This SC city changed its rules so a local company can pay police bonuses. Should it?

A Lancaster company offered — again — to pay bonuses for city police officers. Now the city will decide whether to take the cash.

Supplement maker Nutramax Laboratories offered the city $28,500. That amount would provide all 57 Lancaster Police Department employees $500 bonuses. Those employees include three conditional employees, a part-timer, a temporary employee and a volunteer. Lancaster City Council will vote Tuesday on the offer.

Nutramax gifted the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office money at Christmas to provide the $500 bonuses, and offered the same deal to the city, city administrator Steven “Flip” Hutfles said in an email. City personnel policy forbade employees from accepting gifts, so Lancaster declined. The city changed its policy manual in January to allow departments to accept gifts, Hutfles said.

That decision allows gifts after formal advance approval by city council, and are contingent on employees acknowledging in writing that the gift won’t influence their work, he said.

“(The) Nutramax gift is the first one the city has received and under the new policies other companies and individuals can offer gifts to other employees in the future,” Hutfles said.

Council will decide whether to accept or reject the gift.

Should companies be able to pay police?

Eric Shytle is general counsel for the Municipal Association of South Carolina. A company offering to pay money for police bonuses is unusual, he said.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of it before,” Shytle said. “The law does allow a member of the public to make a donation to the city, and it does allow someone to designate how money would be used.”

He points to the infamous Susan Smith case three decades ago when a Union County woman was convicted of murdering her two sons. Public outcry at the time led many people to donate money to the state prosecution. As long as the request isn’t to use the money on something illegal, it’s allowed.

“The gift is fine,” Shytle said. “My only question would be giving it in the form of a bonus.”

There are rules limiting bonus pay from government agencies. How they apply to a company or citizen paying, or how ethics questions fit in, aren’t so clear.

“I honestly don’t know how that would play out,” Shytle said.

In a March 5 letter, Nutramax government and community relations manager Athena Ciulla wrote the city police department to express appreciation for “all the time, service and daily sacrifices” officers make.

“We know that you and your staff always go above and beyond the call of duty to help the citizens of the City of Lancaster, as well as keep us safe,” Ciulla wrote.

The letter offers a donation, with an idea of how it might be used.

“To express our appreciation, we would love to make a donation to the City of Lancaster,” reads the letter. “Our hope is that the donation amount of $28,500 should be distributed in a way that each of the 57 employees of the police department receive an equal amount as a pay supplement.”

Lancaster County accepts pay for sheriff’s office

Various forms of payment to public agencies, beyond taxes and including law enforcement, aren’t unprecedented. For years, property owners or land developers have worked through development agreements with towns, cities and counties across the region. They often include land for parks, police stations or public services. They sometimes include donations to a fire department, school or police group.

The Nutramax gift is different in that it wasn’t negotiated and the company isn’t providing funds as a concession to build. The company has been in Lancaster County for more than a decade.

One of Lancaster County’s most prominent companies will add 240 jobs, $32M investment

Lancaster County Councilman Brian Carnes said the offer from Nutramax for the county sheriff’s office in December was substantial. That office has close to 200 deputies, plus many more civilian employees. Carnes saw the offer as a continuation of Nutramax philanthropy, like when the company provided public agencies with gift cards to local restaurants when COVID hit as an effort to support families and restaurants.

“The conversation was, you’ve got a long-standing company in the community that has supported not only the police,” Carnes said.

Nutramax doesn’t have a record to suggest a pending need for law enforcement help. State court records show the company listed in just one case, dismissed five years ago after a dispute on whether a worker who received relocation expenses should pay them back after a short stay at the company. Still, there’s always the possibility of a future investigation.

If a case came up where the gift could be seen as impacting law enforcement, there are other options like using the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Carnes said.

“I would think that the sheriff, because of that relationship, might step aside,” he said.

Tuesday night’s decision in Lancaster involves a resolution that states the city would accept the gift, and use it for one-time bonuses. The city would deduct both state and federal employee taxes. The money would be distributed only after all police department employees signed paperwork indicating the gift “cannot and will not influence them, directly or indirectly, in the performance of their official duties.”

A vote to accept the money, like the county one in December, is a vote that law enforcement can take the pay without impacting how it treats the company.

“Everybody’s as above board as they can be,” Carnes said.