I was honored to receive a “Roll Call Champion” award from the Columbia Tea Party yesterday.

Columbia, SC (WLTX) — The Chapin High School student body president and several residents have asked the courts to stop a school board member from delaying building and improvements at the high school.

Kim Murphy, the board member named in the suit, has filed two separate appeals on DHEC approvals of the construction site in the courts. Murphy says construction of the new athletic fields are wetlands.

But some say it’s time to start building.

“I love Chapin High School. It’s near and dear to my heart. I guess the best part about Chapin High School is the staff. We have excellent teachers,” says Student Body President, Maggie Stroud.

But there are also parts of her school she isn’t too fond of. “We currently have 1,311 students at Chapin High School. But the building capacity is 1065,” she explains.

Stroud says the extra space needed comes from 23 portable units. She adds, “It’s just not safe. It’s outdated, it’s overcrowded, it’s miserable.”

Although voters said yes to millions of dollars in improvements back in 2008, no construction has started. It’s tied up in the courts.

“The problem is if you allow any governing body, if they don’t get their way, then file appeals based on the process, to slow the process down, that’s problematic,” explains attorney Todd Ellis.

Ellis is representing Stroud in the lawsuit, saying Murphy doesn’t have the right to use the courts to get appeal a decision made by the people. “It would simply create chaos, because everyone who lost – even though it was voted in the means it was supposed to be done and it was constitutionally voted – someone would take steps to stop that process,” Ellis explains.

Murphy sent News19 a statement, part of which was released two weeks ago, before the suit:

“This lawsuit is itself frivolous and an abuse of the legal system. A simple review of the published administrative law court record would have established that my legal standing and right to invoke the environmental appeal process has been conclusively established by a ruling in my favor by the judge on this very issue.

Also, let me add that their assertion that I used this DHEC appeal to boost my campaign for school board is untrue; it just happens to have boosted my school board campaign, as it’s pretty much common sense not to build ball fields over wetlands property when there are other perfectly suitable locations onsite – including a seven-acre parcel the district just purchased adjacent to the school.

Filing a lawsuit and quickly leaking it to the media is a time-honored tactic, but one I find questionable; therefore, I’d prefer not to appear on camera to give this story any undue legitimacy.”

The statement goes on to say:

“By all measures, our school district is a beacon of excellence. Our students, parents, teachers and supportive business community consistently make us proud.

Too often however, rather than engaging in civil discussion about the serious issues facing the Chapin-Irmo community, the adults in District 5 resort to insults, mud-slinging, even intimidation. That’s a shame.

In June 2010, even before I had a seat on the school board, I received an ominous phone call from a leader of the District 5′s 2008 bond referendum campaign threatening that a lawsuit would be orchestrated against me if I continued to question the ill-advised construction of ball fields on wetlands property.* Even worse, the caller said the purpose of the lawsuit would simply be to cause me to spend money to participate in the citizen appeal process.

That’s right – the caller said the lawsuit would be orchestrated simply to intimidate me and cause me to spend money. Fortunately, I made an audio recording of the phone call.

Although I will always be proud of my school district, it made me realize that there’s much left to be desired in the way we treat each other and the way we deliberate on important issues. Imagine the chilling effect it would have on citizen-participation if citizens thought they’d be threatened with a lawsuit for speaking out, for questioning their public officials’ decisions, or for engaging in the appeals process granted to citizens under the law.

There are many more examples I can point to here in District 5 where intimidation and criticism have superseded reasonable, thoughtful consideration of the issues. We deserve much better, and if we are ever to truly move forward as a school district, perhaps a good start would be to step back and do some soul-searching about how we debate important issues.

The health of any school system rests on the ability of stakeholders – parents, taxpayers, faculty members and businesses – to deliberate on their school system’s future without being attacked and without fear of intimidation or retribution.”

It’s our second furlough week this year in the House and I wanted to give a quick glimpse at my “paying job” at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage . As I mention in the video, I don’t know how my colleagues from across the state manage their jobs while we’re in session here in Columbia but I do hear the challenges they face. Fortunately, my office is just a few blocks away and obviously my work is mainly in the Midlands with local realtors and our local bankers. The balance between “paying jobs” and public service is difficult and it’s one of the reasons I support a shorter session for the General Assembly.

Photo by Sam Holland www.samhollandphotography.com/

Never seen the lobby of the State House more crowded for a bill-signing in my seven years in office! Because the people of South Carolina spoke up and supported their right to know our votes, a three-year push finally became law! While then-Representative Haley, I and a handful of others worked inside the chambers, y’all worked outside and contacted your officials. Today was truly about People, Not Politics!

Below is video of today’s press conference:

Last Wednesday, the House Regulations Subommittee convened to discuss ( for the third time ) a request from DHEC relating to Radioactive Materials Licenses Fee increases. Nathan’s News readers have already read about this situation in January and many responded via email to me about how we generally should handle fee increase requests.

One thing a few of my House colleagues and I have asked over the years is ‘why many times fee increases happen and only a handful of legislators are ever aware?’ The answer is ‘because regulations are not required to be debated in the Chamber.’ Traditionally, the subcommittee or full committee will “adjourn debate” and the regulations will take effect within weeks/months.

Some of us in the House want to change the process . Whether you agree or disagree with a fee increase, all members of the body should get a chance to vote. We should stop the days of only 5-20 members impacting our budget and business/individual pocketbooks.

I have the privilege this year of serving as the chair of this committee and hope you’ll view the 2 minute video.

For this request (as with most debates in Columbia) there seemed to be conflicting information. The agency stating that the program will be taken over by the feds (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) if we don’t approve the increase….and causing even higher fees than this request. Testimony from the NRC official, flown in from Washington to speak, seemed to indicate otherwise. His comments are at the end of the 2 minute clip.

The increase passed 3-2 and TODAY (March 1, 2011) will be debated in the full House Agriculture committee. If the full committee doesn’t dissaprove the regulation, I will ask that we send it to the full House floor for a vote from the entire body instead.

I’ll ask again, are all fee increases bad? This one was tough but when the NRC said the program was not in jeopardy of being “taken over”, it made my vote easier.

UPDATE: Today, the full House Ag Committee voted 10-6 (2 members not voting) against approving the regulation. This means, the regulation “dies”. It should be noted the vote was bi-partisan.

Another “behind the scenes” look at State Government. Many times our students and families around the state visit when we’re out of session. Here’s a look at the lobby on the 2nd floor of the State House on a Tuesday afternoon right before both bodies convene for the day. You can see the entranct to the House of Representatives behind me. I am facing towards the entract for the Senate.

The lobby is always full of “lobbyists” and other individuals with an interest in what’s going on in the chambers.

If you or your family/school/church group would like a tour of the State House (whether we’re in session or not), please call my office at 734-2969 and Janet Holland can arrange this for you!

(Ok, so maybe I got a little bit too much cut last week)

This week I enjoyed seeing Jonathan Williams again (senior, USC student) whom I’ve seen around the halls at the State House the past four years. He has two blogs ( Blatant Reality : Highlighting Emerging Energy Techonologies; and SC Statehouse which obviously focuses on state government).

For someone fairly uknown to most people in the media and state, he does manage to score some good interviews by just simply asking.

What I like (that some politicians might not) about Jonathan is he just pops in and asks if he can record. I think that makes for more natural conversation instead of planned remarks, etc.

With that said, here’s more about an issue that I hope will be resolved as a statewide law in a manner of weeks!