PAGELAND, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Standing across the street from the Lynches River Electric Cooperative, you can hear the clanging of the clasps slamming into the flagpole outside the corporate office and roosters crowing from across the street.
Every once in a while, the dull roar of a clacking diesel engine interrupts the subtle melody of the songs of Arant Street with its air brakes hissing as it wobbles into the co-op’s heavy truck entrance.
From the street, you’d never see any signs of the war waging behind the LREC co-op’s walls. After learning of the politics surrounding this electric cooperative, there appear to be two warring factions; each toeing a line dividing those who support LREC Chief Executive Officer Brian Broughton and those who want him gone.
In the past few years, the co-op board has fired and rehired Broughton twice. Multiple allegations fueled the firings: allegations that Broughton intentionally violated federal law and regulations with the co-op’s diesel truck fleet, to inside land deals involving board members, to an investigation by the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff into multiple allegations involving Broughton and multiple board members.
During our news investigation, we found indisputable evidence of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigation into the co-op. Federal investigators were in Lancaster County in November questioning co-op employees and a man who filed the federal complaint against the co-op, accusing Broughton of having diesel emission systems removed from some co-op diesel trucks.
We’ve also confirmed an active S.C. Law Enforcement Division criminal investigation into a string of “harassing” text messages allegedly sent to Broughton and some LREC employees in the fall of 2023 through “burner phones.”
Records we obtained through our news investigation show the criminal probe targeted at least one sitting LREC trustee. That trustee claims he’s the target of a conspiracy to have him investigated and prosecuted by some of the state’s most powerful officials because he led the charge to have the co-op CEO investigated and fired.
In January 2024, the board voted to hire an outside forensic auditor in an attempt to sort fact from fiction in the myriad of allegations. Then, three months later, following a closed-door session, the board received an update from the auditor, according to the co-op meeting minutes.
Following a series of closed-door sessions during the April 15, 2024, board meeting, LREC Board Trustee Kevin Sims made a motion, seconded by Trustee Myrtle Faile to “remove and terminate” Broughton.
“…considering the FORVIS findings, including but not limited to, the CEO’s knowledge and approval of LREC violations of federal regulations, in addition to a general lack of communication and transparency with the Board.”
LREC April 15, 2024, board meeting minutes
The co-op board voted 5-4 to fire Broughton that day. The vote was further evidence of the fissure that appeared to divide the LREC board of trustees.
Broughton’s termination would remain until late October. On Oct. 7, Broughton and his supporters announced via a Facebook post that the fired CEO would hold a town hall-style meeting.
The meeting was for Broughton to tell his side of the story about his tenure at the co-op and to take questions from the public. That’s where we questioned Broughton about the diesel delete allegations.
Broughton made several admissions during our questioning, also accusing other South Carolina electric cooperatives of deleting diesel emissions systems, which the complainant told the EPA would appear to violate the federal Clean Air Act. We didn’t get too far into our cache of questions before Broughton ordered his supporters, led by LREC co-op Board Trustee Cindy Vincent’s husband, Greg, to kick me out of the town hall meeting.
A few weeks after the town hall, co-op members voted in the utility’s annual meeting to elect a new trustee to fill Trustee Myrtle Faile’s seat. After nearly 40 years as a LREC co-op employee and an elected trustee, Faile retired in October 2024. Faile was part of the 5-4 majority that voted to fire CEO Broughton six months earlier.
District 2 co-op customers elected a new District 2 trustee, awarding Lyn Gardner the District 2 trustee seat, flipping the board majority back to Broughton’s side with the new 5-4 majority.
During the next board meeting, the trustees voted to rehire Brian Broughton as CEO. The vote was 5-4 to give Broughton his job back with new trustee Lyn Gardner voting to rehire.
Our ‘Power Play’ series delves into the areas of the swarm of allegations surrounding the co-op where we could verify facts to a level to make them public as part of our reporting. South Carolina electric cooperatives are not subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act and without connected sources, they’re nearly impossible to investigate.
We continue to vet and verify other allegations, which may become future reports in, ‘Power Play,’ a Queen City News investigative series.
