These city leaders continue to dodge accountability. They went from refusal to silence.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to provide the City of North Myrtle Beach’s’ response to the Sun News FOIA request. (March 4 at 10:30 a.m.). The story was updated to reflect the bodycam is owned by the city. (March 4 at 12:40 p.m.)
City leaders went from refusal to silence.
North Myrtle Beach City Manager Mike Mahaney wore a police-issued body camera to an afternoon economic development announcement for Pepsi on Friday, Feb. 24.
Questioned at the event, and then multiple times in the following days, leaders continue to dodge any questions about an undisclosed safety concern they cited.
The city has been asked to provide footage and its policy on bodycams. The public information officer provided the policy at 5:03 p.m. on Friday following an email to the entire city council informing them a story was publishing about their lack of response. The policy was requested the morning of March 2.
The policy states, “body worn camera systems ... will only be operated by personnel who have received Department-approved training on its proper operation and care.”
City spokesperson Donald Graham also provided the same statement he gave The Sun News Feb. 26: “We routinely enhance safety protocols according to situational circumstances.”
Graham provided the following statement via email at 9:37 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, after this story was published online.
“There is no video footage from the body camera in question. Following North Myrtle Beach policy, the camera has not had to be activated for recording.”
The Sun News has sent emails, made phone calls and sent text messages to Mayor Marilyn Hatley, council members J.O. Baldwin III, Bubba Collins, Fred Coyne, Nicole Fontana, Trey Skidmore and Hank Thomas multiples times from multiple numbers this week.
Those attempts to seek more information about why the man who oversees North Myrtle Beach’s day-to-day operations felt insecure at a function that included several uniformed police officers and civic leaders from around the region, have been unsuccessful.
Here’s how to contact North Myrtle Beach leaders
Contact information for the city’s elected officials is posted on North Myrtle Beach’s website:
Mayor Marilyn Hatley, 843-280-5525; mayorhatley@nmb.us
J.O. Baldwin III, 843-272-6333 and 843-458-0931; jobaldwin@nmb.us
Bubba Collins, 843-360-7597; bcollins@nmb.us
Fred Coyne, 843-458-1698; jfcoyne@nmb.us
Nicole Fontana, 843-267-9152; njfontana@nmb.us
Trey Skidmore, 843-591-6321; rtskidmore@nmb.us
Hank Thomas, 843-249-2100 or 843-249-9236; hank.thomas@century21thomas.com
Initial claim made two days after the event was to enhance ‘safety protocols’
Mahaney was among roughly 100 to 150 people who gathered under a large tent at the Palmetto State Industrial Park off Water Tower Road, where Pepsi Bottling Ventures turned dirt on a 165,000-square-foot plant it intends to open by year’s end.
“We routinely enhance safety protocols according to situational circumstances,” Graham said in his original emailed reply.
The Sun News asked several questions following the Feb. 24 event that still remain unanswered:
How long Mahaney has worn the camera?
Which city department is paying for it?
Under what conditions is it activated?
Whether it was Mahaney’s decision to begin using it?
Hatley on Tuesday said the city’s response was “self-explanatory” and declined to comment further. Since that 30 second phone call, Hatley has not returned any additional phone calls or emails.
The device belonged to North Myrtle Beach’s public safety department, confirmed by Graham on March 4.
Transparency taught to city leaders in South Carolina
In its March newsletter, the Municipal Association of South Carolina published an article related to the release of bodycam footage, pointing to guidelines requiring agencies retain data for at least 14 days if the recordings are “non-investigative, non-arrest and not part of any internal investigation.”
Association spokesman Scott Slatton said appointed and elected officials undergo regular training and are briefed on government transparency laws.
He said while Mahaney’s use of a body camera was unusual, having bulked up surveillance and monitoring in public spaces is not.
“I know that a lot of cities take great care to protect their employees as much as possible, particularly with physical infrastructure in terms of walls and glass,” he said. “I’m thinking about the billing clerk, the person at the front counter. But if the council decides that as a policy there should be some enhanced monitoring, that’s up to them to make that decision.”
The City of North Myrtle Beach records its city council meetings but does not stream them for residents.
What does the SC law actually say about bodycam footage
North Myrtle Beach leaders continue to elude accountability by answering questions. Here’s what a legal scholar, a journalist and an attorney said about this “unusual” case.
Taylor Smith, an attorney for the S.C. Press Association, told the Sun News March 1, it was unusual for a city leader to wear a body camera at public events and the city would “have to” give reason for why he was wearing it.
“It definitely seems to be outside the norm. I have never seen that on behalf of a non-law enforcement official,” Smith said. “If there’s any kind of record which is ever mentioning the city manager and a body cam then that is something you should definitely be able to find in the statute. They (the city) would have to trot out at least a reason that would give you a strong clue as to why he’s wearing it.”
Bodycam footage from police officers is not inherently a public record. State law does provide for some reason and ability for bodycam footage to be released.
“The media and media lawyers and people who are interested and concerned about this stuff are concerned about any government entity or official not disclosing information without an adequate justification,” said Eric Robinson, an associate professor of media law at the University of South Carolina.
According to the North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety Body Worn Camera Policy “body-worn cameras are assigned to officers primarily in a uniformed capacity in a field assignment.” It also states, “Use of body worn cameras for any purpose other than in accordance with this policy is STRICTLY prohibited.”
The policy highlights times a city provided bodycam to a police officer “shall not be used to record.” Those include “communications with other police personnel while not on a call requiring activation” and “when conducting official Department business with a Solicitor, our City Attorney or any Attorney representing the City in any official matter.”
Mahaney is not a police officer. Did he violate or stretch the city’s policy with a bodycam?
There are several instances how and why a bodycam video in South Carolina can be released to the public, including being requested by “a person who is the subject of the recording.”
“The South Carolina bodycam law, it talks about it in terms of police, but there’s a specific provision that exempts bodycam release under FOIA,” Robinson said.
Bodycam laws could change, here’s the bill that would do it
A newly introduced law would eliminate the body cam exemption. State Rep. Ivory Torrey Thigpen, D-Columbia, is lead sponsor of a measure that would make body cam footage accessible under the open records act. The bill — awaiting action by the House Judiciary Committee — has bipartisan support.
“It doesn’t specify law enforcement,” Thigpen said. “The reality is, if it’s paid for by public dollars, the public should have access to it. That’s one plus one equals two.”
One of the elected officials that could help change or modify bodycam laws was at the event Feb. 24 and was near the recording device worn by Mahaney.
State Sen. Greg Hembree, R-North Myrtle Beach, spoke with Mahaney at the groundbreaking. He noticed the camera, he said, but didn’t think much of it. He also did not feel unsafe at event, which began at 3 p.m. and included several uniformed police officers.
The North Myrtle Beach Policy states that, “officers shall inform individuals that they are being recorded.”
The state senator feeling safe and not having any additional “safety protocols” could call into question the rationale provided by North Myrtle Beach. The mayor and Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner also did not have any enhanced “safety protocols” that were noticeable.
When asked March 2 why Mahaney might feel unsafe at the public event, here’s how Hembree responded.
“That’s a question for Mike. I don’t know what’s going on with all that. I get my share of people that contact me and are threatening in their tone, violent in their tone. You know, keyboard warriors. But that’s kind of where we live these days,” Hembree said.
The next city council meeting will be 7 p.m. on March 6 at City Hall.
