| Greenville News
The advisers that Governor Henry McMaster chose to help South Carolina’s economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic include few health experts and few representatives of the state’s black community, which has been hit hard.
The accelerateSC panel, which first met Thursday afternoon in Columbia, includes a physician, the president of the Medical University of South Carolina David Cole, and a single epidemiologist, the former president of the University of South Carolina, Harris Pastides. Other members include Lou Kennedy, CEO and owner of Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Christian Soura, vice president of policy and finance at the South Carolina Hospital Association, and Prisma Health board member James Bennett.
Bennett, a bank executive, is among four black members on the 30-member panel. Two-thirds of McMaster’s nominees are white men, as is the panel’s executive director, Columbia attorney James Burns.
The selections generated some concern.
Full list of panel members: Mayor of Greenville, developer, Clemson administrator on the panel to help revive the SC economy
More than half of the nominees have experience in the private sector, including six men who own or run companies that can benefit from the resurgence of the state’s economy.
The panel includes three Republican rulers, including the Mayor of Greenville, Knox White. And 19 of the panel members have made at least $ 256,000 in total state campaign contributions since 2007, with more than 80% going to Republican Party candidates or committees, according to the state’s Ethics Commission records. About $ 44,000 of these donations went to McMaster.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, the Republican governor described accelerateSC as a “representative group of virtually every aspect of life in South Carolina”.
However, when Republican state deputy Gary Clary de Clemson revised McMaster’s list of nominees for AcclerateSC, he said he saw “a very strong emphasis on business” and a worrying shortage of scientists.
“We have three wonderful and highly regarded research universities with an enormous amount of untapped talent,” said Clary. He would have liked McMaster to have appointed some researchers from these institutions who are studying COVID-19 tests, contact tracking and therapies.
Clary said he and many others share McMaster’s eagerness to reopen the state’s economy, which has cut more than 340,000 jobs in the past five weeks, mainly because of the closure of companies due to efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But, Clary warned, “there are a number of things that need to be considered before we open the floodgates.”
“We don’t want to end up in a few months having to close the doors because we don’t pay attention to science and scientists,” he said.
South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson expressed similar concerns in an email on Wednesday. He said that “it is surprising that Henry McMaster no longer includes people from the medical community – doctors and scientists”.
“The lack of doctors and scientists indicates that this panel is made up of individuals who support McMaster’s vision with donations or have a financial interest in ‘opening’ businesses,” said Robertson. “And that interest can conflict with the measures needed to save lives in our communities.”
As of Wednesday, 4,761 people in South Carolina tested positive for COVID-19 and 140 of them died, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Representative Bruce Bannister, a Republican from Greenville, disagreed with criticism of those nominated by McMaster’s AcclerateSC.
“It seemed to me a group of world-class experts to advise the governor,” Bannister said on Thursday.
Bannister also said that DHEC medical experts will be available to assist the panel, which is expected to run for about a month.
In an email responding to questions from The Greenville News about accelerateSC members, Governor spokesman Brian Symmes said that McMaster “was able to bring together an incredibly impressive group of people from a diverse group of sectors and disciplines “.
Symmes said accelerateSC members “will have two operational questions in mind at all times: how do we revitalize South Carolina’s economy and how do we keep the people of South Carolina safe by doing so?”
“The governor will listen to small and large business owners, manufacturers, healthcare professionals, representatives of the tourism industry and education professionals to determine the best practices that we have advanced,” said Symmes. “The governor was clear – he wants to hear directly from people on the ground who were impacted by the virus’s impact on the state’s economy. Because if a business is better because of the fast-paced work of SC, the same is true of southern Carolinians who depend on that business for a paycheck. “
Recent discoveries: African Americans in SC dying from coronavirus infections at a disproportionately high rate
Lack of racial diversity and an abundance of campaign contributions
Based on statistics collected by DHEC, blacks were responsible for 57% of COVID-19 deaths in South Carolina, although they represent only 27% of the state’s 5.1 million residents, according to the US Census Bureau .
In addition to seeking to revitalize the state’s economy, accelerateSC was instructed by McMaster to “prioritize the protection of the most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, residents of rural areas, low-income communities, minority communities, people with chronic illnesses and a weakened immune system. “
Robertson and Clary said they were concerned about the lack of racial diversity among those nominated by McMaster.
“It is also alarming that the governor was campaigning in black communities, but he forgot to include them in an organization as important as this – especially when those communities have been hit so hard and do not have access to the medical supplies necessary to survive COVID- 19 “Robertson said in his email.
Clary said that diversity “is extremely important, particularly in South Carolina, given our history”.
“This committee must reflect our population in this state,” he said.
The panel includes five white women.
Bannister, who is running unopposed for a ninth term in District 24 of the House, said he has no qualms about the panel’s demographics.
“At the end of the day, keeping South Carolinaians safe is not really a racial issue. It is a matter of keeping everyone safe, regardless of their race or economic status, “he said.” You want to choose people who can answer these questions and not base appointments on your race, religion or gender. “
Clary said he was not surprised that several of the people McMaster appointed to serve on acclerateSC are Republican donors.
“Money is the breastmilk of politics,” said Clary, a former judge who is not seeking re-election. “We are talking about our economy here; we are talking about money. Money and politics are inextricably intertwined at each intersection.”
Clary said she had already returned campaign donations in the past from the company run by one of the nominated members of accelerateSC, Nicky McCarter, who also serves on the Board of Trustees at Clemson University. Clemson’s board is elected by state legislators.
“I don’t take money from people I vote for,” Clary said.
McCarter is the president and CEO of Defender Services Inc., based in Hopkins. The company specializes in cleaning services, land and building maintenance, production and security, according to its website.
Defender Services has made hundreds of campaign contributions to South Carolina lawmakers and political parties, according to the Ethics Committee. He donated about $ 18,500 to Democrats and at least $ 49,000 to Republican Party candidates and committees, including five contributions totaling $ 8,750 to McMaster between 2009 and 2018.
McCarter did not return a phone message asking for comment on Wednesday.
Calls to two other accelerateSC members who made contributions to previous campaigns were also not returned.
‘Honored to serve’ but not answering questions
Henry Swink, co-owner of McCall Farms in Effingham, is one of the men appointed by McMaster. Swink made 14 contributions, totaling $ 16,300 for nine GOP candidates between 2007 and 2020, including six donations to McMaster totaling $ 11,000.
“Obviously, we are honored to be on this committee, but we are forwarding all these types of questions to the governor,” said Swink during a brief telephone interview on Wednesday. “I just think it’s probably the right place to get the information, and that’s what the group, as far as I know, is doing. I wouldn’t like to answer any questions.”
Symmes, the governor’s spokesman, did not respond to questions from The News about the campaign contributions made by McMaster nominees.
Bannister said he did not believe that “the fact that you made a donation would disqualify you from volunteering to serve.”
Akil Ross, former secondary director of the year in South Carolina, said he was proud to be nominated by McMaster for the accelerateSC panel.
Ross, who is black, was reluctant to discuss the panel’s lack of racial diversity.
“I don’t think I can talk about the composition of the committee yet,” he said. “I would like to see the task force really get together first, before I can say who should be and who shouldn’t be.”
Ross said he will think about the future of his 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son when he and other members of AccelerateSC meet today.
He said his main objective is “to ensure that South Carolina is a state of the art – not just for education, but in terms of our economy, health care and public services”.
Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM