Richland 1 school board members hit with ethics violations for conflicts of interest

Two Richland 1 school board members have been cited with violations from the S.C. Ethics Commission.

The ethics violations, assessed against board Chair Jamie Devine and board member Beatrice King, were for voting on a matter for which they had a conflict of interest, according to documents from the S.C. Ethics Commission.

Devine voted on a motion to extend a $550,000 contract to EngenuitySC in August 2018, according to board minutes. Devine’s wife, Tameika Isaac Devine, sits on the board of EngenuitySC in an unpaid position.

The EngenuitySC contract was approved by a 6-1 vote, according to school board minutes.

After a complaint was filed, Devine’s attorney argued that it was not a conflict of interest because his wife did not benefit financially from the contract. The complaint against Devine called for a $1,000 fine, but it’s not clear what the fine will be, as details of Devine’s consent order have not been finalized.

After bringing up his own ethics violation at Tuesday’s school board meeting, Devine stressed the need for the board to undergo additional ethics training.

King’s conflict of interest came to light a year later when school board member Cheryl Harris mentioned it at a public meeting. That conflict of interest arose when King voted for two contracts in 2017 and 2018 — worth $141,000 and $233,000 — to hire athletic trainers from Prisma Health. King’s husband sits on the board of Prisma Health.

The 2018 vote to approve the contract with Prisma was unanimous, according to school board records.

King, who reported herself to the ethics commission for the violation in September 2019, thanked Harris for making her aware of the conflict of interest.

The ethics commission also found King failed to report private sources of income from an immediate family member on her statements of economic interest from 2017 to 2019, documents show. However, the commission did not punish her for those violations because she quickly fixed her statements of economic interest, documents show.

King entered into a consent order with the ethics commission and paid a $700 penalty, documents show.