SURFSIDE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A political flyer comparing a Surfside Beach councilman to Saddam Hussein and Nancy Pelosi was distributed around the town over the weekend.

The top of the anonymous flyer says, “What does abuse of power look like?” and includes a picture of councilman, Tim Courtney, who is running for re-election. 

Under Courtney’s picture is a sentence which reads: “Tax-payer funded traffic signage put up at his house.” 

“The fliers were very distasteful. I’m very shocked at what was on them,” said Courtney. “This has become a political thing.”

The stop signs mentioned on the flyer were put up near Courtney’s house in 2016.

“I did not want a stop sign in front of my house,” Courtney explained. “But the community pushed for this four way [stop]… If someone was to get hurt or even killed here, it would be a tragedy. It would lie on the council and this town and the liability would be on us.”

At a meeting in March, the council members said the signs were put up without a proper vote or proper approval. Director of Public Works, John Adair, said he was following orders when he had the stop signs put up in 2016.

“I was directed, several weeks later, to install stop signs by the previous Administrator,” Adair explained to the council in March. “I’m finding out now, from the engineering office at SCDOT, that that was not authorized activity.”

The town has since voted to take over a section of South Poplar Drive from SCDOT which means they are in charge of maintaining it. Adair said he has no issue with the town taking over the road.

“It’s high and dry, out of the flood zone and in pretty good shape,” he added.

The flyer says “paid for by Surfside Strong” on the side so News13 looked into the legality of anonymous political flyers.

Dr. Drew Kurlowski, Assistant Professor of Politics at Coastal Carolina University, said South Carolina has a law on the books prohibiting anonymous campaign flyers. However, he said the Supreme Court has ruled those laws in violation of freedom of speech.

“If an individual citizen wants to go down to their local copy shop and print something out and distribute it, the courts have generally recognized that as free speech,” added Kurlowski. He said the rules are different if an opposing candidate was behind the flyer but typically an individual has the right to publish what they want.

“No one has challenged this law,” he added. “It strikes me that the state would have a conflict for their responsibilities to uphold state laws, in which case anonymous distribution would be illegal, and their responsibility to uphold the Constitution, in which case it seems the Supreme Court has pretty emphatically said this is within the bounds of your first amendment rights.”

The voters will decide who fills three council seats on Tuesday, April 3. You can count on News13 to bring you the results as they come in.