WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE, HIM OR YOUR LYIN' EYES?

At the County Council meeting last Monday, a taxpayer asked Supervisor Dan Davis to justify his pay raise when county employees had realized a reduction in take home pay. Mr. Davis told this lady that he had not had a pay raise and that she should come to his office the next day to discuss the matter.

GE&P was certain documents sent to BC from the Election Commission, in preparation for the upcoming Republican Primary, stated the salary for the position of Supervisor had increased from $113, 650.54 in 2006 to $131,448.18 in 2010. We pondered whether or not the Election Commission had possibly made an error.

We decided to go directly to the horse's mouth for our answer. You can do the same.

Google SC Ethics Commission

Click on "Public Reporting"

Click on "Individual Financial Reports"

Click on "Statement of Economic Interests Reports"

Select filing year 2007

Type in "Davis"

Select the proper Davis and click on his name

From the banner above his name, click on Income and benefits

You will see the salary for that year

Then, hit the "Back" button to the page for the date and change it to '08 and then '09

These financial reports are submitted by Mr. Davis himself. The financial report dated '08 was submitted in the first quarter of that year and covers the previous year, '07. The report dated '09 is for the calendar year '08. If this pay increase was reported for the entire '08 calendar year, and it was, that would mean this pay increase had to be included in the budget for fiscal year '07/'08, a mere 6 months after Mr. Davis took office.

Coincidentally, during that same time period, Chip Boling, Deputy Supervisor, got a $9,000 pay increase and Nicole Ewing, County Attorney received a $14,000 pay hike. GE&P has searched the budget for that year and, to date, we can find no provision to pay for these increases. The only provisions that could account for these increases would fall under COLA and/or Merit raises. The amounts noted would constitute the sort of Cost of Living increase we would all like to see or one grunge of a Merit raise. Wouldn't it satisfy the curiosity of a lot of folks if we knew exactly where this money for these pay increases, uh..excuse us, not REALLY pay increases, came from?