A Midlands mayor must pay a $1,300 fine imposed after the S.C. Ethics Commission found he violated the state Ethics Act.
Commissioners earlier this month rejected an appeal from Batesburg-Leesville Mayor Lancer Shull challenging his fine and the commission’s February finding that by voting for his own appointment to Lexington County’s Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission, Shull violated the Ethics Act because the mayor received a $250 monthly per diem for his service on the water board.
Shull appealed the fine, arguing the per diem paid by Joint Municipal Water did not meet the legal definition of an “economic interest” prohibited by the law; that there is an exception because all members of the water commission earned the same per diem; and that the payments were authorized by the law creating the water commission…