Webb Says She Was Unaware Of Campaign Report Oversight

A county council candidate who failed to report her campaign signs as expenditures on her disclosure reports with the South Carolina Ethics Commission will be notified she had not adhered to state ethics law, according to election officials.

Jenn Webb, who is running for District 22 seat on the Greenville County Council currently held by incumbent Bob Taylor, acknowledged the mistake Friday to Patch. 

Webb, a Lockheed Martin employee, is trying to unseat Taylor, a 12-year veteran on the council representing a district that extends from Wade Hampton Boulevard and into the Wade Hampton area of Greenville, near East North Street and Pelham Road. Webb has numerous signs dotting the district, for which she paid more than $4,000 of her own money. 

The expenditures were not listed on Webb's March 23 statement of economic interest or her May 15 disclosure report with the S.C. Ethics Commission, which lists Webb's $951 filing fee for joining the race as the only expense incurred by the campaign. 

The problem, Hayden said, is that campaign expenditures paid for with a candidate's own cash must be disclosed in the same way as expenditures paid for by the campaign.

Herb Hayden, director of the ethic commission, said Friday Webb would be told that she has 10 days to correct any non-reported expenditures. If correction aren't made that time, fines of up to $2,000 per offense can be levied.

Webb said she had already taken steps to correct what she called an honest mistake. 

"I paid for all those with my own money," Webb said. "I wasn't aware of that (the fact that candidates must report expenditures paid for by themselves). 

"I'll go ahead and put it on the report." 

By 11 a.m. Friday, Webb said she had entered current information into her disclosure form to reflect the $4,435 cost of her campaign signs. Still, Hayden told Patch that Webb would receive a letter informing her it had come to the commission's attention that there had been unreported expenditures, and that there was also one other issue with her disclosure report. 

Her payment of the filing fee had been entered into her statement of economic interest on March 23, which means she then had 10 days to file her first disclosure report, which is required the moment a candidate raises or spends more than $500 dollars. By waiting until May 15 to file her first disclosure report, she did not meet the deadline. 

Hayden said a $100 late filing fee also be assessed against Webb.

Her opponent, Taylor, also has campaign signs that are not reflected as expenditures on any report with the commission, but Taylor said Friday that those signs were purchased after his most recent report was submitted. Therefore, he can lawfully submit those expenditures in his pre-election report, according to Hayden. 

The primary will be held June 12.