According to the South Carolina Secretary of State, make that a whoppin' $104,681 for 2016. Perhaps President Landess got a raise for 2017. I e-mailed a request to the Secretary of State after I couldn't find Landess' salary on the Council's website.
Landess is a regular commentator on Columbia's Make the Point radio station. She's a longtime friend of station founder Keven Cohen, who started his operation several years ago after being fired from his longtime job at WVOC, supposedly because WVOC wanted to go in a "different direction."
Talk about a cozy relationship.
Cohen is quick to encourage listeners to donate to the SC Policy Council, though I've never heard him mention his friend's six-figure salary. From what I've heard, a better name for Cohen's radio station would be "Miss the Point."
The trick seems to be to conjure up as many ways as possible to break the earth-shattering news to South Carolinians that their state legislature (gasp) is corrupt. Nonetheless, Cohen and Landess have yet to breathe a word about South Carolina's probate racket. That glaring omission by both of these self-proclaimed government watchdogs - I've tweeted blog links to both businesses - gets stranger by the day.
Searching the Council's website, I noticed that the Council was founded in 1986, the same year attorneys in the legislature turned probate into a money-makin' racket designed to pad their own greedy pockets. Is the public expected to believe that a bonafide government watchdog organization, present from the get-go, has never seen fit to publicize what was going on?
Kinda makes ya wonder what guidelines Landess and Cohen follow when deciding where they want to focus the public's attention. Or, more to the point, what they want to focus the public's attention away from. Lately, the nuclear power scandal has taken front and center in their blabberings.
Landess' commentary last week was downright alarming.
She cooed ever so sweetly into Cohen's microphone that based on the Council's recent "research," legislators may now have no alternative but to allow power companies to continue charging customers for the boondoggle. In other words, the gang who got us into this mess may not now be able to get us out, an opinion at odds with late-breaking news regarding the proposed sale of South Carolina Electric and Gas.
Cohen's behavior has also been enough to raise eyebrows. For example, instead of interviewing a culprit like Nikki Setzler, who co-sponsored the bill that got the mess started, Cohen "grilled" a relatively unknown House member who wasn't even around when the nuclear power scandal quietly got underway. Notice in the news article linked to above that Nikki Setzler has nothing but praise for the proposed sale of SCE&G, which would leave rate-payers badly ripped off.
At this point, nobody can be blamed for wondering exactly who bankrolls the South Carolina Policy Council, or, to make the point even clearer, who's interests Cohen and Landess are looking out for. But alas. In that regard, the Council's professed dedication to "transparency" has again faltered.
I BELIEVE Landess when she declares that keeping the South Carolina Policy Council's donors anonymous is designed to protect them from reprisal.
Now that I'm more familiar with how the Council operates, I better understand why, when I first e-mailed the Council (in February of 2016) about South Carolina's probate racket, their response was "Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to pursue a topic like that." Right. When "resources" are spent on six-figure salaries, ya gotta cut somewhere.
Methinks Cohen and Landess protesteth too much. Actions speak louder than words.
Update 3/23/2018 - Cohen's refusal to mention SC's probate racket may have something to do with the fact that a probate-dealing lawyer - Jesse Near - advertises on Cohen's radio station. Near has a knack for keeping his location quiet: Couldn't find anything but a PO Box on the Internet.
Update 1/25/2018 - Protested for a little over 2.5 hrs front of Williams, Stitely, and Brink law firm across from the probate court. Thanks to all who visited this blog, signaled support, and took time to talk with me.
Update 1/18/2018 - Cohen is now running Dominion Energy ads (for which he's paid) and featuring fast talking Dominion big shots as guests. How long are South Carolinians gonna put up with being ripped off by self-serving jerks in the legislature?
Update 1/16/2018 - Protested front of the State House for 'bout an hr n 15 mins. THANKS to all who signaled support, 'specially the guy who took my photo n promised to put it on the Internet. GREAT to be back on my bicycle after 3 months off due to hernia surgery.
Update 1/5/2018 - Truly a pleasure to send a link to this post to all SC legislators and the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
