A Cherokee County school board member broke state law when he discussed an ethics complaint during a public meeting Monday, a state ethics official said Tuesday.

Trustee Mike Ellis announced he filed an ethics complaint against his fellow school trustees with the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

At Monday’s meeting, Ellis charged the school board had not used $3 million in surplus one cent sales tax he contended is available to balance this year’s budget. Ellis claimed the sales tax could be used in this year’s budget to avoid employee furloughs and other budget cuts in the district spending plan.

“I’m fed up with what’s been going on the school board for the past six months,” said Ellis, pointing to the school board members. “I think we need somebody from outside to investigate this. I have filed a written report to the ethics commission against all of you.”

State law prohibits an ethics complaint from being discussed publicly until final action has been taken by the South Carolina Ethics Commission, executive director Herb Hayden said. All ethics complaints must be kept confidential unless the target of the complaint agrees to waive confidentiality in writing to the state ethics commission.

“The main purpose is to prevent someone from using the ethics complaint process in order to influence an election,” Hayden said. “We don’t want someone to arbitrarily file an ethics complaint to influence the voters in an upcoming election.”

Ellis has filed for re-election for the District 1 school board seat. He is opposed in the election by school board candidates Alex Copeland and Michael Nix.

The school board elections will be held Aug. 10.

A provision in state ethics law prevents the commission from accepting ethics complaints filed by a candidate for public office within a 50 day period before an election. If a complaint has been filed outside this time period, Hayden said the ethics commission can not take any action on the complaint until after the election is over.

Ethics violations can result in disciplinary action or a public reprimand by the South Carolina Ethics Commission. An individual can be fined up to $2,000 for not complying with state ethics law.

Ellis did not return a message Tuesday seeking additional comment regarding his discussion of the ethics commission complaint at the board meeting.

At its June 15, 2009 meeting, school trustees voted unanimously to transfer $2.9 million in one cent sales tax money to balance the 2009-2010 budget. The money came from extra sales tax revenue collected to make payments on a school building program approved in a 1994 voter referendum. The school construction bonds are scheduled to be paid off in 2017.

The district is required by law to have at least 18 months in one cent sales tax revenue on hand for the annual bond payments.

District figures showed the district had $1 million left in the sales tax revenue account following last year’s budget transfer. That $1 million was used by the district Monday to help balance the 2010- 2011 school budget.

Tempers flared on the school board following Ellis’ disclosure of the ethics complaint.

“I’m tired of the target being put on everybody (on the school board),” school board vice chairman Donnie Lee Smith said. “Everybody’s trying to get rid of everybody. We haven’t been doing the business of what’s in the best interest of the kids.”

After Ellis’ remarks, school trustees voted 6-3 to have an independent audit done on the district’s entire financial books. Smith, Ellis and Barry Bailey opposed the motion because no cost figures were given on how much the financial audit would cost.