The "Hiott- Skelton" Bills To Add A Pickens County School Board Member

Representatives Davey Hiott and BR Skelton filed two bills in May of 2013 to restructure the Pickens County School Board (Hiott-Skelton bills H4258 and H4165) As you know, in 2007, H3782 deleted the at-large seats. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 6:00PM.

Pickens County Career & Technical Center
990 Chastain Road
Liberty, SC 29657

At this hearing, the delegation (Larry Martin, Phil Owens, Davey Hiott, and BR Skelton) will hear from the public as to whether Hiott-Skelton should pass.

The "logic" for Hiott-Skelton is that the six member board does not function properly because it has an even number of members. That "logic" is meritless. There have been only a handful of split votes and those were worked out amicable either in the same meeting or subsequent meetings. The other purported reason for Hiott-Skelton is that Easley is not equally represented on the board. That argument is meritless as well. Law requires all districts to be approximately the same (number of voters). The six single-member district model has worked very well for the school board, and has also worked well for County Council for years.

Any at large seat favors Easley.

You are encouraged to attend the hearing on the 22nd and voice your opinion.

One final and very IMPORTANT note, we need to daily monitor what our representatives do when in Columbia. H4258 could have passed with little to no public input were it not for some who opposed that tactic. Hiott-Skelton actually tried this deceitful maneuver on May 30th, but were unable to slip it through. You can read all about their maneuvering in House Journals for May 30th and June 4th. If this is such a good thing, why did Hiott-Skelton file two separate bills and try to avoid public scrutiny?