Hearing on LR5 board member’s ethics charges dropped from Ethics Commission meeting
A hearing on ethics charges against the Lexington-Richland 5 school board chairwoman has been dropped from a Thursday meeting of the S.C. Ethics Commission.
The revised agenda for the meeting released Wednesday by the Ethics Commission removes previously scheduled hearings on ethics charges against school board member Jan Hammond.
A spokesperson for the Ethics Commission declined to comment on the change, but the disciplinary body for elected officials has dropped other hearings after reaching settlement agreements with charged officials.
In a text message, Hammond said: “I made some technical mistakes which have been corrected and I sent a few emails on my own phone which technically violated rules. I was satisfied and I agreed to pay a small fine and the matter was resolved.”
Hammond was facing 15 counts of violating South Carolina’s Ethics Act, including misuse of her district email for election purposes and failing to report income on her statement of economic interest.
The charges came after the commission investigated allegations based on reporting from The State that, prior to the 2020 election, Hammond used her district email account to encourage residents who contacted her about school concerns to vote against other members of the school board.
“We HAVE to change the board,” Hammond told one parent who had written on Sept. 15, 2020, about the district’s COVID-19 reopening strategy. “The opportunity is here on November 3. (Then board chairman Michael) Cates in Lexington needs to be voted out and (Robert) Gantt in Richland needs to be replaced. Beth Hutchison’s seat is up but she is not running. (Rebecca Blackburn) Hines and (Catherine) Huddle in Lexington and Matt Hogan in Richland is great.”
According to the charges handed down by the Ethics Commission, Hammond sent eight separate emails between August and October 2020 encouraging her correspondents to either vote for or against a school board candidate in the upcoming election.
After the 2020 election flipped the board’s balance in favor of members critical of the previous majority’s cautious COVID-19 strategy and their financial management of a 2008 referendum to renovate and build new schools, Hammond was chosen as the board’s new presiding officer.
The Ethics Commission has advised that state law says “No person may use government personnel, equipment, materials, or an office building in an election campaign” or “use or authorize the use of public funds, property, or time to influence the outcome of an election,” definitions the commission has said govern the use of public email accounts.
Hammond said at the time that using her district email account did not constitute government equipment under the law. In a response to the Ethics Commission, Hammond wrote that she felt she had to answer “honestly and truthfully” the concerns raised by parents in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want you to understand the obligation I felt as an elected school board member in this unprecedented situation we were all dealing with,” she wrote. “The pandemic brought an unusual climate of fear, stress and anxiety for everyone, especially to parents who were concerned about the learning loss of students, as well as the social and mental consequences of closing our schools. A whole new light was placed on our schools and the school board.”
Hammond also faced charges she failed to report income on her statement of economic interest. She reportedly failed to report her husband’s income for four years on her statements from 2018 to 2021. She also was accused of not reporting income she received as a school board member in 2019 and 2020. In 2019, Hammond also failed to report her income from her job as a school teacher in Lexington 2, the ethics charges alleged.
Hammond’s emailed response included with Ethics Commission documents did not address the missing information in her economic reports.
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