Who’s getting paid big bucks to market Richland penny tax projects?

Who are the people behind the companies being paid some $600,000 a year to market the Richland County transportation penny program?

The state Department of Revenue singled out the county’s payments to two public information firms – separate from the county’s own public information staff – as an example of potential misuse of the county’s penny-on-the-dollar sales tax revenues in a letter sent earlier this month to county administrator Tony McDonald.

Some $50,000 a month is being paid “for the equivalent of fewer than two full-time employees,” DOR said in its letter advising the county it was turning over the information to state law enforcement officials to determine whether there was any criminal wrongdoing involved with the penny tax spending.

Columbia-based firms Campbell Consulting Group and BANCO Bannister Co. were identified by the county as the two firms that have been paid $323,974.04 and $300,000, respectively, in the past year.

Darrell Campbell, a State House lobbyist for more than a dozen groups, is the founder of Campbell Consulting. Nicole Smith, a former public relations specialist for the city of Columbia, is Campbell’s director of public affairs and governmental relations whose title is “public involvement manager” for the county’s penny program.

BANCO Bannister is headed by president Heyward Bannister, a former political appointee in the Clinton administration and former commissioner and vice chairman of the Columbia Housing Authority.

Campbell Consulting and BANCO Bannister were hired as part of the penny’s development team headed by engineering firms ICA, Brownstone Construction Group and M.B. Kahn Construction Co.

The DOR letter to McDonald also alleges potential public corruption and fraud related to the project development team’s hiring for what was previously reported to be a five-year, $50 million job.

County spokeswoman Beverly Harris did not provide a copy of the contract for the team when it was requested by The State newspaper Tuesday and Wednesday. Efforts to reach McDonald on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

The contract is a public record.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Who’s getting paid big bucks to market Richland penny tax projects?."