Judge finds Richland voter chief in contempt for not paying $38,740 debt
Judge Joseph Strickland on Friday found Richland County Board of Elections and Voter Registration executive director Samuel Selph in contempt of court for not paying a long-standing legal debt of $38,740 owed by the board.
Strickland, the county master-in-equity, said he would delay punishing Selph until he sees what Richland County Council, which apparently must approve the payment, does when it meets on Tuesday.
The implication was that if County Council takes steps to pay the debt, Strickland won’t punish Selph.
The long-standing nonpayment of a court-ordered legal fees debt of $38,740 has made the elections board, the Richland County Council and the Richland County Legislative Delegation a subject of ridicule in some quarters.
“Richland County Council is just a bunch of deadbeats who have put the election board in an untenable position. This debt has been ordered repeatedly by the court,” said Columbia citizen activist Rusty DePass, who was at the Richland County courthouse Friday afternoon and witnessed a 45-minute hearing during which Strickland heard statements about a complicated county bill-paying process under which no one might have authority to pay the board’s legal debt.
DePass was also on the winning side of the lawsuit lost by the elections board. DePass won’t collect personally any of the lawyer’s fees.
Richland County legal counsel Larry Smith, who attended Friday’s hearing, said afterward that County Council is not “a bunch of deadbeats.” The matter is very complicated, and County Council will be considering it at its Tuesday meeting, he said.
“At this point, the county is taking the matter under advisement,” said Smith, asserting – as he told Strickland in the hearing – the county is under no authority to pay the voter board’s legal debt.
Smith said the Richland County Legislative Delegation, which appoints the five-member elections board, should be a party to any funding discussions.
Asked if delegation members were “deadbeats,” Smith laughed and told a reporter, “I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.”
In recent months, Selph and elections board members have said they can’t pay the $38,740 the debt from the board’s $1 million-plus budget, because County Council must approve a new line item expense for that purpose.
But some County Council members have appeared reluctant to authorize the payment, because they say the voter board is appointed by the Richland County delegation – made up of more than a dozen state senators and representatives – and the delegation has the obligation to pay off the debt.
The legal fees result from a lawsuit against the board brought by a nonprofit watchdog foundation controlled by Greenville citizen activist Ned Sloan and DePass. The dispute concerned the voter board’s membership. In February 2015, a state court ruled that Sloan had prevailed and that the board owed Sloan $34,980 in attorney’s fees.
With interest, that amount now stands at $38,740.
At Friday’s hearing, elections board attorney Alex Postic urged Strickland to dismiss the contempt order against Selph.
“My client has done what he can to get payment,” Postic said.
Strickland also told elections board members he will increase the attorney’s fees because of the late payment and asked Sloan’s lawyer, Jim Carpenter of Greenville, to draw up a new, increased bill.
At a hearing in late August, Strickland warned Selph, “If you don’t pay, you can be held in contempt of court, which can result in a fine or incarceration, do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Selph said at the time.
At Friday’s hearing, recently appointed elections board member Sylvia Holley told Strickland that because board members have been threatened with being held individually liable for the debt, it will be hard to get citizens to serve on the voter board in the future.
This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Judge finds Richland voter chief in contempt for not paying $38,740 debt."