Committee recommends fix to litter-control code and updates census reference

The Municipal and Public Affairs Committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of a correction to bill 3230, which updates an outdated code reference and changes the statutory census benchmark used to determine how many litter-control officers with custodial arrest authority each county may have. A committee staff member told members the bill "does 2 things. It updates the language to reference the most recent census to determine the number of litter control officers with custodial arrest authority per county and it corrects an incorrect code reference."

Matthew Stite, director of environmental and code enforcement in Anderson County, told the committee the error has had practical consequences: "Since the spring of last year we have only enforced the county ordinance." He said the county attorney and SLED advised against writing state tickets or obtaining warrants until the statutory references were fixed, creating a temporary reliance on county ordinances.

After brief questioning from committee members about the nature of the correction, a member moved to recommend approval and the committee clerk called the roll. Votes recorded included affirmative responses from the chair and committee members; the motion to recommend the correction was carried. The staff member summarized the technical fixes as updating the prior reference to the 2000 census and removing an obsolete citation (Article 9, Chapter 6, Title 23) now relocated in Chapter 23 of Title 23 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. The committee recommended the fix to restore clarity for enforcement and to allow state-level procedures to resume under the correct statutory references.