5/4/16
Freedom of Information law means that
Jerry Bellune, Lexington County Chronicle
Lexington District 1 attorney David Duff is not the first lawyer to slip up on the state’s long-standing Freedom of Information Act.
You can’t expect lawyers to know everything in the state’s voluminous code. That’s a reason the laws need a serious overhaul. We have laws in our state that make about as much sense today as buggy whips.
But the law is the law. We commend Mr. Duff for doing his homework and realizing that money the district receives from booster clubs or any one else is subject to public scrutiny.
That means, the district must let the public know where booster club money goes.
In this case, parents of girl softball players and others would like to know if the money favors the boys’ teams.
That’s a legitimate and common sense question even if there were no Title 9 requirements that boys and girls be treated without favortism.
It’s time the district and the school board talked openly about who gets what in Lexington High sports programs.
HIT: Congratulations to Paulette Criscione and her supporters for an Evening of Hope fundraiser for cancer patients. Paulette works with the county’s Recreation and Aging Commission and is a cancer survivor.
She knows the pain families of cancer patients suffer as she lost her father and two brothers to the disease.
MISS: State Retirement System Investment Commission CEO Michael Hitchcock and his cronies need to be fired for their $21 billion mismanagement.
This is the pension fund thousands of state and local public employees have been paying into and counting on for a worry-free retirement one day.
State Treasutrer Curtis Loftis has been on their case for years but our lawmakers seem to have turned deaf ears.
Now, Loftis says, it may be too late to save the system unless state employees pay more and the taxpaers pick up the rest of the billion dollar tab.
Neither is a fair solution. We need something better.
