COLUMBIA, S.C. — The state agency tasked with addressing racial disparities in South Carolina is ineffective due to a lack of leadership and vision, according to a review by Inspector General Patrick Maley.
His report shows many share the blame for what he calls “mission drift” at the Commission on Minority Affairs, created 22 years ago by the Legislature’s then-Democratic majority.
Services provided by the agency’s nine employees include helping to expunge criminal records, assisting nonprofits with grant applications, and consulting with small business start-ups. Such activities are valuable, Maley wrote in his report, but they don’t make a dent in the socioeconomic inequities outlined in the 1993 legislation.
Director Thomas Smith said Wednesday he gets the message that the agency needs to take a leadership role in working toward significant change. In the future, he said, that could involve using research to recommend and push for legislation.
“I see their point,” said Smith, who’s been at the agency’s helm for five years. “We were never told that in the past. We saw it as anything we could do to alleviate poverty, we were on our mission.”
The agency’s governing board will likely develop a strategic plan at its next meeting in September, he said.
Maley’s report portrayed the board itself as dysfunctional.
