County plays clean up

By Charles Sowell  

AUGUST 17, 2010 7:38 a.m. (0)

A steady stream of phone calls have been flowing into the Spartanburg County Clerk of Court’s office since the announcement that $900,000 in unpaid child support and restitution payments have been discovered languishing in county accounts.

Hope Blackley, the recently appointed clerk of court, said the backlog of funds dates from 1980. Some of the amounts are small, $2 or $3, and others (mostly restitution payments), run into thousands of dollars.

The discovery comes as Blackley tries to clean up the office in the wake of Marc Kitchens’ resignation as clerk of court.

Kitchens resigned after being arrested by federal officials and has since pleaded guilty to charges of stealing drugs from the evidence locker room and then giving them to an accomplice to sell in Florida.

Kitchens hasn’t been sentenced. That will come after a pre-sentencing report is completed.

The maximum sentence for conspiracy is 20 years with an extended term of supervised release and a fine of $1 million. He also pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Blackley said the money was discovered as she and her staff went over office records.

“Any money left over after five years is supposed to go the state treasurer’s office,” Blackley said. “For whatever reason that wasn’t done.”

The amount of money is unusually large, said Scott Malyerck, spokesman for the state treasurer’s office.

“We don’t have an enforcement staff for this kind of thing,” he said. “But most counties get unclaimed money in to us on a timely basis. It is due on Nov. 1 of each year.”

The money comes from checks sent out by the clerk’s office that were never cashed, Blackley said.

Blackley is not sure how the situation ballooned to nearly $1 million, but said she intends to get the money to the rightful owners if at all possible.

“Most of the calls we’ve been getting are from people who actually have money owed to them,” she said.

Her office hopes to have a Web site up this week where people who are owed money can check to see if their name is on the list.

Blackley estimates there are between 1,000 and 2,000 people who are owed money by her office.  She’s discussed the situation with the treasurer’s office and it was decided that Spartanburg should try to get the money to its rightful owners before the funds are turned over to the state in November.

Malyerck said the treasurer holds the funds in perpetuity for rightful owners, or their descendants.

“We never transfer the money over to the general fund,” he said, “and our office is happy to walk the descendants of people who are owed money through the process of claiming it.”

The state has a link on the treasurer’s office Web site that will enable people to check and see if they are owed money, Malyerck said. Go to www.treasuer.sc.gov and click on the Palmetto Payback/Unclaimed Property button. Persons can search for any name and print a claim form from there.

There is never a charge for reuniting people with their money, Malyerck said.

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