Anderson County leaders tout benefits of cooperation

Dec. 06--Anderson County's law enforcement officers, politicians, educators and health-care leaders got together for the first time for a public forum.

The leaders said their cooperation, such as working together to woo prospective businesses or deciding which law enforcement agency is best to apply to which grant, has benefited the county.

The forum, sponsored by the Independent Mail and the newspaper's coverage partner WSPA News Channel 7, had Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper, Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart, AnMed Health chief executive officer John Miller, Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts, Anderson County Council member Tommy Dunn, Anderson School District 5 Superintendent Tom Wilson and Anderson University Vice Provost Susan Wooten on the panel.

Moderator and WSPA anchor Amy Wood lobbed questions, written on cards by some of the 50 people who attended the forum in an Anderson University auditorium, at the panel for nearly two hours.

She first focused on Wilson, asking why he made the decision to not add high school grades to Southwood Academy for the Arts, a middle school that was intended to expand to add higher grades as the students grew up.

He said adding the extra grades would not be financially feasible so the school district allowed high-schoolers to take regular courses at T.L. Hanna or Westside high schools and go to the academy for advanced art classes.

Crime was the next topic, and Sheriff Skipper and Chief Stewart each said they are seeing reductions in many crimes, such as burglary.

Both Skipper and Stewart promoted their social media outreach: Safe Town, a website with live crime information for the county, and Facebook page with a daily crime map for the city.

After another question, Miller defended his hospital system's prices, saying that what people see in insurance statements is almost never what insurance companies or people actually end up paying.

"It's the most convoluted system we can think of and that's why we're trying to fix it," he said.

Miller also criticized South Carolina for not accepting Medicaid expansion money as part of health-care reform. He said the rejection could cost $11 billion in lost opportunities for the state.

"What we paid into that system is going to other states for whatever period," he said. "We don't get in on that."

Wilson and Wooten said education needs to be broader by encouraging students to pursue welding, manufacturing and technical jobs that may not require college degrees.

Wilson said it would help to keep some students focused and said investing $10,000 a year per student is preferable to spending $20,000 a year on incarceration for one person.

After nearly an hour, Dunn said he was expecting Wood's question about his role in continuing the county's lawsuit against former administrator Joey Preston.

Wood said her station gets more calls asking about why the county is continuing the lawsuit than perhaps any other Anderson County issue.

Preston was given a $1.1 million severance package in November 2008. The county has been investigating and suing to get that money back for almost five years and a judge this summer ruled against the county's lawsuit.

Dunn, who had earlier expressed interest in abandoning the lawsuit, was one of four council members to vote in November to appeal the lawsuit. He said the county had voted to appeal but had not spent one penny on the appeal yet.

Dunn said the contract lawsuit has cost the county $600,000 but the investigation and related expenses are about $3 million.

According to figures provided by Anderson County in May, the lawsuit itself had cost $902,000 and investigation directly related to the lawsuit had cost another $1.5 million. Since then the county unsuccessfully asked the judge to reconsider his verdict and the county has filed a notice of intent to appeal.

Dunn said he wanted to bring a quick resolution to the case and judges, not council members, are responsible for delays.

"It took a judge here in Anderson County a year and a half to figure out he couldn't rule on this case. Then it goes to this judge in Spartanburg," Dunn said. "My opinion is that he (Spartanburg Judge Roger Couch) has shown some bias in his ruling. The judge didn't write his opinion. He used what the opposing attorney had written and he let some stuff stay in there."

As the forum ended, Wood asked the panelists to end on a positive note.

Wilson said what impresses him most about Anderson is that no one says it is perfect.

"Everyone discusses how we could get better, how we could get better employment, better quality of life," he said. "It gives me the impression that we're not there yet and we have the potential to get there. We're going to see some great things, not just out of Anderson (District) 5 but out of this entire county."

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