Former Richland County councilwoman faces hundreds of ethics charges from time in office
A former Richland County Council member faces multiple state ethics charges related to how she used her county-issued credit card and managed her campaign spending during her runs for office.
Gwendolyn Kennedy faces 26 charges of misusing her position for financial gain, each a separate charge for an instance where she made inappropriate charges on the taxpayer-funded card she was issued as a county council member for expenses related to her public duties.
Fourteen of the charges relate to purchases for food and fuel she made on the card and was then later reimbursed from the county for the same expenses — essentially double dipping into taxpayer funds. While the county-issued card can be used for gas purchases for county-related trips, on 10 occasions Kennedy is accused of gassing up more than one vehicle at a time on her county card. The final two charges relate to purchases of “groceries for personal use” charged to the card.
In total, the charges leveled by the S.C. Ethics Commission allege Kennedy misspent $1,522.91 on her county card.
The charges were aired at a hearing before the S.C. Ethics Commission on Aug. 17. The commission has yet to issue a ruling.
Kennedy served on Richland County Council from 2008 to 2012 and then again from 2016 to 2020. The charges she currently faces date from her second stint on county council.
Six of the charges relate to a trip to the 2017 S.C. Association of Counties conference, including double-charging a $129.90 meal at Outback Steakhouse. Four similar actions are alleged during the 2018 county retreat, including a $154.49 meal at Red Lobster.
Kennedy is no stranger to controversy around her spending. The State reported in 2018 on misuses of the county’s purchasing cards by council members as revealed in records released through a freedom-of-information request.
Nevertheless, another four counts of double-dipping occurred during the 2019 Association of Counties conference, the Ethics Commission alleges in its charges.
Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment from The State at the time, but told the Free Times that she had occasionally used her county credit card for personal expenses by mistake and that she “paid it back every time I pull that thing out by mistake.”
In addition to misusing taxpayer funds, Kennedy also stands accused of misusing the money donors gave to her campaigns for county council dating back to 2016. She faces 51 counts of using campaign funds for personal expenses, and another 17 charges of improperly using campaign funds for fuel. On another 17 occasions, Kennedy failed to deposit campaign donations into her campaign account, from which on 14 occasions she is accused of withdrawing excessive amounts, the charges allege.
Kennedy also stands accused of operating more than one campaign account in violation of state law, failure to disclose 32 campaign contributions and 59 campaign expenditures, as well as failure to file seven campaign disclosure reports and four statements of economic interest.
A timeline attached to the ethics packet details attempts to get Kennedy to file corrected statements for more than a year before a formal ethics complaint was filed. It also notes she owes $13,000 in fines for previous non-compliance.
When reached by phone on Thursday, Kennedy told The State she “had already taken care of that” and “you’ll have to speak to my attorney,” before hanging up the phone without identifying her attorney.
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