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Rec Commission Releases Information But Remains Secretive
BY NICK MCCORMACThe Richland County Recreation Commission has released the details of former commission director Lewis Leopard’s retirement package, but only after being pressed todo so under a state law requiring such disclosure.The way the Recreation Commission handled the matter underscores a longstandingcriticism of the agency that it is secretive.Reinforcing that assessment: The commission board apparently violated the S.C.Freedom of Information Act several times this year by entering executive session withoutspecifying what was discussed.Also lending credence to the charge: None of more than 20 calls placed to commissionofficials for this story, including interim director Robert Redfern, were returned.Even after it became evident that Leopard’s retirement package was one of the issues thecommission board discussed in executive session, the agency did not release the specificsof the deal until Free Times requested the information under the state open-records law.The package is anything but shocking. It provides Leopard with a severance of about$87,000 and some $9,600 in benefits, plus continuing payments on portions of healthinsurance.However, a question lingers as to whether the governing board of the commission, aspecial purpose district assailed by critics for operating in a shadowy manner, spit in theface of the law.Bill Rogers, director of the South Carolina Press Association, of which Free Times is amember, says that a governing body must specify what it will discuss during an executivesession. The commission described the issues it talked about behind closed doors as“contractual” and “personnel” matters.“While in executive session a [public] body can only hold discussions,” Rogers says.“They can take no action, take no straw polls, and if they were to do so it would be inviolation of the law.”Any action taken during an executive session could be challenged as illegal.Public bodies in executive session can discuss “negotiations incident to proposedcontractual arrangements,” but not an actual contract, according to the Freedom of Information Act. The law does not cover personnel matters.“The simple fact is all meetings are considered open under the law, and to say otherwiseis wrong,” Rogers says.But why be tight lipped about an unexceptional issue?
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