Chamber and Myrtle Beach paper battle over records

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — A Myrtle Beach newspaper says the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce responded to a public records request on how it spent taxpayer money with 50 boxes of jumbled records, many of them apparently irrelevant to the request.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported the chamber made a reporter review the records in an un-air-conditioned warehouse as music blared over a loudspeaker and a forklift operator worked a few feet away. When the newspaper asked the chamber about the conditions, its lawyer sent the newspaper a cease-and-desist letter.

The newspaper had asked the chamber for records on any work paid for with public money. Some of the records provided were blank.

The chamber says all the information the newspaper asked for is on its website.

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Information from: The Sun News, http://www.thesunnews.com/