South Carolina FOIA Drama: Midlands City Evading Accountability?

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There’s an old adage, “it’s the lie that gets you.” Or… “it’s the cover-up, not the crime.” Or… “if you’re in a hole, stop digging.” However you may have heard any of these sayings, the gist of them is the same: attempts to evade truth or accountability for missteps or errors invariably compounds the damage done by those errors.

The problem? In South Carolina – where meaningful consequences for misbehaving authority figures are few and far between – the reverse is sadly true. Too often, there’s little incentive for anyone to own the truth and take accountability for their actions. If anything, our state’s habitual accommodation of leadership failure, individual grift and institutional malfeasance encourages those in positions of power to hide the ball or double down on their misdeeds.

Put simply: if there’s no one imposing order and insisting on people doing right… people are going to do wrong.

Typically, this chronic lack of oversight includes the Fourth Estate – which in South Carolina has invariably served as a willing megaphone for those abusing the public purse (and the public trust).

“The glitter of official lies…”

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In the case of Cayce, South Carolina, though, it would appear the media – or at least one reporter – was actually doing their job. Specifically, the reporter was attempting to expose the city’s purported shift from instructing its police force to do its job and protect the community to, instead, seeking validation for its work via social media likes and shares.

That’s when things got… weird.

Earlier this week, reporter Hannah Wade of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper reported that the city of Cayce paid a Columbia, S.C.-based communications firm nearly $18,000 – including more than $2,000 tied to “public records requests” – from its legal fund in late 2023 and early 2024.

Why is this curious? Because the city already has a public relations firm on retainer – and typically doesn’t pay for media-related expenses from its legal fund. Also, the payouts were not approved by the city’s governing council.

“I did not find out until after the fact that this was actually done, which is really disappointing,” one Cayce councilman told Wade.

Adding intrigue to the story? The city employee who authorized the disbursements – former city manager Tracy Hegler – no longer works for Cayce (and declined to comment for Wade’s report).

Sources familiar with the situation have told FITSNews the actual amount spent on the second public relations firm is much higher than $18,000 – and insist the unstated purpose of this retainer was to shut down a negative story the city was facing over its shift in policing priorities (and an ensuing exodus of officers which has reportedly compromised public safety in the municipality).

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RELATED | CAYCE COP ARRESTED FOR ON-DUTY SEX

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We referenced this exodus earlier this week in a report on a former Cayce police officer who was arrested and charged with misconduct in office. Also, earlier this week, The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier reported that over the last three years “nearly half of the city’s roughly 60-person police department has resigned.”

According to our sources, the shift from “protection to promotion” began following the December 2021 resignation of former police chief Byron Snellgrove, who was tremendously popular among rank-and-file officers.

“It’s Facebook policing,” one veteran law enforcement officer told us. “It’s not protecting and serving.”

The reporter who submitted the FOIA requests to the city seeking information on its police force was Maggie Brown – formerly of WIS TV-10 (NBC – Columbia, S.C.). Brown left WIS in early 2025 and launched her own Substack page entitled Columbia Muckraker.

FITSNews is in the process of reviewing records, responses and other materials related to Brown’s FOIA requests – and taxpayer-funded payments allegedly linked to a concerted effort to shut them down.

Located across the banks of the Congaree River from the state capital of Columbia, Cayce is home to an estimated 13,600 people. In recent years, it has seen rising instability within its municipal government. In addition to shuffling through three police chiefs since Snellgrove resigned, the city has lost two managers and is about to lose its finance director.

FITSNews is continuing to conduct interviews with sources familiar with the situation in Cayce, so be on the lookout for future reports…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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