Midlands school board member owes $1,400 for failing to file campaign reports

A member of the Richland 2 school board owes $1,400 in ethics fines for failing to file elections paperwork, documents show.

James Shadd III was assessed the fine on Dec. 30, 2019, for failing to file 14 quarterly campaign disclosures related to his 2010 run for 5th Circuit Solicitor, according to documents from the S.C. Ethics Commission.

The Columbia attorney had received two warnings — one in January 2019 and another in March 2019 — regarding the fines. When The State reached him for a comment Friday, he said he was aware of the fines and was working to fix it.

The reason the fines racked up was because Shadd had ended his solicitor campaign after losing the 2010 election, but never provided bank statements to the ethics commission to prove that, Shadd said.

Shadd said he dropped off the bank statements on Friday afternoon. S.C. Ethics Commission Executive Director Meghan Walker confirmed the agency received the bank statements and is reevaluating whether the fine amount will stand as is, be reduced, or eliminated, Walker said.

Shadd isn’t the first Richland 2 official to face fines from the ethics commission for failing to file required paperwork. Amelia McKie, a current member and former chair of Richland 2 school board, still owes $51,750 to the ethics commission for failing to file paperwork dating back to her 2014 election, according to a previous article from The State.

Throughout the state, hundreds of political candidates, political parties and lobbyists owe the ethics commission millions of dollars, but many will never pay, according to a previous article from The State.