big and small ever since.

Baker, later became Senate majority leader, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and one of the GOP's elder statesmen died Thursday at his Tennessee home of complications from a stroke suffered days earlier, according to an email distributed at the law firm where Baker was senior counsel. He was 88.

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S.C. Ranks Near Bottom in Home Care of Disabled

Fifteen years after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on giving people with disabilities a choice to live outside institutions, South Carolina has shown little progress.

But state officials say they're working to change that.

The 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. decision says unnecessarily segregating people in mental hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions amounts to discrimination. Advocates for the mentally ill, elderly and disabled cite the ruling in arguing for home- or community-based care.

Since 1999, the percentage of Medicaid funds spent to help people live independently has nearly doubled. But progress varies widely, with states devoting anywhere from 27 percent to 78 percent on non-institutional spending.

South Carolina ranks behind 40 other states and the District of Columbia by spending 41 percent of Medicaid long-term care funding on home and community services in 2012. That's up from 35 percent a decade earlier, when the state ranked 22nd, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"We do have a long way to go" in funding more cost-effective, humane care, said Sue Berkowitz of the Appleseed Legal Justice Center.

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Clarification: Council Members Recreation Funds $224,000

In a clarification of an earlier opinion piece which appeared in the Anderson Observer about the Anderson County's FY2015 budget, incorrectly stated the recreation account total for all seven councilmen at $500,00. The correct figure is $224,000. 

Water Problems Shut Down Many County Offices

The Anderson County Courthosue and the Magistrates Court at the Ronald Townsend Government Building and all associated offices will be closed today.

The Anderson County Museum and Special Populations Recreation will also be closed today. 

Additionally, as of 10:30 a.m., the Courthouse Annex will close.

Currently, all other county offices remain open for business. Stay tuned for further updates.

Anderson County urges all residents to conserve water as much as possible.

Fire Departments Supplying Water for AnMed

AnMed Health Medical Center in Anderson said local fire departments are supplying water to run their air conditioning units.

Anderson County and parts of Pickens County were placed under a boil water and conservation advisory Wednesday night after a pipe ruptured at a pump station.

The Anderson Regional Joint Water System is asking customers to boil their water for at least one minute before drinking and cooking with the water. Customers are also being asked to conserve as much water as possible and limit all non-essential water usage.  

The advisory is in effect for all residents using Electric City Utilities, Homeland Park, Starr-Iva Water District, Broadway Water, West Anderson Water District, Hammond Water District, Sandy Springs Water District, City of Clemson, Clemson University, the town of Pendleton, the town of Williamston and Big Creek Water District.

AnMed Public Information Officer Michael Cunningham said that area fire departments would supply water to the hospital to keep their heating and air units running properly.

Anderson Shuts Down Water Treatment Plant

UPDATE: The pipe has been repaired and service is expected to be retstored soon.

Anderson Regional Joint Water System users are asked to conserve water starting immediately because a problem has been reported with its water intake from Hartwell Lake.

The Anderson Regional Joint Water System has issued a warning to all users of their system, virtually every customer in Anderson County, to boil water for at least a minute before using it for drinking or cooking or bathing, and to conserve as much water as possible for essential use.

A burst intake pipe which has shut down all water coming into the treatment plant. It is estimated that it will be several hours before the pipe is repaired and the water treatment plant can resume operation.

Citizens are being asked to conserve water. Emergency services and area fire departments are monitoring the situtation as well.

Officials say the current issue is not any way associated with continuing problem of poor drinking water quality in Anderson County.

The Joint Water System said customers can call 864-226-9676 with any questions or concerns.

The Anderson Regional Joint Water System includes:

Belton-Honea Path Water Authority

Big Creek Water & Sewerage District

Broadway Water & Sewerage District

City of Anderson

City of Clemson

Clemson University

Hammond Water District

Homeland Park Water District

Powdersville Water District

Sandy Springs Water District

Starr-Iva Water and Sewer District

Town of Central

Town of Pendleton

Town of Williamston

West Anderson Water District

Clemson Ups Costs by 3.19 Percent

Clemson University trustees approved an increase for tuition starting this fall.

The increase for tuition, housing and meal plans will go up by an average of less than 3 percent, which will partially offset mandatory payroll, retirement and health insurance cost increases.

The fees were approved by the university’s board of trustees Wednesday.

“The combination of additional state funding and ongoing efforts by the administration to operate as efficiently as possible has allowed us to minimize the impact of these mandatory cost increases on tuition,” said board chairman David Wilkins.

In-state students will see an increase of 2.6 percent for general tuition – or $171 per semester — and pay a $25 per semester charge dedicated to facilities maintenance and renovations, bringing the total increase to 3 percent. Non-state residents will pay 2.8 percent more for general tuition – or $ 432 per semester — and a facilities fee of $55 per semester, for a total increase of 3.19 percent.

S.C. Beaches Water Quality Among Worst in U.S.

Surf pollution continues to trouble the Myrtle Beach area as the glittery coastal resort works to remove drainage pipes that for decades have carried contaminated runoff to the ocean where people swim.

A national report released Wednesday found that beaches along the Grand Strand failed more often to meet a federal safe swimming standard for ocean water than other parts of the coast – and that contributed heavily to the state’s low national ranking for beach water quality.

Overall, South Carolina beaches ranked seventh worst in the country for water quality, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 24th annual study. In the South, only Louisiana and Mississippi failed a higher percentage of the time to meet a national bacteria standard for safe swimming than South Carolina, the environmental group’s report said.

Statistics show that 15 percent of the water quality samples taken in South Carolina last summer exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended standard for safe swimming. Nationally, 10 percent of the samples taken exceeded the standard, the NRDC said.

But on the Grand Strand, about 20 percent of the 1,538 water samples taken in 2013 exceeded the EPA’s standard, according to data in the report. That standard is 60 colonies of enterococcus bacteria per 100 milliliters, a level meant to protect human health. The EPA is urging states to warn swimmers when the standard is exceeded.

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High Court Says Warrant Required to Search Cell Phones

The United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark endorsement of electronic privacy on Wednesday, ruling that police must obtain a warrant to search the contents of cellphones seized from people they have arrested.

All nine justices joined the ruling on a case hailed by civil liberties campaigners as a crucial test of the rights of individuals to be protected against intrusion into their ever-expanding digital lives.

The opinion of the court, delivered by chief justice John Roberts, recognised that many owners of modern cellphones “keep on their person a digital record of nearly every aspect of their lives”, which may disclose a uniquely large volume of personal information if searched.

"Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience," Roberts wrote. “With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans the privacies of life.

Reading his ruling from the bench, Roberts went on: “The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple – get a warrant.”

Spearman, McMaster, Thompson Win in Primaries

Voters went to the polls Tuesday to cast the major of ballots for Molly Spearman, Henry McMaster and Tom Thompson in the primary runoff, though poll workers said turnout was low. 

Former Attorney General Henry McMaster was named the Republican nominee to be South Carolina's lieutenant governor.
    
The 67-year-old Columbia resident ran on his experience, saying he has the knowledge to get things done. McMaster was a U.S. attorney during President Ronald Reagan's first term and state GOP chairman from 1993 to 2002 before being elected to two terms as attorney general.

McMaster took 57 percent of the vote in Anderson County, garnering 3,513 ro Campbell's 2,621.
    
McMaster had a strong lead in the four-way GOP primary two weeks ago, taking 44 percent of the vote. But he needed more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
    
His opponent, Mike Campbell, actually finished third. But he advanced to the runoff when second-place finisher Pat McKinney bowed out.
    
McMaster will face 29-year-old Democratic state Rep. Bakari Sellers in November.

Superintendent of Education

Tom Thompson is the Democratic nominee for South Carolina education superintendent, though the turnout for this race was very low in Anderson County. Thompson received 179 votes, or 51 percent or the county's votes, compared to Sheila Gallagher's 175 votes.
    
The former dean of graduate studies at South Carolina State University placed second in the four-way primary two weeks ago. His opponent, Gallagher, had attracted attention by advocating legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise money for schools.
    
But Thompson called it absurd to link buying marijuana to quality education.
    
The Chicago native started his career in 1970 as an inner-city high school math teacher. Thompson came to South Carolina in 1982 from Wisconsin to be the first black principal of Winnsboro High School in Fairfield County.
    
Thompson ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent in 2010.

Molly Spearman is the Republican choice to be South Carolina education superintendent.
    
Spearman spent the last decade advocating for the state's 3,600 K-12 administrators. But her career began in the classroom, as a music teacher for 18 years, then two years as an assistant principal. Her other roles include legislator, deputy superintendent and chief of staff at the state education agency.

Spearman won big in Anderson County winning 56 percent, or 3,440 votes, while her opponent Sally Atwater finished well behind with 2,707 votes.

County Settles Bradshaw, Jones Lawsuits

Anderson County Council on Tuesday night agreed to pay a total of $5,000 to settle a pair of lawsuits filed against the county in 2009. 

Council agreed to pay $2,500 to Erick Bradshaw to settle his lawsuit against the county and Anderson County Councilman Eddie Moore in which Bradshaw alleged the county and Moore did not properly respond to a Freedom of Information Act request. The key issue in the case was whether Moore created a list of employees he wanted fired, a list Moore said never existed.

Council also agreed to pay Patricia Jones $2,500 to settle a lawsuit against the county over the hiring of a private investigator and consultant to look into activities that took place during former Anderson County Adminstrator Joey Preston's administration.

County Council Bumps County Budget by $2.9 Million

Anderson County Council considered 290 changes to the FY 2015 budget as part of the called meeting Tuesday night. The proposals included adjustments to line-item budgets in almost every area of the budget.

The overall increase to to general fund bottom line in the proposed changes totals $2.9 million.

Anderson County Councilman Francis Crowder suggested that the Anderson County Emergency Services overtime pay was out of hand, and that the department should be moved back under the adminstrator's office. Crowder also suggested that compared to other counties there were too many questions about overtime in Emergency Services.

Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said the arguement was not comparing apples to apples.

"Most other counties have separate dispatch for each agency; EMS, fire, law enforcement, etc., while Anderson County has a centralized center answering all emergency calls," Skipper said.

Skipper also said that last year Anderson County answered more than 540,000 calls in the center. 

"I don't see how moving it to another department is going to fix the problem," said Anderson County Councilman Tom Allen. 

"The bottom line is the number of calls received," said Anderson County Council Chairman Tommy Dunn. "The problem is that there is not one answer in the turnover (of employees) in dispatch."

"I don't think moving it back under Mr. Burns is going to do it? How many of you have been out there to see what they are doing out there?"

Skipper clarified Crowder's suggestion that made it sound as if the county had 465 deputies. He said the county has 228 sworn personnel that that the total number of employees in the Sheriff's Office includes employees at the jail, dispatch, civil processing, school guards, bailiffs and other administrative workers.

"I don't see how moving it to another department is going to fix the problem," said Anderson County Councilman Tom Allen. 

"The bottom line is the number of calls received," said Anderson County Council Chairman Tommy Dunn. "The problem is that there is not one answer in the turnover (of employees) in dispatch."

"I don't think moving it back under Mr. Burns is going to do it? How many of you have been out there to see what they are doing out there?" Dunn said.

Council tabled Crowder's motion for vote on third reading of the budget. 

Earlier, council moved forward on most of the proposals, including allowing the Anderson County Sheriff's Office millage from 30.2 to 30.8 (reverting back to 2011 rate) creating an additional $354,775. The money will not result in a tax increase. 

Tuesday's budget changes also included moving forward on providing $265,000 for a new telephone system and webdesigner/consultant for the county.

Other changes pushed forward the budget's third reading include: 

• An increase of $158,000 in state Workman's Compesation Insurance
• A $40,000 EMS study
• A part-time position to assist council, paid for by trimming a part-time position from Anderson County Admistrator Rusy Burns office.
• An increase in salary of $17,270 for the economic development coordinator position.
• $7,000 for commercial washer and dryer at the Anderson County Animal Shelter.
• Changing a part-time records clerk a full-time position in the Sheriff's Office. 

During discussions, Anderson County Councilwoman Cindy Wilson questioned adding the budgeted entry-level new position at the Anderson County Animal Shelter, saying the money could be better used elsewhere.

But Anderson County Council Chairman Tommy Dunn defended the need for additional help at the shelter. Dunn said the shelter was overwhelmed with animals and needed more help to meet the growing demand.

County voted to keep the proposed additional animal caretaker position by a 4-3 vote.