These Horry County businesses are barred from hiring sex offenders under new SC law
Horry County’s proposed ordinance to block sex offenders from working at child-oriented businesses was unnecessary due to state protections already in place, leaders acknowledged this week.
“There’s no need to have a county ordinance when you have a state law that provides the same coverage,” Sheriff Phillip Thompson said during an Aug. 8 meeting that included County County chairman Johnny Gardner, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson and Treasurer Angie Jones.
The brief meeting — which came a month after the state’s top lawyers weighed in —means a small policy change is coming.
But much will stay the same.
Day cares, arcades among impacted businesses
Under the county’s initial ordinance, more than 550 businesses would be precluded from hiring convicted sex offenders based on broadly worded language that would have enforcement nearly impossible.
Through an administrative change, the county has defined ‘child-oriented businesses’ as arcades, amusement parks, day cares, schools, mobile food truck delivery “whose primary business is the sale of ice cream or candy to children” and youth centers.
Jones said that would drastically reduce the list of businesses that face hiring restrictions but couldn’t immediately say how many will be affected.
Thompson said the county’s 759 sex offenders are required to provide their places of employment to his office, which deputies periodically check.
“If you have that criteria in there, then it would be a slam dunk to say to that guy, ‘you can’t work there, you’re in violation of the law,” Gardner said. “And No. 2, I’m going to let the business owner know that they can’t employ you.”
Horry County has nearly 800 registered sex offenders
As of Aug. 10, the county has 759 registered sex offenders, according to Sheriff’s Office data
Under the county’s original ordinance, up to 550 businesses would have been barred from hiring them. Officials say that figure is expected to drop substantially simply by following state law.
Horry County Schools, South Carolina’s third largest, educates 45,000 students in 56 schools
Nearly 22 percent of the county’s 365,479 residents are under the age of 18, according to U.S. Census figures.
In 2019, Horry County saw nearly 21 million tourists, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce reported.
Existing state law makes Horry ordinance moot, top attorney says
The issue first came to light after lengthy debate earlier this year prompted by an ice cream truck parked at Inlet Seafood Market near Murrells Inlet. Last September, owner Adam Wiseman learned the truck’s owner was Robert Taylor,a one-time pastor who in 2006 was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person between 11 and 14 years old.
The council then started working on a measure requiring business license holders submit to criminal background checks, and certify that their employees had done the same.
But that’s where the complications began.
Regulating that part of the law would have fallen to Jones’ office, and her 45-person department wasn’t included in talks as the policy was being drafted.
Worried about the extra work it would place on her department, Jones asked Richardson for an opinion by the S.C Attorney General’s Office over the need for a county-level ordinance.
On July 8, that answer came.
Solicitor General Robert Cook said the county’s aims “closely overlap” with state law making it illegal for convicted sex offenders to “operate, work for, be employed by or volunteer for a child-oriented business.”
Gardner, an attorney, said Aug. 8 Cook’s opinion settled the matter.
“Once the state does something, it’s pre-emptive as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Businesses to get letters explaining policy
Jones said her office is working to categorize which businesses would be prohibited under state law from hiring certain offenders, and estimates it will be “less than 100,” including 40 daycares and two arcades.
They’ll be getting letters outlining the state law within a few weeks, she added.
People convicted of first or second-degree sexual conduct with a minor, assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping a person under 18 years old or sex trafficking of a person under 18 years old are ineligible for employment at child-oriented establishments.
“We’re going to start with the ones we know for a fact and then if we want to expand it out a bit to ones that could be borderline, we’ll work with the sheriff,” Jones said. “It doesn’t include every business a child goes into.”
Businesses that knowingly hire a person in violation of the law face civil fines of up to $100 a day.
