Myrtle Beach Area Chamber chief handed over envelope of $84,000

Brad Dean arranged a meeting last year with gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett in which he gave Barrett an envelope of cashier's checks from local corporations linked to a former chamber board chairman, Dean and Barrett confirmed Thursday.

There is no indication that Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, did anything illegal by delivering about $84,000 in campaign contributions to Barrett.

Dean said local business owners often sent campaign donations to the chamber's headquarters because they knew current and past chamber board members were raising money for candidates.

Dean said he delivered some of those checks to Barrett because he knew the politician would be in town for an unrelated fundraiser.

"This was not the chamber of commerce raising money," Dean said. "There was no public money or chamber money involved."

Since October, Dean has asserted that the chamber had nothing to do with raising money for candidates, including members of the Myrtle Beach City Council who were seeking re-election last November.

At least one local group has questioned whether a series of contributions was related to lawmakers' passage of the 1percent sales tax for tourism, which funnels money to the chamber.

Dean told The Sun News on Thursday that he has never denied attending meetings where the campaign donations were delivered, including a second meeting with state Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, but his attendance did not represent an endorsement by the chamber.

U.S. Rep. Barrett, R-3rd District, is one of four GOP candidates vying for the governor's office.

Barrett's money was among $324,500 in donations given to him, four City Council incumbents and seven state legislators in the months after the council members and state legislators passed laws that allowed the sales tax increase in Myrtle Beach.

Money from that tax is given to the chamber for tourism advertising purposes.

Brant Branham, the chamber's board chairman, also has insisted for months that there is no tie between the chamber and the campaign contributions. Branham said he solicited the contributions on his own from "like-minded businessmen and women."

Branham also said he "delivered these contributions to candidates that deserve re-election."

Dean gave the money to Barrett during a June 20 lunch meeting at Roy and Sid's restaurant at The Market Common in Myrtle Beach, according to Barrett and documents obtained by The Sun News. Barrett spokesman B.J. Boling said Dean arranged the meeting through Barrett's finance and scheduling staffs.

Mark Kelley, a lobbyist for the chamber of commerce, also attended that meeting, according to Barrett. Kelley did not return a telephone call Thursday.

There are strict rules that forbid lobbyists from facilitating campaign donations for statewide candidates; however, a spokeswoman for the S.C. Ethics Commission said it does not appear any laws were violated in this case.

"Just being in the same room is not a violation, it happens all the time," said Cathy Hazelwood, the commission's general counsel. "He [Kelley] is not supposed to touch the envelope or hand over the envelope."

The campaign contributions have drawn scrutiny because it is not clear where at least 15 of the corporations obtained the money to make the donations. One of the corporations was dissolved in 2007 because it failed to pay its taxes. Some of the other corporations are land-holding entities with no revenue.

Myrtle Beach lawyer Shep Guyton, a former chamber board chairman, is the registered agent for those 15 corporations. Guyton did not return telephone calls Thursday.

Hazelwood said she cannot talk about the campaign donations, and she would not say whether the commission is investigating the matter. Hazelwood previously has said the donations appear to have been legal.

"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a complaint," she said.

Donations from the Guyton-related corporations were made by cashier's checks, making it difficult to trace the source of the funds. All of the cashier's checks to all candidates are dated June 8 and all of them are in sequential order. The cashier's checks were drawn off accounts at South Atlantic Bank, where Guyton is a board member.

Barrett, who was in Myrtle Beach on Thursday to announce his endorsement by three local mayors, said he has no plans to return the money.

"At the present time, we feel certain the spirit of the law and the letter of the law has been followed," he said.

State Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, is the only candidate who has returned the campaign donations. Edge said he had concerns about the donations' origin, but he "couldn't get anybody to answer my questions or even talk about it."

Edge said he held onto the cashier's checks until December, when Guyton demanded their return.

"He was adamant about wanting them back," Edge said.

A Myrtle Beach-based group called Business Owners Organized to Support Tourism, or BOOST, has questioned whether the campaign donations were payback for legislators' and council members' approval of the 1 percent sales tax for tourism development.

That tax, which went into effect Aug. 1 and is expected to generate up to $18 million a year, was tacked onto the city's sales tax.

BOOST also has questioned whether at least some of the money came from the chamber of commerce.

"BOOST's contention all along is that the chamber of commerce was directly responsible for coordinating hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions for incumbents," said Tom Herron, a spokesman for the group.