South Carolina General Assembly
118th Session, 2009-2010

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Indicates New Matter

A1, R329, H4542

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Harrison, Weeks and McLeod
Document Path: l:\council\bills\dka\3899dw10.docx
Companion/Similar bill(s): 1243

Introduced in the House on February 16, 2010
Introduced in the Senate on April 21, 2010
Last Amended on May 26, 2010
Passed by the General Assembly on June 1, 2010
Governor's Action: June 11, 2010, Vetoed
Legislative veto action(s): Veto overridden

Summary: Release of information by the State Ethics Commission

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2/16/2010  House   Introduced and read first time HJ-2
   2/16/2010  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-2
   4/14/2010  House   Committee report: Favorable with amendment Judiciary 
                        HJ-76
   4/15/2010  House   Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Weeks
   4/20/2010  House   Member(s) request name added as sponsor: McLeod
   4/20/2010  House   Amended HJ-165
   4/20/2010  House   Read second time HJ-165
   4/21/2010  House   Read third time and sent to Senate HJ-11
   4/21/2010  Senate  Introduced and read first time SJ-8
   4/21/2010  Senate  Referred to Committee on Judiciary SJ-8
    5/6/2010  Senate  Recalled from Committee on Judiciary SJ-3
   5/12/2010  Senate  Amended SJ-25
   5/12/2010  Senate  Read second time SJ-25
   5/13/2010          Scrivener's error corrected
   5/26/2010  Senate  Amended SJ-52
   5/26/2010  Senate  Read third time and returned to House with amendments 
                        SJ-52
    6/1/2010  House   Concurred in Senate amendment and enrolled HJ-83
    6/1/2010  House   Roll call Yeas-98  Nays-0 HJ-83
    6/7/2010          Ratified R 329
   6/11/2010          Vetoed by Governor
   6/15/2010  House   Veto overridden by originating body Yeas-102  Nays-2 
                        HJ-123
   1/19/2011  Senate  Veto overridden Ayes-39  Nays-2 SJ-22
   1/25/2011          Effective date 01/19/11
    2/2/2011          Act No. 1

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/16/2010
4/14/2010
4/20/2010
5/6/2010
5/12/2010
5/13/2010
5/26/2010

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A1, R329, H4542 of 2010)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 8-13-320, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE STATE ETHICS COMMISSION, SO AS TO DELETE THE PROHIBITION OF THE RELEASE OF INFORMATION UNTIL FINAL DISPOSITION OF AN ETHICS INVESTIGATION AND REQUIRE THAT THE INFORMATION MAY NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL A FINDING OF PROBABLE CAUSE HAS BEEN MADE; AND TO AMEND SECTION 8-13-1372, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE ETHICS COMMISSION TO DETERMINE THAT ERRORS OR OMISSIONS ON CAMPAIGN REPORTS ARE INADVERTENT AND MAY BE HANDLED AS TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS, SO AS TO CHANGE REFERENCES OF THE STATE ETHICS COMMISSION TO THE APPROPRIATE SUPERVISORY OFFICE.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Ethics, confidentiality of investigations

SECTION    1.    Section 8-13-320(10)(g) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 387 of 2006, is further amended to read:

"(g)    All investigations, inquiries, hearings, and accompanying documents must remain confidential until a finding of probable cause or dismissal unless the respondent waives the right to confidentiality. The wilful release of confidential information is a misdemeanor, and any person releasing confidential information, upon conviction, must be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than one year."

Technical violations

SECTION    2.    Section 8-13-1372 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 76 of 2003, is further amended to read:

"Section 8-13-1372.    (A)    The appropriate supervisory office, in its discretion, may determine that errors or omissions on campaign reports are inadvertent and unintentional and not an effort to violate a requirement of this chapter and may be handled as technical violations which are not subject to the provisions of this chapter pertaining to ethical violations. Technical violations must remain confidential unless requested to be made public by the candidate filing the report. In lieu of all other penalties, the appropriate supervisory office may assess a technical violations penalty not to exceed fifty dollars.

(B)    A violation other than an inadvertent or unintentional violation must be considered by the appropriate supervisory office for appropriate action."

Time effective

SECTION    3.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

Ratified the 7th day of June, 2010.

Vetoed by the Governor -- 6/11/2010.

Veto overridden by House -- 6/15/2010.

Veto overridden by Senate -- 1/19/2011.

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This web page was last updated on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 12:24 P.M.