Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_Vol. 94, No. 66 /Wednesday March 21, 2001_ Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 sA; _T _ www.oailygamecock.com UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia, S.C. Lottery passes another hurdle ■ Senate subcommittee OKs Hodges' plan; full committee review up next by Valerie Matchette The Gamecock Gov. Jim Hodges’ lottery bill is one step closer to becoming reality after a S.C. Senate subcommittee approved the bill by a resounding 7-1 vote Thursday. The bill would provide scholarships for university students or free tuition at technical colleges. It must now pass through the full Senate Judiciary Committee. Hodges praised the subcommittee for passing the plan, but acknowledged there is a long road ahead in the development of the lottery. He said Georgia might benefit from legislative stalling on the issue. “It’s a home run for the education lottery,” Hodges said. “Every week, South Carolinians playing the Georgia lottery send another $2 million of our money into Georgia schools.” South Carolina’s lottery will be modeled after Georgia’s lottery. In the seven years since the creation of Georgia’s lottery, it has provided more than $1 billion in funding to help some 500,000 students attend college, according to the Web site www.georgialottery.com. Georgia students who maintain a B average qualify for free technical education or money to attend a four-year university. South Carolina voters passed the lottery in this past November’s elections. The lottery has been a controversial issue ever since Hodges was elected in 1998, with its proposal as a major platform component. In a survey by Rasmussen Research released Feb. 27, South Carolina voters appeared to once again affirm the lottery. According to the poll, 62 percent of South Carolinians want a lottery, while 15.7 percent don’t and 22.3 percent are unsure. According to Kevin Geddings, director of the S.C. Educational Lottery Coalition, South Carolinians want an efficiently run lottery just like Georgia, whose program is run by an outside agency rather than the state government. The management of the lottery is one of the many issues that must be hammered out in legislative sessions, which might take awhile. However, Hodges is confident the plan will be passed. “We will not rest until South Carolina Iras Hie best education lottery in America,” Hodges said. The city desk can be reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com * THE SEARCH CONTINUES: Fogler's replacement yet to be named File Photo/The Gamecock Eddie Fogler, who resigned this past week as head coach of USC’s basketball program, has said he probably won’t return to coaching. The search for Fogler's replacement continues, but one potential candidate told sources he’s not Interested. SEE SPORTS, PAGE 8. Columbia councilman cleared of charges by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock An investigation into City Council member E. W. Cromartie’s delinquent city bills shows Cromartie “did noUiing wrong or unethical,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. Coble had independent attorney Richard Geigel look into various allegations of wrongdoing by Cromartie starting in February. “This was an unbiased and fair investigation that shows that [Cromartie] at no time did anything that was against the law,” Coble said in an announcement this past week. Before tlie announcement, the mayor released copies of a report prepared by Gergel. The report read, in “We are obviously not dealing here with criminal • nisconduct or unethical beliavior. Instead, our investigation has revealed predictable difficulties, which have been encountered by a city official.” Of five separate allegations against Cromartie, Geigel found none to be the fault of the councilman. The allegations came from various employees inside the city manager’s office and other city officials. The first allegation was that Cromartie failed to pay city business license fees for three businesses he owns. Geigel found that Cromartie paid the fees, but the city failed to give him a business license because of a dispute over a policy the county and the city entered upon. It was also alleged that Cromartie had the late-fee penalties on the business license fees waived, but Geigel found that Cromartie had, in fact, paid in time. Another allegation was that Cromartie got a special favor from the city when they demolished a building he owned on Haskell Avenue. Gergel’s investigation concluded nothing was unethical about the deal, though Cromartie’s bill for the demolition was reduced from $6,118 to $2,000. “These fees are often negotiated downward because of the significant cost (to owners). Negotiated demolition fees me more the rule than the exception,” Geigel wrote in his report. One of the last allegations was that Cromartie has had water and trash-collection bills written off. But Geigel said Cromartie did pay all of liis city bills — the confusion came because of problems with the city’s record-keeping, he said. “Mr. Cromartie’s accounts with the city now all carry a zero balance,” Geigel said. Cromartie had also been accused of going over his travel budget for the past three years, but Geigel found that Cromartie only did so to attend the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials. “Mr. Cromartie’s national prominence in this important organization obviously inures to the benefit of the city and his constituents,” Geigel said. Geigel suggested City Council look into solving the problem with Cromartie, who has been on Columbia City Council since 1983. Cromartie, one of the first black members elected to City Council, represents the mostly African-American downtown and northeast areas of the city. “Everyone who is in business has money problems,” Cromartie said. “Sometimes I was late, and when 1 was, 1 paid the penalties.” The city desk can be reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Twelve finalists chosen for student incubator project B Y M.A RY HARTNEY The Gamecock Twelve candidate companies were selected this past week as finalists for the student business incubator project. All applicants turned in their business ideas by Feb. 15, and the student incubator advisory committee selected 12 to submit more in-depth proposals. The committee is led by Student Government President Jotaka Eaddy, who leaves office today. Incubator director Joel Stevenson and Darla Moore School of Business faculty member Richard Robinson served as advisers to the committee. Stevenson is a retired businessman, and Robinson is the director of the Faber Center, an on-campus center for entrepreneurs. The committee organized two meetings and a “mixer” at tire beginning of tlie project for interested students to ask questions of the committee and local business leaders, Stevenson said. The committee has been involved with the process from the beginning,and will continue its involvement, even though its work in selecting finalists is complete, Stevenson said. “I cannot say enough about what Jotaka Ekkly and her committee have done,” Stevenson said. “I can’t say it enough. I’m so impressed.” The 12 finalists will propose their plans on April 11 to the incubator advisory committee, which consists of six USC faculty and Columbia business leaders. The committee is chaired by the Stanley Fowler, associate dean for research at the School of Medicine. Fowler and his committee will select six groups on April 16 to begin their projects at the incubator, as well as two alternates. Eaddy was glad to see the project take off. “I am so happy this is moving forth,” she said. “The committee did an excellent job, and all the Incubator see page 2 _ Finalists ■ William Gilbert's Empire Web Studio ■ Jeff Bolen's Gamehitch ■ Brad Dawgert's Pompatus Development Group ■ Kamille Bostick's and Thelisha Casey's GLUE (Girls Like Us Everyday) magazine ■ Duke Taylor’s and Ron Cohen's Carolina Television ■ Rishabh Parikh's E Wizard ■ Rod Scott's IM Card ■ Weixiong Zhong's, Hui Zhou’s and Peter Mancher’s unnamed ; Web site ■ Johnathan Smith's and Tony Styles' Solara ■ Justin Shearer’s, Jose Rodriguez’s DeCecco's, Leslie Johnson's and Andre Davis’ justinsane ■ Peter Sense, Sunny Ward and Martin Slapnick’s MatchBooks, Inc. ■ Thomas Chandler Ill’s, Michael Grant's, Andrew Rogers' and Mark Schnee’s Mobile S.C. election system shows signs of age, task force reports by Charles Prashaw The Gamecock A report released Tuesday by Gov. Hodges’ Election Task Force warned that South Carolina’s election system is showing some signs of age. The report also said South Carolina is ahead of most other Southern states when it comes to numbers of registered voters and how the state conducts elections. Hodges created the task force in mid-December to determine whether the election problems experienced in some areas of Florida could happen in South Carolina. “The task force will ensure that all votes are counted fairly and accurately so that South Carolinians will have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Hodges said. The task force reviewed slate and local laws, ordinances and procedures pertaining to elections. The committee also examined voter registration, voting methods and vote-counting procedures. “The right to vote is the building block of our democracy,” Hodges said. “We don’t want what happened in Florida to happen here.” The report concluded that though South Carolina had a high voter turnout, the slate’s voter-registration computer system needs replacing because it requires too much staff time and money to operate. Some voter machines and ballot-counting mediods liaven’t clianged since the early 1970s. The task force also wants the state to give money to some counties so they can switch to electronic voting macliines by the 2004 presidential election. Statewide, lliat switch could cost as much $30 million. Task force members were also concerned that precinct lines weren’t adequately adjusted to accommodate increases in registered voters. They said some counties haven’t been providing a sufficient number of voting machines to handle large amounts of voters. The report also recommends that the state create a single, annual general election in November in odd numbered years. Hodges see page 2 ‘We don’t want what happened in Florida to happen here.’ Gov. Jim Hodges Weather Coming Up Quote of the Day Online Poll Today 41 55 Thursday 46 69 SG gets set to inaugurate new executive officers Friday r “Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Walk beside me, and be my friend.” — Albert Camus Who should be named USC’s next head basketball coach? Vote at www.dailygamecock.com. Results will be published. Friday.