SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs Commissioners violated the Freedom of Information Act.

That’s the ruling of Circuit Court Judge Lawton McIntosh who found they conspired in secret to fire state DDSN Director Mary Poole.

McIntosh ordered the commissioners to pay Poole’s salary and benefits for 6 months and attorney fees.

Her salary was $171,400.

“This doesn’t mean she is going back,” her attorney Jack Cahoon told the Lexington County Chronicle.

“That would be disruptive. But they owe her pay until they do it legally.”

Poole’s lawsuit also seeks money for harming her career and ability to get another job in the industry, as well as punitive damages to deter them from violating the FoIA law again.

The day after the judge ruled, the commission again fired Poole on a 5-2 vote, with former Chairman Gary Lemel again voting no.

The other “no” came from new commissioner Gary Kocher appointed in May.

Lemel, the only commissioner to speak publicly, said “The illegalities of the action taken, followed by this vote, can have nothing but a negative impact on morale and I’ll add that to the reasons I’ll be voting no.”

Poole’s 1st firing came unexpectedly after a lengthy secret executive session.

DDSN is the state agency that oversees and finances services for Babcock Center residents in Lexington County and others with severe, lifelong disabilities.

Former Commissioner Deborah McPherson told the Chronicle, “It appears from the evidence that 4 commissioners conspired to fire her.

“As a former DDSN Commissioner, we were instructed that we supervised the state director and we were not to get involved in personnel matters involving other DDSN employees.

“Unless the DDSN staff member who claimed she was sexually harassed filed a lawsuit against the commissioners, then the director did not have a responsibility to tell all the commissioners about the allegations.

Poole told Commission Chairman Gary Lemel about the allegation and how she was handling it.

“She took other necessary actions — placed the employees involved on leave, took their cell phones and computers, got an outside source to investigate, had the HR director develop a specific policy regarding sexual harassment, etc.

“I question why the commissioners claimed the state director was fired because she mishandled the sexual harassment allegation.

“The DDSN state director is an at will position and as such, he/she serves at the pleasure of the commission.

“The commission could have fired the director without cause. It would have been far better for them to have told Mary Poole that they had decided to seek new leadership and given her time to transition to a new position.

“She had less than 2 weeks to secure health insurance and try to figure out how to meet her family’s financial needs. Unfortunately, because of the mistakes of 4 DDSN commissioners in handling this situation, the state taxpayers will be footing this bill.”