Attorney general wants booster club’s records

The state attorney general’s office is looking into the finances of A.C. Flora High School’s cash-flush booster club.

The club, along with the school’s championship-caliber baseball team, have until March 13 to provide the attorney general reams of financial and other records or face losing its status as a charity, which means donors could no longer deduct contributions from their taxes, according to a letter from Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office.

The letter demands nearly a dozen years of bank account records, receipts for spending and purchases, deposit verifications and other documents.

The Feb. 28 letter to the club was written eight days after The State newspaper raised questions about the club’s and the Falcons baseball team’s fundraising and spending practices — questions first raised by two fathers of former baseball players. The letter warns of penalties spelled out in the Nonprofit Corporation Act.

That 1994 law allows the attorney general to regulate and protect public charities, such as tax-exempt booster clubs. The law also grants the attorney general the teeth to enforce the law.

Neither the letter nor the fathers have alleged that money has been misspent.

“Please deliver all requested records (to) the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office no later than Monday, March 13,” the letter from assistant deputy attorney general Jared Q. Libet states. “Failure to comply with this request will subject the booster club to penalties as prescribed (by the 1994 law).”

The booster club’s executive committee late Monday afternoon released a statement saying it would deliver everything the attorney general’s office is looking for. “In the interest of ensuring public confidence,” the statement continued, the club has engaged an attorney familiar with the office’s practices and will help the club meet the deadline, “plus any extensions.”

The attorney general’s letter lists 13 categories of documents that are to be delivered to the attorney general. The three-page letter is addressed to current club president Kevin Long and is copied to longtime club treasurer James Stevens, baseball coach Andy Hallett and Flora principal Richard McClure. The booster club supports all of the school’s athletic teams, but the baseball team is the school’s showcase program.

Reached Monday afternoon, Stevens had no comment. “I am not responding to any questions that you have,” he told a reporter.

The attorney general seeks some of the documents the newspaper requested in its Jan. 30 open-records request. The club and the school released to booster club and school parents some of the information requested three days after the newspaper asked for them, including an accounting firm’s review of club financial practices. Neither the club, the school nor Richland 1 school district officials have released all the documents sought under the paper’s Freedom of Information Act request.

Ed Moore, Flora’s athletics director, told the newspaper last month in a brief telephone interview, “We’ve released all the information we’re going to.”

The attorney general’s detailed request covers a range of documents, dating to July 1, 2006 – from tax records that all charities must file with the Internal Revenue Service to minutes of booster club meetings.

Other documents sought include:

▪  Reports or documents provided to the city of Forest Acres. The city has provided the club and the school with $467,200 in meal tax revenue in the past 12 years, according to city records. That tax money was provided, through coach Hallett, to support the annual, team-sponsored Forest Acres Classic baseball tournament, which draws participants from around the state and outside of South Carolina.

▪  All fundraising records.

▪  Monthly and/or annual financial reports prepared by treasurer Stevens on any sport played by Flora students.

▪  All bank accounts and bank records.

▪  Records about the construction of a baseball team locker room that was never built; replacement of the baseball scoreboard; receipts from concession sales.

▪  The Nov. 3 report from the accounting firm of McDowell Pearman, whose assessment of the club’s financial practices was released by the club and school last month. The request includes all documents supplied to the firm or received by the club from McDowell Pearman.

▪  Contracts, mortgages, notes and leases that the club holds.

▪  Club bylaws.

The attorney general’s Consumer Protection and Antitrust division is handling the matter. That division is part of “legal services,” which handles civil lawsuits, a spokeswoman for the agency said, declining to comment further.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Attorney general wants booster club’s records."