We asked local SC governments for their city manager’s file. It’s not going very well
Editor’s note: This story was updated to provide a response from the City of Myrtle Beach. (Updated Aug. 2 at 1:30 p.m.)
Two weeks after a Freedom of Information Act request was submitted, the City of North Myrtle Beach has yet to respond.
In the wake of North Myrtle Beach’s City Manager, Mike Mahaney, submitting a job application to a town in Florida, The Sun News submitted a Freedom of Information Act Requests to the local municipalities in Horry County, South Carolina and see what would happen.
The requests were all for the same documents: the City Manager’s personnel file.
On July 18, the requests were submitted to the City of Myrtle Beach, the City of North Myrtle Beach, the Town of Surfside and the City of Conway.
As of Aug. 1, the only municipality to have completed the request has been Conway.
According to state FOIA statutes, they are all required to respond to the request within 10 business days, which would have been today, Aug. 1.
The City of Myrtle Beach Meredith Denari director of public information sent an email Aug. 2, “per South Carolina FOIA law, the public body has 20 business days to make a determination as to the availability of the requested records because the records are older than two years, Section 30-4-30(C). The majority of Fox’s record is older than two years (begins 2014) and quite long. In addition, personnel records also include personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, medical and insurance information, and banking information, all of which must be carefully reviewed and redacted.”
North Myrtle Beach currently utilizes an online portal system to track their Freedom of Information Act requests. As of Thursday afternoon, the request for Mahaney’s complete personnel file remained “in progress.”
Those same laws dictate to local governments that they have 30 calendar days to complete the request, which would be Aug. 17.
This request follows another one submitted by the local outlet MyHorryNews, who reported that back in April they filed the same request for Mahaney’s file, and it was denied.
State law says that denial is illegal, and that since Mahaney is a public servant, the records that make up his file are public.
Mahaney is no stranger to transparency issues and controversy, having potentially violated city policies by wearing a body camera to a groundbreaking ceremony last spring.
He later told The Sun News that the camera wasn’t turned on during the event and was worn at the suggestion of police chief Dana Crowell.
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
