Journal Inc

Description

Over his last term, Harvell has worked with other council members to begin the healing process fo rthe Town of Wiliamston. He is dedicated to his commuity and pledges to work to benefit all the people of Williamston. Harvell said he is looking forware to service the town of Williamston for another term.

So far, the Town of Williamston has taken 7 weeks to provide simple copies of receipts of a couple of town credit cards. The County of Anderson has taken years to provide simple accountings of the County?s routine business transactions. Both bodies politic are apparently comfortable in flaunting the spirit, if not the letter, of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.

He said there are other questions that will need to be addressed including providing sewer service to customers located outside the town limits and any other associated costs.

The common thread here is the position by elected officials and their employees that efforts to delay or avoid compliance with the FOIA are somehow proper and desirable. The FOIA states that upon receipt of a request for information, the public body in question has 15 days to respond to the request. The loophole here is that at the end of the 15 days, the body isn?t required to provide the information; just to express their willingness or refusal to do so. How long it takes them to provide the information itself is open to interpretation.

These two issues could affect whether the town can accept two requests from different developers to provide service to residents and future residents outside of the town limits.

Companies nearby