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Former Member: Rec Commission Board “Dysfunctional”
BY NICK MCCORMACSome sunshine has finally made its way to the inner workings of the Richland CountyRecreation Commission, but it does not cast the commission in a positive light.Lynn Roth, a former three-year member of the commission board, describes the board asa “dysfunctional” and “vindictive” amalgam of individuals more concerned with whatthey can get in their backyards than what the county needs in recreational facilities.“Their mentality boils down to ‘I was appointed to do this, and to hell with whateveryone wants,’” Roth says.The Recreation Commission is a special-purpose district governed by a board with sevenmembers who are appointed by the governor based on recommendations from membersof the county’s state legislative delegation.In a March 31 report in Free Times, County Councilwoman Kit Smith described thecommission as a “mess” that is “accountable to no one.”At least three times in recent months, the commission board conducted executive sessionsand failed to specify what the topics of those off-limits-to-the-public discussions wereuntil after the fact — if at all, instead labeling them “contractual” and “personnel”matters. Neither of those descriptions is specific enough to comply with the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, according to Bill Rogers, director of the South Carolina PressAssociation, and Jay Bender, a local attorney for the association. Free Times is a member of the group.In an April 8 story in Free Times, then-assistant director of the commission CynthiaRobinson said in an email, “We believe we are in compliance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act when we post the board agenda and list executivesessions as we have done it for some time.”One of the topics the board might have been talking about behind closed doors came tolight when former commission director Lewis Leopard retired later in April.Underscoring its secretive nature, the commission did not provide the details of Leopard’s retirement package until Free Times requested the information under theFOIA. Leopard received about $87,000 in severance, $7,800 for accrued annual leave, an$1,800 bonus and continuing health insurance benefits, according to the commission.Delano Boulware, chairman of the commission board, attributes questions about the board’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act to “miscommunication.”
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