Recently, School District Five of Lexington & Richland Counties handed down a reply from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by a school board candidate, Ken Loveless, asking for ‘a listing with dates of invoices and amounts of payment to Kenneth B. Loveless and/or Loveless Commercial Contracting, Inc. either as a construction contractor vendor, an employee or a volunteer school board member. Include any reimbursements for travel expenses, meals, etc.’ The district’s reply was ‘School District Five makes every good-faith effort to identify and provide all documents pursuant to FOIA requests. Please be advised that School District Five does not currently possess any documents responsive to this request. Please accept this as our final determination and response regarding your request.’
The District’s FOIA reply shows what the former and current District Five school board candidate has been saying all along about not receiving any payments from the school district for construction work or anything related to his business.
Detractors have accused Loveless of making financial gains off the district through his construction company while he served on the school board. During that time there was a lot of construction in the district including the new Piney Woods elementary school in Chapin. Loveless’s record shows he has eliminated waste and saved the tax payers money. “I was a whistle blower,” said Loveless. “I brought some things forward that ruffled some feathers.” Loveless said that the last time his company worked for any school or school district was during the construction of Saxe Gotha Elementary school in Lexington District One back in 1991.
“Being in the profession that I am allows me to know firsthand how monies should be allocated when it comes to construction,” Loveless said. “I found some discrepancies and some didn’t like my findings.”
Ken Loveless is running on the Lexington side of the District Five where there are two seats open.
File photo
