Despite controversial spending, Lower Richland foundation gets $230,000 for tourism

A nonprofit with a history of controversial spending that has repeatedly failed to meet guidelines set by Richland County has been pledged $230,000 by Richland County Council in funds meant for tourism promotion for the coming year.

The Pinewood Lake Park Foundation plans to use tourism funding to host three events at Pinewood Lake Park in Lower Richland in the coming year: a “Wet N Wild” event, a “Halloween Horror Night” and a “Lights of Christmas” event, according to hospitality-tax paperwork submitted to the county by Councilman Norman Jackson, who has been the driving force behind funding the park.

Hospitality tax, or H-tax, money can be spent only on specific expenses meant to attract tourists who do not live in the area. Organizations such as the Columbia Museum of Art and Historic Columbia receive hundreds of thousands of H-tax dollars from the county and the city of Columbia each year.

The Pinewood Lake Park Foundation has repeatedly failed to submit proper documentation for hospitality-tax funding in recent years, according to county staff and has refused to cooperate with the Richland County Conservation Commission, which manages the park. The Conservation Commission has expressed concerns to county staff and County Council about the foundation’s finances.

Despite those concerns, Jackson last month prompted council to approve a $150,000 hospitality-tax grant to the foundation, which the majority of council members agreed to.

On Tuesday, Jackson secured an additional $80,000 hospitality-tax grant for the foundation from his district’s $164,000 pot of tourism money to distribute this year. Each council member has an equal pot of H-tax funds to distribute to organizations of their choosing. Each council member’s funding choices must be approved by the full council.

All but one of Jackson’s colleagues approved his hospitality-tax distributions Tuesday night. Only Councilman Seth Rose voted against the allocations.

The foundation has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in county H-tax grants in recent years, mostly at the behest of Jackson. Last year, the foundation was awarded at least $83,000 in hospitality-tax grants.

But because the foundation lacked proper documentation for many of its expenditures, County Council recently approved paying it only $12,175.92 for expenses staff deemed compliant with county standards.

Assistant county administrator Sandra Yudice and former county administrator Gerald Seals have accused Jackson of pressuring county staff to pay invoices from the foundation that, they said, would violate county policies and the law. Those accusations prompted County Council to ask SLED to investigate Jackson. Jackson has denied the accusations.

In addition to pledging nearly half of his district’s H-tax pool to the Pinewood Lake Park Foundation, Jackson also chose to allocate $50,000 to the “Believe N Me2 — Sunsplash Concert” and $25,000 to the Annual S.C. Gospel Fest.

Both the Sunsplash — or Sun Splash — and gospel festivals have been linked in the past to another dubious nonprofit, Second Chance Afterschool Learning Environment (SCALE) Inc. SCALE’s CEO, Patricia Ford, pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple counts of forgery and perjury, as well as obstruction of justice. Indictments from 2017 charged that Ford provided phony documents regarding how her organization spent H-tax money and instead pocketed the money herself.

SCALE Inc. also has a connection to Pinewood Lake Park.

More than 30 acres of land adjacent to the park was donated to SCALE by the previous owner, John Gwinn Jr. Norman Jackson was the one who recommended SCALE as the beneficiary, the previous owner told The State in 2016.

Last year, SCALE sold 4 acres of that land to Chao and Associates for expansion of the park. Chao charged the county for that purchase, which former administrator Seals argued was improperly purchased and improperly paid for by the county. The county and Chao are in an ongoing dispute over the payment for and ownership of that land.

This story was originally published July 25, 2018 at 3:48 PM.