SC council member wanted to review public records. Town told him he’d have to pay $400
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A Surfside Beach council member reviewing public records to investigate why employees were leaving the town was told he’d have to pay to continue his inquiry.
Councilman Harry Kohlmann said last month during a council meeting he was told he’d have to pay $400 to review records he was seeking.
“I was doing it for you guys,” he said, speaking to the public in attendance. “I’m not doing a witch hunt. I’m not doing a fishing expedition.”
Surfside Beach Administrator Gerald Vincent recently confirmed that Kohlmann was quoted $400 to review the records, but the councilman never paid, instead halting his search.
“Staff and I consulted with the Municipal Association of SC’s labor attorney and he indicated that request for information of that magnitude, staff could charge council members as we do with citizen requests,” Vincent wrote in an email. “The charging with information requests is a policy of the town.”
Kohlmann, asked to discuss his perspective further, told The Sun News Thursday he doesn’t talk to media.
Kohlmann and other town council members are paid $6,000 per year as elected officials, according to the latest salary survey conducted by the municipal association.
Kohlmann had said during the council meeting that staff was initially helpful in allowing him to review records, but the administrator stopped him after the head of the department he was investigating allegedly threatened to sue if he continued.
Vincent denied that the decision to charge Kohlmann had anything to do with any allegations of a lawsuit.
“Staff contacted the labor attorney to better understand what information was sensitive and what could be released,” he wrote. “Once we received that decision, the council member was informed.”
Scott Slatton, director of advocacy and communications for the municipal association, told The Sun News that no one on their staff advised Surfside Beach that it’s appropriate to charge a council member for information about town operations.
“Council members have fiduciary and oversight responsibility to the town, therefore each member is entitled to receive information from town staff to carry out those duties without being charged a fee,” he wrote in an email.
Slatton noted that the association offers its members a contract labor attorney to advise on personnel matters, but “any advice he provides to cities on matters outside of labor issues is his own and isn’t necessarily the view of the Association.”
A post on the association’s website answering common questions about the Freedom of Information Act specifies that a 2019 opinion from the SC Attorney General suggests elected officials likely shouldn’t have to submit FOIA requests to obtain public information.
Kohlmann never specified during the council meeting which department he was investigating, but at the following meeting, he presented a motion to investigate high turnover with the police department. About a week later, Surfside Beach Police Chief Kenneth Hofmann submitted his resignation, citing the “unnecessary formal inquiry” in his letter.
Vincent noted that he believes the issue mentioned in Kohlmann’s speech are “behind us,” and they have more important issues to address involving staffing and the budget.
The town recently announced a $1.8 million budget deficit, and council is considering raising taxes to bolster its undermanned fire department or handing over its fire service responsibilities to Horry County.
