Published Tuesday, February 05, 2008 10:00 PM
Updated Wednesday, February 06, 2008 2:22 PM
Arnette contacted the commission Monday morning.
Arnette also announced Monday that he would like the county party to disassociate itself from the breakfast – but only after a “thorough investigation” is completed.
“I am calling an ethics investigation,” Arnette said. “We are not going to associate ourselves with that breakfast club.”
The call for an investigation came on the heels of a weeklong war of words between Arnette and breakfast moderator Charles Schuster. It also followed the latest GOP breakfast in Goose Creek, which saw Arnette asked to leave the podium as he addressed the gathering.
The chairman said he has several concerns about the breakfast – a monthly gathering held at American Legion Post 166 in Goose Creek. The major reason he wants an investigation is money.
According to Arnette, he only recently learned that the breakfast was keeping $1 out of every $5 collected from attendees.
“They’ve been taking $5 (per person)… $4 goes to the American Legion and $1 into a bank account,” he said. “I didn’t know that. And that is what bothers me. It bothers me considerably. When you’re dealing with other people’s money you have to be extremely careful.
“I didn’t even know they had a bank account. We have just gone through this (ethics investigation) thing. We can’t afford another (problem).”
The chairman said that he “has no idea” where the money the breakfast collects has gone, and that the issue “scares the daylights out of me.”
Arnette’s decision to contact the ethics commission Monday morning was the latest development in a week of turmoil.
Arnette told breakfast moderator Charles Schuster in a letter dated Jan. 25 that the party would be taking control of the breakfast; in several written responses, Schuster responded with outrage, and insisted the breakfast is a separate function of the county GOP.
“The Berkeley County Republican Breakfast Club is not a committee, subsidiary or arm of the Berkeley County Republican Party,” Schuster said in a letter to Arnette. “It has a separate checking account, separate finances, separate activities and separate fund-raising programs, none of which are reported to the Berkeley County Republican Party.
“It was not created by the Berkeley County Republican Party. Our separate organizations do share many members in common and we work well together for Republican and conservative causes. But that is all.”
Schuster said that the “attempted illegal takeover” of the breakfast by the county party was out of line.
Schuster urged party members to attend Saturday’s breakfast. “We need a large attendance to keep the illegal folks from taking over,” he wrote in one email.
The disagreement set the stage for Saturday, which was attended by a large crowd of close to 200.
Arnette was the first speaker. In the middle of a wide-ranging address – which included a call for party unity and an update on the ethics investigation – audience members called for Arnette to leave the podium.
“Get on with it,” Schuster told the chairman as the sizable audience grew restless.
A motion made by school board member Terry Hardesty called for Arnette to relinquish the floor.
As chants of “Sit down!” began from some audience members, Arnette continued to speak, and was given an additional five minutes by Schuster.
The breakfast, Arnette again insisted, falls under control of the county party. “I’m not trying to take over anything,” the chairman said. “(The breakfast) is under control of the party.”
After Arnette’s address, Schuster again called the events of the week an attempted “illegal takeover.”
Schuster initiated a motion, which was seconded, to “make sure (the breakfast) is legal.”
Following Saturday’s meeting, Schuster said he is confident that he will remain on as moderator, and that the probe into who controls the breakfast will prove him right.
Arnette said that he believes Schuster is “letting individuals use him for their own purpose.”
“Charlie is being misled,” Arnette said. “He is not making these decisions on his own.”
Arnette said he was disappointed by the audience’s reaction Saturday. He said the breakfast has changed over the years, and that it is in “an unstable, radical condition.”
He said that Saturday’s meeting “was the most embarrassing situation I’ve ever been in.”
Contact Frank Johnson at 572-0511 or fjohnson@goosecreekgazette.com