Price gouging during storm probed in S.C.
State’s attorney general has gotten 400 complaints.
BEAUFORT, S.C. — A newspaper analysis shows the South Carolina attorney general has initiated no prosecutions involving about 400 complaints of price gouging by businesses during Hurricane Matthew.
Records show the office of Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson has received the complaints for the period of Oct. 4 through Nov. 3 when the state’s price-gouging law was in effect because of the storm.
Wilson’s spokeswoman says the office has ongoing investigations; she declined to release any det ails on those cases.
Meanwhile, offic ials in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina say they’re citing s e v e r a l b u s i n e s s e s wi t h price gouging. In one case, the Florida Attorney General’s Office said it is pursuing a civil case against a franchise hotel chain that several South Carolina consumers also accused of price gouging.
Wilson’s office provided some details about the complaints such as the town where the business is located and the reported price, but the office declined to release the names and addresses of businesses being investigated. But Wilson’s spokeswoman, Hayley Thrift Bledsoe, wouldn’t say how many of the complaints were determined to be unsubstantiated or still under investigation. Further, she couldn’t provide any examples in recent years of when the office prosecuted a business for price gouging.
Under South Carolina law, price gouging is considered a “gross disparity” between the quoted price and the average price for a good or service in the 30 days immediately prior to an official state-of-emergency declaration. But the statue doesn’t define “gross disparity.”
“The problem there i s how do we define what that means?” said Geoffrey Rapp, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Toledo College of Law, who has written about price-gouging laws.
T h e c a s e o f t h e R e d Roof Inn hotel chain illustrates how South Carolina’s enforcement of the antiprice- gouging law during Hurricane Matthew contrasts with other states.
At least four people alerted the S.C. Attorney General’s Office Twitter account of potential price gouging at the Red Roof Inn-Santee near Orangeburg, the newspapers’ review found. Their tweets included photos of room rates ranging from $522 to $530.
“We cannot control the Expedia site,” said Peter Patel, general manager of Red Roof Inn Santee. “They made a mistake. We didn’t charge anyone $500.”
An Expedia representative disagreed. “Hotels are responsible for putting in their rates into Expedia’s Marketplace,” wrote Expedia senior manager Amanda Graham in an email. “We don’t manage those prices.”
A representative from Red Roof ’s corporate office cited the incident as “the result of a technical mapping issue” that “was almost immediately resolved.”
“No guest booked this rate through Expedia,” spokeswoman Karen Zhu wrote in an email. “Red Roof does not condone price gouging or engage in this practice.”
The S.C. Attorney General’s Office will not release any information about ongoing cases, so it is unknown if the allegations involving Red Roof are under investigation.
However, the hotel chain is facing civil action in Florida, according to officials there.
In the days leading up to the hurricane when evacuees flooded the Gulf Coast, Red Roof Inn-Clearwater raised room rates by 80 percent and up to 200 percent, with some guests being charged $140 more than the average nightly rate, according to a news release from the Office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi’s office is asking the hotel to pay civil penalties and restitution.
Zhu declined comment on the Florida facility, saying only that it’s a franchised property. OCALA — Alexandra Sexton had always dreamed of becoming a pediatric oncologist. But all that changed about a year ago when she was introduced to Ocala Trinity Catholic High School’s Aerospace Career Academy.
Alexandra, an Irish-born 17-year-old who has lived in Marion County for most of her life, fell in love with aviation, thanks to academy instructor John Edsall, who also is an adjunct professor with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.
“He lit the fire of aviation in me,” said Alexandra, who now wants to be an airline pilot. “And I also thought about flying in the medical field (delivering supplies). I love helping people.”
Al ex a n d r a i s o n e s t e p closer to realizing her dream. In November, she became the first student in the academy to get her pilot’s license, an arduous process that took hours of classes, testing and, of course, flying.
It’s been a year since the academy took flight at Trinity Catholic. Now there are 20 students taking aerospace courses and about 33 percent are currently taking flying lessons.
This month, the academy will add more unmanned flying instruction for students who want to make a career of flying in the ever-expanding drone markets, like in real estate or the military.
One day soon, officials said, drones will require a traditional pilot’s license once the drones are allowed to fly frequently in Federal Aviation Administration-regulated airspace.
Edsall said these joint educational ventures between high schools and Embry-Riddle are vital for the future of the commercial airline industry.
With new guidelines that force pilots into retirement at age 65, coupled with a law that requires pilots to be U.S. citizens, there is a pilot crisis brewing around the country.
A c c o r d i n g t o n u m e r - ous studies that have been conducted during the past five years, the industry will n e e d a b o u t 1 2 ,0 0 0 n e w pilots bet ween 2 017 and 2022 because of the forced retirement.
Edsall said that i s why Embry-Riddle is expandi n g p r o g r a ms i n t o h i g h schools throughout the state. In 2004, there were only a handful of schools that offered aviation; today, Embry-Riddle has teamed with 77 schools and counting.
Trinit y Catholic’s president, David McKenzie, said Embry-Riddle pays about $100,000 annually to Trinity to run the program. That covers the instructor and other program costs.
The parents of each student who enrolls must pay $ 2 , 5 0 0, wh i c h i s c h e a p or university.
T h e n ew p ro g ra m h a s evolved quickly, considering the aerospace concept first lifted off the ground in June 2015.
Edsall, who taught at Francis Marion Military Academy until June 2014, had planned to launch the program at the military charter school. When that didn’t work out, he spoke with the officials with the public school distric t and Trinit y Catholic High about the need for such an academy locally.
“Trinity Catholic jumped on the idea,” said Edsall in a previous interview, adding that students also can get industry certification in addition to college credits.
Edsall said any student who completes the Aerospace Career Academy program is guaranteed admission to Embry-Riddle following high school graduation, wi t h a n $ 8 ,0 00 s c hol a rship.
Embry-Riddle’s Aerospace and Engineering Program is the largest in the nation and is consistently ranked No. 1 in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
Very soon, Trinity Catholic High senior Clayton Wilson will take his final flying exam. Trinity uses Ocala Aviation Services, and owner Ron Towater agreed to charge cheaper rates.
Wilson, 17, said he plans to attend Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, to become a mechanical engineer. “I want to design drones,” he said.