They've finally shown their true colors: electing Chris Fraser as chairman of the Charleston County School Board of Trustees guarantees that the Chamber of Commerce now controls the actions of the CCSD Board.
Chris Fraser's connections to the Chamber of Commerce are well known, as were those of his predecessor from the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, it would not be a stretch to claim that there is a seat reserved on the Board for a Chamber of Commerce representative. Perhaps Fraser's taking control was payback for the Chamber's taking the initiative to spearhead the Yes4Schools campaign to pass the sales tax increase.
What most taxpayers do not know, since it was done by sleight-of-hand, is that the Yes4Schools campaign run by the Chamber was funded by part of the $40,000 given by CCSD to the Chamber for its Education Foundation.
This was an illegal move by CCSD to fund the campaign under the radar because it was forbidden from using its own budget.
That's right. Your tax dollars at work.
P.S. The four newly-elected members have performed predictably so far, including Craig Ascue, who rapidly caved to the Superintendent's wishes when it came to a vote. Maybe he will figure out what's really going on, given time.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Good work, Babbie. CCSD is trying to say it doesn't pay dues to the Chamber or its related groups. Yep, Mr. Bobby, Mr. Emerson and Dr. McGinly want us to believe they have a "courtesy" membership in the Metro Chamber and Dr. McGinley is a member of the board of directors "just for fun". CCSD's dues to the Metro Chamber's Educational Foundation is more like $45,000 this year, calculated at $1.10 per student.
Chris Fraser was also chairman of the Finance Committee of both CCSD and the Metro Chamber, at the same time in 2009.
If CCSD pays that much to the Chamber of Commerce annually and the Chamber of Commerce pushed the sales tax on voters, then it is fairly easy to see that CCSD paid the Chamber to promote the referendum. That ain't legal, folks.
Like an old truck with new tires.
Babbie,
What is your source for this? And should this be reported to the Ethics Commission or the Attorney General? I will do it myself if you can provide the source.
Thanks.
My understanding is that it already has been reported.
Post a Comment