Trips that cost more than $ 100,000, meal bills in excess of $ 3,000, as well as rounds of golf and sightseeing. An exhaustive search of spending records by the Charleston Post and Courier indicates that these are among the expenses incurred by members of the board of the five state gas authorities … expenses that customers of the authorities responsible for gas end up paying.
The Post and Courier launched a year-long series covering public corruption in South Carolina, particularly corruption found in smaller cities and isolated rural areas. Post and Courier is partnering with smaller newspapers (including News & Reporter) as part of that effort. The analysis by gas authorities included obtaining hundreds of pages of credit card statements and receipts to examine the expenses of members of the board of gas authorities, particularly on trips to annual gas association conferences.
In 2019, members of the Lancaster and York council of gas authorities attended the American Public Gas Association summer conference in Stowe, Vt., Accumulating expenses in excess of $ 130,000. Two executives from the Chester County Natural Gas Authority (CCNGA) were present (along with their spouses), but the local council was not. According to the Post and Courier findings, Chester’s council “did not like the rugged location” of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Instead, they attended a three-day retreat at the Omni Grove Park Inn a few months later. Located in Asheville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Grove Park is a five-star facility offering an underground spa, golf course and other state-of-the-art facilities.
Check-in for the Chester contingent (which included board members and their spouses, along with at least two company executives) was at 4 pm on October 6, 2019. That night, the group had dinner at Vue 1913, a AAA four-diamond restaurant located within the Grove Park Inn, with a total bill in excess of $ 3,300. Apparently, a detailed receipt of what was ordered was not available, but the bill amounts to about $ 300 per person present.
The next day’s itinerary included a continental breakfast from 8 am to 9 am, followed by two hours of meetings (which included a 15-minute break for snacks). After that, at least part of the group played golf on the Grove Park course (with the total bill reaching $ 910.63). The group had dinner later that day at the Red Stag Grill, which presents itself as a “sophisticated, rustic and chic steakhouse at the Grand Bohemian Hotel”, generating a total bill of $ 1,616.
On Tuesday, October 8, the group again had an hour-long continental breakfast starting at 8 am, followed by about two and a half hours of meetings. The meeting agendas lack many details or specifics, simply saying things like “Jason Stewart (CCNGA)” and “Gary Alexander (Dominion Energy)” with nothing to denote what was discussed. That day there was another tour, this being a group tour of the Biltmore Estates palaces (which cost a total of $ 736), followed by dinner at the Grove Park Sunset Terrace restaurant (total bill of $ 3,209.36).
The next day there was an hour of meetings, followed by checkout. Council members drove to and from Asheville and were reimbursed for the miles. The room bill alone came to $ 22,000 and the three group meals represented credit card statements with an accumulated bill of more than $ 8,000. With travel, golfing a $ 1,100 account for “Accents of Asheville” (a “destination management company” specializing in meeting planning) and a field trip to Biltmore Estates all-inclusive, the three-day trip, which included a total of five and a half hours of meetings, with a total cost of at least $ 34,000.
There were other expensive tours. In July 2018, officials and board members from the gas authorities in Chester, Lancaster and York flew to Portland, Oregon for the American Public Gas Association’s annual conference. With many having their spouses in tow, the total bill (paid by taxpayers) generated by the three county contingent was more than $ 160,000. Minor expenses included almost $ 500 worth of alcohol for a “Christmas party” for Chester’s board. The CCNGA employee handbook notes that employees “must limit expenses to reasonable amounts” in terms of travel, accommodation, meals and other expenses related to business travel.
News & Reporter sent a list of questions about the board’s general expenses and procedures, duties and guidelines to Jason Stuart, general manager of CCNGA on Thursday. He indicated that the CCNGA would reserve comments until the complete Charleston Post & Courier story was published on Sunday.
There are five public gas agencies in the state, all dating from the middle of the last century. Chester, Lancaster and York have independent authorities, while Newberry and Clinton share one, as do Anderson and Pickens (Fort Hill). Each authority has a board technically appointed by the governor, but it seems more accurate to say that the governor simply approves the recommendations made at the local level. In the case of Chester, the legislative delegation makes two appointments, the city of Chester makes two and the city of Great Falls makes one. They serve six-year terms and are eligible for a new appointment at the end of a term. They do not respond to state regulators and appear to operate largely under the radar. The name of Chester’s board members does not appear, in fact, nor does it appear on the CCNGA website. There is a list of meeting agendas that date back to 2019. The board appears to have met five times in 2019, four times in 2020 and, more recently, on February 4. However, although there are agendas, there do not appear to be minutes from any of the published meetings that indicate which actions the board has taken.
Travel and spending are not really illegal. Members of special-purpose districts are not required to submit declarations of economic interest to the state.
CCNGA, founded in 1954, built and moved to a new facility on Ballymena Road in 2018 that has 13,500 square feet of office space and a 15,000 square foot warehouse. It was built on land obtained in Chester County through an exchange of land, which both sides considered a “win-win”. The CCNGA has often been cited as one of the county’s best partners also in terms of economic development.
Check back for updates to this story. The full story of Post & Courier can be found at https: //www.postandcourier.com/uncovered/news-deserts-and-weak-ethics-la …
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