SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter County Council is talking about what to do about an ordinance that puts possible restrictions on people with criminal convictions to obtain a business license.
Some are saying those restrictions need to be thrown out, but others want to leave them in place.
“When I was released from prison, my first business venture was a hot dog vendor,” Derek Gamble explained.
Gamble served three years in prison for charges related to drug distribution that he’s since gotten cleared. Now, he runs Clean Slate Re-Entry Program to help formerly incarcerated men.
“If I didn't get a start, then I probably would not have been able to excel and move forward to get to where I’m at today,” Gamble reflected.
Gamble says he’s worried about the current ordinance, which might make it harder for others to get their chance at a new start.
“I think once an individual goes through a process, we should be eager to help them get woven back into society,” County Councilman Carlton Washington said.
The county is taking a new look at its existing ordinance, which says someone convicted of a crime “may” be denied when applying for a business license
The city recently passed rules that made their rules the same as the county. An old version of the ordinance from 2021, available on the city’s website, shows the ordinance used to read, “The license inspector shall deny a license to an applicant when the license inspector determines…The applicant…has been convicted of an offense under a law or ordinance regulating business, a crime involving dishonest conduct or moral turpitude, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods.”
The revision in fall 2023, however, changed the language and expanded on that guideline.
Now, the city’s ordinance says the license official “may” deny a license when the applicant “has been convicted within the previous ten years of an offense under a law or ordinance regulating business, a crime involving dishonest conduct or moral turpitude related to a business or a subject of a business, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods, a crime involving dishonesty, or a crime punishable by imprisonment in excess of one year.”
According to the South Carolina General Assembly, “moral turpitude” is defined as a crime that “includes one that involves an element of fraud, dishonest behavior, or a breach of one's duty to society. Some examples the General Assembly includes are: arson, auto theft, conspiracy to distribute marijuana, criminal sexual conduct with a minor, forgery, grand larceny, making illegal whiskey, malicious destruction of personal property, possession of heroin, rape and robbery.”
The city’s conversation has led some, like Washington, to question if that rule even needs to be in the county’s ordinance in the first place.
As it stands now, the county’s ordinance is similar to the city’s revised language. It says a license “may” be denied if the applicant “has been convicted within the previous ten years of an offense under a law or ordinance regulating business, a crime involving dishonest conduct or moral turpitude related to a business or a subject of a business, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods…”
The vague wording in this ordinance is what Washington and Councilman Eugene Baten believe is troubling.
“When you start using the word ‘may’ because what ‘may’ does is when you're saying that someone may do this or may do that, you have opened up the door very wide for favoritism,” Baten shared about the specific language in the ordinance. “You’ve opened up the door for biases and prejudices. You’ve opened up the door for racial discrimination, because now you have someone…who’s going to be the judge and jury? Who are they who’s going to be making the decision about ‘should I give this person a license?”
“That’s speculative at best,” County Chairman Jim McCain said about similar claims.
McCain says the current ordinance in place doesn’t need to change.
“The language as it is now for the Sumter business license has been on the books since 1989,” McCain detailed. “That's over 30 years. In those 30 years, no one has been denied. Sumter County has denied no one a business license in over 30 years due to the language that we have now.”
Washington says the question about criminal history comes on a pre-clearance form before a person applies for a license, however.
“If you're determining at the pre-clearance level whether or not someone is even able to fill out a business application, it’s clear to understand why no one's being denied,” Washington proposed.
McCain says the purpose is not to create a barrier but to protect the community.
“Somebody that has been convicted say of selling drugs is not going to be denied a business license for anything,” McCain said. “I mean, they served their time and we don't want them to go back to prison. We want them to be able to assimilate themselves back into society, so nobody's gonna hold that against them. It's common sense. But it's all about protecting the public.”
A look into the archives of the county’s ordinance dates back to 2011, where it shows the language was slighting different than how it currently stands. Notably, the county has changed the word “shall” to “may” and put in the 10-year stipulation in recent years. The county’s former ordinance reads, “When the license department determines that…A licensee has been convicted of an offense under a law or ordinance regulating business, a crime involving moral turpitude, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods…the license department shall give written notice to the licensee or the person in control of the business within the county by personal service or certified mail that the license is suspended pending a hearing before the County Council for the purpose of determining whether the license should be revoked.”
“There are eight counties, total of nine, but eight other counties that have the same language that we do. And two of them are more strict. Their language reads ‘shall be' denied. Not ‘may be,” McCain said. “The fact that no one has been denied a business license in over 30 years says there's no discrimination, not in that respect. But if there's a trigger, if a business, or staff decides that for some reason the business license shouldn't be denied, it doesn't end there. It's appealed to county council. We're not looking to deny anyone of a genuine business license, but we want to protect the public from people that may be trying to get a license for what they were convicted for.”
But Washington says that appeals process still leaves room for subjective interpretation, and can deter people from wanting to keep attempting to obtain a license.
“The language is regressive. The language is discriminatory,” Washington said. “It allows folks to pick and choose who they want to prosecute or deny or suspend a license.”
When it comes to Gamble’s perspective, having worked with hundreds of men trying to re-enter society from prison, he says it might protect the public “in extreme cases.”
“If you have somebody that may be a predator or somebody that is a habitual offender, that may be problematic,” Gamble said about having convicted criminals owning businesses. “But somebody that may be convicted of low level drug offenses, maybe some type of property crime, or as we may have said, bad checks or something of that nature, not at all.”
County council discussed the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting, and Washington says he plans to bring it back up at the next meeting.