Category: Government

Community Grants Carry Stipulations

WINNSBORO – In spite of some criticism voiced against the move during the first public comment portion of Monday night’s meeting, County Council unanimously approved a new policy governing how discretionary funds are expended, rechristening the funds “Community Enhancement Grants.” With the 7-0 vote, Council gave the OK to a policy that was hashed out in a July 14 Administration and Finance Committee meeting.

“This has come under great scrutiny,” Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said just before the vote, “but when we’re helping children go back to school and that kind of stuff, it means a great deal. A little means a great deal.”

Some of that scrutiny came early on Monday evening when District 2 resident Selwyn Turner, who on several previous occasions has called on Council to eliminate the fund altogether, accused Council of using the money to buy votes.

“A discretionary fund by any other name is still a discretionary fund,” Turner said. “You can call it ‘enhancement funds’ all day long if you wish but it still stinks to high heaven just like a discretionary fund.”

Regardless of what one calls the fund, Turner said, “it is a deceptive fund that makes our Council members look good and generous in the eyes of their constituents so that ultimately they will be reelected by the recipients they collectively choose to receive the $2,500 per district funds that appears to be coming from Council members instead of the taxpayers.

“Let the churches tend to the charity in their community,” she said. “Let the schools or individual clubs tend to needy students and you tend to the progress of Fairfield County.”

But Council deflected that criticism, with Interim Administrator Milton Pope noting that, “From the totality of this Council and consensus of this Council, all of your spending is actually discretionary.”

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4), meanwhile, took the charges personally.

“We have young people when school’s out who are literally hungry, who do not have food, and we help them with food and I’m trying to woo them to get votes or I’m trying to steal something from the public? Don’t imply that with me,” Marcharia said. “I’ve never tried to feed somebody who is hungry, go into the community and rip people off with $2,500 to get a vote. This is not what this is about.”

Although discretionary spending by Council members under former County Administrator Phil Hinely sometimes strayed from its $2,500 limit, included a rather informal paper trail and required the approval only of the Administrator, the new policy installs a series of hoops for applicants to jump through and puts a competitive spin on the process.

“It’s a competition for the best programs the community wants to get involved with,” Pope said during the July 14 committee meeting.

The funds will still be limited to $2,500 per district and require the completion of a four-page application, accompanied by an IRS Form W-9. Charitable organizations will be required to provide the County with a copy of their 501 (c) or 501 (c) 3 designation form or a copy of their registration form from the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office. The funds will be disbursed in increments up to $500 each.

According to the new policy, the County will award grants to fund the following types of projects:

Back to school supplies for K-12 students;

Community Enhancement programs/initiatives for churches, non-profit or other eleemosynary (charitable) groups that serve individuals or families in need;

Community Improvement Grants – programs/initiatives that improve the quality of life for neighborhoods, identification signs, beautification, etc.; and

Youth, Adult and/or Elderly programs/initiatives that support wellness, health fairs and related services to improve the overall quality of health in the community.

Applicants will have to describe in detail for the County how they intend to spend the funds, and a review panel will evaluate and score the applications based on the community and/or district benefit, the number of citizens served, the organization’s ability to deliver services and the countywide impact of the grant award. Special consideration will be given, Pope said, to organizations that are collaborating with other groups to deliver services.

Once the application has made it through staff, it will then come to full Council for a final vote. Grant recipients will be required to provide the County with receipts for how the funds were used and organizations found to have made questionable or unauthorized purchases with the funds, Pope said, may be barred from receiving future grants.

BLYTHEWOOD – On Monday evening, Town Council renewed the contracts of the Town’s financial consultant, CPA Kem Smith; its IT Support Services consultant, Kevin Williamson and its auditor, Reginald McConnell. Smith’s and Williamson’s contracts were renewed for one year terms through the end of fiscal year 2014-2015, with minimal changes to the scope of work. McConnell’s contract was renewed through December.

Smith agreed to continue her services at no increase in costs to the Town. The Town pays her firm a monthly fee of $3,150 and hourly rates for her and her staff for certain additional work.

Williams agreed to continue his contract at $2,950 per month, $50 less per month than last year.

McConnell raised his annual fee from $8,000 to $10,500. Smith said McConnell’s fee increase was based on additional work anticipated for the Manor’s new enterprise fund and other required changes as a result of auditing standard updates effective Dec. 15, 2012, that were not in the previous engagement letter for the 2012 and 2013 audits. At its last work session, Council discussed engaging a new auditor after the current audit is completed.

Council May Discontinue Offering Wi-Fi

Council also asked Williams whether he felt the Town should continue to provide Wi-Fi service in the downtown area. The service, which was initially provided by the Keith Bailey administration to enhance the Blythewood gas station/hotel stop for travelers, is not regularly used except by a couple of what Williams thinks are small businesses in the town. Mayor J. Michael Ross said he felt the town’s Wi-Fi coverage is so limited and the cost of providing it is so great that “it seems to me a waste of money.” He suggested the issue be on the agenda of the next Town Hall work session.

Syrup Mill Property Rezoned

Council unanimously passed final vote to rezone a property on Syrup Mill Road from Rural Estate (RE) to Rural (RU). Property owner Jeremy Tesimale requested the rezoning so that he could subdivide the 4-acre property for sale. RE zoning is similar to RU except that RE requires a minimum acreage of 4 acres, while RU zoning requires a minimum of 1 acre.

Tesimale told the Planning Commission in June that his rural neighborhood is a mixture of RE and RU zoning and that he had told them about the rezoning and that they did not object.

Council Makes Cultural Donation

Council voted unanimously to donate $300 to the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington counties. The donations were begun during the Bailey administration, which contributed $2,500 in both 2011 and 2012. Last year the Town donated $1,500.

“I’m not sure how this got started or how much we benefit from it as a town,” Ross told Council members. “But a $300 donation comes with two tickets to a Cultural Council dinner that would be a great networking opportunity for Booth (Chilcutt, the Town’s Cultural Center Director).”

Town Administrator Gary Parker told Council the donation was not specifically budgeted, but the donation could come from either ‘Advertising’ in the general fund under Operations, which has $5,000 budgeted or from the Hospitality Tax Fund where $12,000 is budgeted for Events and Farmers’ Market Allocation.

(Kem Smith’s budget report will appear in the Aug. 8 issue of The Voice).

Annexation Documents Missing

BLYTHEWOOD – Ashley Oaks resident Jeff Henry appeared before Town Council on Monday evening to inquire about a document he said he asked Town Hall for last fall but has never received. The document is the original annexation petition, with signatures, that was submitted by residents of Ashley Oaks when the neighborhood annexed into the town in July 2001.

Henry told Council that he thinks the document contains information that could cause Mayor J. Michael Ross to reverse instructions he gave last summer for the Town to stop paying the monthly electric bill for the street lights in Ashley Oaks. The mayor and town attorney Jim Meggs told Henry at the meeting that they have looked for the petition for months and cannot find it. They said they didn’t know what more they could do.

Henry said, by law, the Town must produce the document and sited S.C. state statute 5-3-150, which states, “the petition and all signatures to it are open for public inspection at any time on demand of any resident of the municipality or area affected by the proposed annexation or by anyone owning property in the area to be annexed.”

That statute also states that the “municipality must give notice of a public hearing . . . by written notification to the taxpayer of record of all properties within the area proposed to be annexed . . .” That the public hearing must include “a statement as to what public services are to be assumed or provided by the municipality . . .”

Henry produced an undated letter to the residents of Ashley Oaks, signed by Lorraine Abell, town administrator in 2001, extolling the benefits of annexing into the town and promising the provision of lighting and mowing to Ashley Oaks upon annexation into the town. He pointed out that the letter states, “Please consider the enclosed petition as a request to annex property identified on the attached petition.” Henry said that letter was obviously sent out to the residents with the petition and proves the government promised to pay for the street lighting in Ashley Oaks if residents annexed.

“If you can produce the original petition with this letter attached to it, then I think that is proof the Town government agreed to pay for lights, their installation, the maintenance and the electric bill for those lights,” Henry said.

Henry said the letter, signed by Abell, together with the signed petitions, constitutes a contract between the Town and the residents of Ashley Oaks for the Town to provide the lighting and other benefits.

At last October’s Council meeting Henry recounted that after the annexation and until 2006, the lighting and mowing for the subdivision were provided by developer Mike Shelly. After that time these services became the responsibility of the homeowners. The late M.B. ‘Pete’ Amoth, who was then mayor of the town and a resident of Ashley Oaks, agreed to honor what the residents said was the Town’s agreement to take over the lighting and mowing.

But during the summer of 2013, Henry said the residents began to be billed for those services.

“We didn’t get a letter or anything, just started getting a bill,” Henry said.

Almost 90 percent of the residents signed a petition saying they want the Town to keep the original agreement they say it made with them when they annexed into the town in 2001, Henry told The Voice.

Ross told Henry at the October meeting that he, personally, had pulled the plug on the Town paying that service.

“And I stand by my decision,” Ross said. “I don’t think it’s fair for the Town to pay for one subdivision’s street lighting and not the others. And the Town can’t afford to pay them all.”

“The Town made the agreement to do this if we would annex into the town, and the government should keep its word” Henry said Monday night, insisting that the Town Hall produce the original petition of signatures and any attachments.

Meggs explained that there were no such records in Town Hall, that he had spent much time over several months looking for the document. He said there are many boxes of documents packed in a storage facility that haven’t been gone through, but that the task is overwhelming. Meggs did agree to continue to look into it. But Councilman Bob Mangone said that wasn’t enough. Mangone said he probably wouldn’t have been “as patient as Mr. Henry has been.”

“I think that if we have to hire a temp to go through those boxes, then we should make a priority to do that,” Mangone said. “To just say we are going to keep working on it isn’t fair to him.”

The Voice contacted former Planning Commission chairwoman Bobbie Young, who was the primary coordinator of the petition to annex Ashley Oaks, to ask if she had kept a copy of the original petition before presenting it to Town Hall.

“I’m sure I have it,” Young said, “but finding it will take a few days.”

Young said she did not recall if the petition, signed by Abell, was attached to the signatures.

“But it could very well have been,” she said. Young said she hoped to come up with the copy of the document in a week or so.

WINNSBORO – With filing for petition candidates officially closing last week, the field of candidates for the Nov. 4 general election is officially locked in. Petition signatures were verified this week by the Fairfield County Office of Elections and Voter Registration on all but one of the applicants. Although Carlton Williams, who had filed to run for the District 7 County Council seat, turned in enough signatures, Voter Registration said not enough of those signatures were from voters in District 7, eliminating Williams from the running.

With Williams out of the race, the petition candidates are:

County Council

District 1 incumbent Dwayne Perry faces a challenge on two fronts, from Daniel Walter Ruff III and Michael Squirewell. District 3 incumbent Mikel Trapp also faces a pair of challengers in Walter Larry Stewart and Tangee Brice Jacobs. District 5 incumbent and County Council Chairman David Ferguson Sr. faces two challengers as well in Marion Robinson and Eugene Holmes.

Four candidates are vying for the District 7 seat being vacated by a retiring David Brown, with William Bryan Smith Jr., David E. Brandenburg and Clyde Sanders all throwing their names into the ring.

School Board

District 1 incumbent Andrea T. Harrison faces the only challenge in this year’s School Board race with Marvin L. Robertson vying for her seat. District 3 incumbent Henry Miller and District 7 incumbent and Board Chairwoman Elizabeth R. Reid are unchallenged. Carl E. Jackson Jr. is also unchallenged in his bid for the District 5 seat being vacated by Bobby Cunningham.

Soil & Water Conservation District

Eric F. Cathcart is this year’s lone candidate for the Soil & Water Conservation District.

WINNSBORO – County Council gave the final approval at their July 14 meeting to revised guidelines governing how the County makes purchases. Council had tabled a final vote on the revisions at their June 23 meeting at the request of Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson. Monday night, those changes sailed through Council without descent.

Changes to the policy include requiring Council’s approval for purchases over $25,000, as well as the definition of “close family” members related to County employees. Those members are defined as “spouse, sibling, in-laws, uncle/aunt, or cousin,” and are used to determine conflicts of interest in awarding contracts or purchases in the new manual. The previous policy placed no threshold for Council approval, provided the purchase was a budgeted item, leaving purchases at the discretion of the Procurement Director and the County Administrator, and contained no definitions of family members.

The proposed policy gives the Director of Procurement authority to make purchases up to $15,000. Change orders less than 10 percent of the original contract price, or in the amount of $10,000 must be approved by the Administrator under the new guidelines. Change orders greater than 10 percent or more than $10,000 require Council’s approval.

The revised policy manual in its draft form can be viewed in its entirety on the County’s website, www.fairfieldsc.com.

Council also authorized County Administrator Milton Pope to negotiate a price with Meade & Hunt for the upfitting of the HON Building on Highway 321 N. near Midlands Tech. The HON Building will serve as temporary home to the Fairfield County Courthouse while renovations are under way there.

Those renovations will be headed up by Davis & Floyd, whom Council approved Monday night as project managers for the renovations, at a cost of $104,000. That money will come out of the County’s 2013 bond issue of $24.06 million, Pope said.

WINNSBORO – County Council approved second reading during their July 14 meeting on a trio of land deals and will shell out a total of $215,000 for two parcels while raking in more than $1.2 million in the sale of another, should the ordinances clear final reading in two weeks.

Ordinance 636 authorizes the County to pay Judy Davis $65,000 for 1.12 acres located at 350 Highway 21 S. in Ridgeway, land that will be used for the relocation of the Ridgeway Fire Department. Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said the new location would not negatively impact ISO ratings on local homeowners’ insurance and may in fact improve response times.

Ordinance 637 authorizes the purchase of 5.93 acres owned by Clayton Belton on Park Road in Ridgeway for $150,000. The property is currently home to Rufus Belton Park, as well as a fire and EMS station. The County has been leasing the property from Belton for several years. Pope said the lease was set to expire in the coming months and the County was looking to avoid the necessity of acquiring new property and building a new fire and EMS station.

“The County two or three years ago changed its policy where the County had previously entered into long-term lease agreements on property,” Pope said. “However, when the lease runs out on that you lose your ability to have that improvement. This was the rationale behind the idea to try to secure and purchase that property in order to maintain that fire station, EMS and recreational opportunities that are there.”

According to the contract, the County agrees to place a memorial on the property recognizing the history of Rufus Belton Park. A trailer on the property will also be removed at the County’s expense.

Ordinance 638 puts the County one vote away from unloading 405 acres of land off Center Creek Road to Douglas L. Gamburg for $1,215,000. According to tax records, the County purchased the land in 2002 from SP Forests, LLC for $617,625 and had explored the possibilities of developing the land for a retirement community.

“The market went south in 2008,” Pope said. “We looked at that property again and did not see a market for that particular piece of property.”

Pope recommended the reinvestment of the proceeds from the sale into “future economic development opportunities for the County.”

All three ordinances cleared second reading without descent. Councilman David Brown (District 7) recused himself from ordinance 636 and 638, both deals brokered by Brown & Co. Real Estate, which is owned by Brown’s son, Russ.