Category: Government

WINNSBORO – When a bill passed by the State Legislature last month failed to fully correct the lines of District 5, State Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17) said only County Council could undo the confusion wrought by the 2011 reapportionment. Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said last month he would have done so in the first place had he received even a phone call from Coleman or State Rep. MaryGail Douglas (D-41), who introduced the legislation in their respective chambers, or from School Board member Bobby Cunningham, who was affected by the debacle.

Last week, Coleman sent a letter to Interim County Administrator Milton Pope, asking Council to consider amending the district lines in order to make the School Board District 5 consistent with the County Council District 5. After Monday night’s County Council meeting, Ferguson said Council would indeed do just that.

“Yes, we are going to address it,” Ferguson said. “It was kind of indicated that it was our fault that it was like that. That’s done in Columbia.”

Cunningham was elected to the Fairfield County School Board in 2010. Following the 2010 census that showed a shift in racial demographics in areas of the county, County Council initiated a redistricting process, which it completed in 2011. At that time, Cunningham was inexplicably drawn out of District 5 and into District 6. Cunningham said he was not made aware of the change until he showed up to vote in the 2012 elections. The legislation was designed to place Cunningham, as well as five others, back into District 5 for both the School Board and County Council, whose lines have traditionally followed one another. After Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill into law on March 4 and Cunningham received his new voter registration card, however, it became apparent that the bill had not fully achieved its goal.

“I am in District 5 for the School Board,” Cunningham said two weeks ago, “and District 6 for County Council.”

Ferguson was not explicit as to when Council would be taking the matter up, but said it would be addressed well before two months had passed.

WINNSBORO – In a split decision Monday night, County Councilman David Brown’s motion to return to a seven-committee structure of government failed to carry. Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) was absent from Monday’s regular meeting and Brown (District 7) saw his motion cut right down the middle, dying 3-3.

Brown, Carolyn Robinson (District 2) and Dwayne Perry (District 1) voted in favor, while Kamau Marcharia (District 4), Mikel Trapp (District 3) and Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) voted against. Currently, Council operates with three standing committees as well as an ad hoc committee to take up miscellaneous issues.

Prior to the vote, District 7 resident Billy Smith, speaking during the first public comment portion of the meeting, said three committees were not enough and encouraged Council to adopt the seven committee standard and improve upon its structure.

“We can’t give you input if we don’t know what’s going on,” Smith said.

District 2 resident Pat Williams also encouraged Council to adopt a seven-committee system and suggested an improved structure would be selection of committee members by majority vote of full Council, as opposed to appointment by the Chairman.

As Robinson seconded Brown’s motion, Perry said he had served on committees under the old structure and felt they did not work as well as the three Council works with now. Perry asked Interim Administrator Milton Pope, who reestablished the committee system utilizing just three committees, for his opinion.

“The point, as I understood, of reestablishing the committee process was to create a sense of transparency, so that items would be reviewed by a committee prior to that matter coming to County Council,” Pope said. “If that is the case, then I feel very comfortable in saying that the committee process that has been accepted by this Council, the three committees, I think that structure is fine.

“If there’s a desire to create additional committees, then I guess that’s fine, but it’s nothing that the three could not handle,” Pope added.

But when Brown asked Pope for a list of committees and their members, Pope and staff struggled to produce a definitive list. After some awkward hesitation, Pope said that Trapp, Robinson and Perry serve on the Administration & Finance Committee; Ferguson, Perry and Brown on the Economic Development Committee; and Robinson, Ferguson and Perry currently serve on the Ad Hoc Committee that is tasked with shepherding the County Courthouse through its upcoming relocation and renovation. The full list of members of the Development & Policy Committee was never disclosed, although Marcharia and Kinley were later counted among its membership.

Brown then asked how personnel matters were being routed, if not through a personnel committee.

“Not as far as who you hire,” Brown said, “but if the recreation commission or somebody needs a new employee, at one time the way we used to do that, we used to meet and look at the description of the position and it would go through the personnel committee and then it would go through the finance committee to see if we have the money to do it.”

Pope said that under Fairfield County’s Council-Administrator form of government, the administrator had the authority over personnel. The administrator could not create new positions, which Pope said was the purview of Council, but could fill existing positions through the budgeting process. Council, he said, has only two employees – the administrator and the clerk to council.

“I don’t want to hire,” Brown said. “I want to set policy to create and then let you do your job. I’ll go back to my motion: I truly believe our old committee structure was very detailed and covered every item that came up. In some cases it would have to go through more than one committee to let everybody know what’s going on.”

Perry, however, said the old structure was flawed.

“For the first seven years on Council I don’t think our committee structure was effective at all and we rarely if ever met at all about anything,” Perry said. “I think we’ve covered more meaningful information in the Finance Committee just this year alone than I ever covered in any committee meeting in the last seven years I had.”

Robinson said that was because Council, until last summer, had an administrator who did not believe in committees.

“When I first came on Council, we had a fabulous seven-committee (system) and we had an administrator that believed in putting everything into a committee,” Robinson said. “After he left, I’m sorry to say, every year it began to wane as to how much information the administrator fed to you. That’s the reason the committees did not meet for the first seven years you were here. . . . It works, if you put it in place and everybody buys into it and does their homework and works it.”

After the motion failed, Smith, speaking during the second public comment portion, wanted to know why.

“This is really an embarrassment that we can’t do things in a structure that allows for transparency,” Smith said. “It’s obvious that there are things that come to this floor and are voted on without any discussion prior to that, and it seems the citizenry does not know about and we are making an appeal to you that we want to know about things. We are not getting good representation when we don’t know what’s going on. Those of you who voted against this, I seriously want to know why.”

BLYTHEWOOD – During a 5-hour work session on Tuesday, Blythewood Town Council presented an update on where the Town stands with construction costs associated with Doko Meadows (the park) and Doko Manor. The bottom line, Councilman Tom Utroska told Council members, is that there is still work to be completed on the Manor and the park, and at least $157,967 is still owed to the two construction companies (Condor Construction Company and Monroe Construction Company) for work both completed and yet to be completed.

“The Blythewood Facilities Corporation (the BFC, which disperses construction payments for the park and manor) owes Monroe a total of $51,871.71, including $27,400 for work still to be completed on the two restrooms in the park and $24,471, which has been retained by the BFC as an incentive until all the work is completed,” Utroska said.

Utroska said the BFC owes Condor a total of $106,095.45, including $67,066.10, most of which is for landscaping work yet to be completed by Pony Hill Nursery who Utroska said was subcontracted by Condor. That work includes sod and irrigation on the athletic field and grassing of the park and Town Hall, which is almost complete. Construction work yet to be completed by Condor includes the clock tower base and all dumpster enclosures. In addition, BFC is still holding $44,029.35 in retainage due Condor. The total owed both companies is $157,967.16.

According to a report presented to Council by former Councilman Paul Moscati on Sept. 17, 2013, there should be a remaining funds balance of $18,754.96.

“But the problem with this balance,” Utroska told Council, “is that there is a lot of money (from the original $5.5 million bond) that was spent not for construction but for things such as revised estimates, new plans drawn up by Land Plan South or the architect (Ralph Walden) that were not included in the construction contracts. So (Moscati’s) original construction fund numbers and the actual money spent will never match.

“We’ve had to pay additional money out of the general fund for these things and I don’t know if we’re going to have to come up with more to pay for the $157,967.16 we still owe,” Utroska said. “I really don’t know what’s left in the BFC pot of money. Much of the $157,967.16 is for work that is actually still to be done under contract.”

Plus, Utroska said, there are going to be additional costs including $2,412 for a security system for the Manor, the second layer of paving for the roads in the park, paving repair on the walking trail and a reserve fund.

“We don’t have the funds for this,” Utroska said.

“I think Paul (Moscati) did a good job keeping up with what had and had not been done on the overall project,” Utroska said, “but I don’t think it was managed well fiscally. We ended up spending a lot of money that wasn’t included in the budget. It wasn’t necessarily on construction, but it was money the Town had to spend on the park.”

Reimbursing the General Fund

Looking at the financial losses at the Manor, Councilman Bob Massa suggested establishing a formal payment plan to reimburse the general fund for a $162,000 deficit that ran up at the Manor during its first year of operation. He proposed making monthly reimbursements to the Doko Manor cash account only after the unrestricted part of the account (consisting of such items as deposits on rentals) exceeds $10,000.

“At month end for balances from $10,000 – $19,999, 10 percent will be returned to the general fund cash account until the entire payable is reimbursed,” Massa said.

For all month end balances in excess of $19,999, Massa suggested the general fund cash account be reimbursed $5,000 plus 10 percent of the remaining balance in excess of $10,000. He asked that Council pass a resolution for the payment plan at the April 28 Council meeting.

Other Business

Council also discussed goals for 2014-15 and it received a technology briefing from VC3 about their Cloud-based technology and other offerings that would facilitate the Town’s computer technology. Council discussed a Resolution in executive session pertaining to the Winnsboro water franchise agreement (see related story, page 1) and voted unanimously in favor of it.

The next Town Council meeting is April 28 and another workshop is scheduled for May 13, from 8 a.m. until noon.

WINNSBORO – Town Council was shocked to discover Tuesday night that Blythewood Town Council had, during their meeting earlier the same day, voted unanimously to pass a resolution to terminate the water franchise agreement between the two municipalities. Council said they were completely unaware that Blythewood had even been considering such a move, hearing about it for the first time, Council said, when questioned after Tuesday’s meeting by a reporter from The Voice.

The resolution may, in fact, have been somewhat premature, Winnsboro officials noted, as the contract is binding for another six years – until 2020. And with Winnsboro still owning the existing infrastructure in place beneath the streets of Blythewood, any new provider of water would have to work out a deal with Winnsboro in order to pipe in the supply, or else make an enormous investment to put their own infrastructure in the ground. The one thing the resolution would do for certain, were it legally found to be able to sever the agreement prior to 2020, would be to end the payments made by the Town of Winnsboro to Blythewood for the use of Blythewood’s streets and right-of-ways necessary for Winnsboro to access, service and maintain its infrastructure.

The resolution would not prevent Winnsboro from selling water to Blythewood customers in the future, according to John Fantry, Winnsboro’s legal counsel on water and utility issues. If the resolution was implemented and the agreement canceled, Fantry said Winnsboro could easily bypass the Blythewood right-of-ways to continue to serve customers.

“I don’t know why they would want to cancel that,” Winnsboro Town Manager Don Wood said Tuesday night after learning of the passage of the resolution. “It’s for their benefit. That’s money we collect for them and we turn over to them.”

Currently, Winnsboro has approximately 750 taps in and around Blythewood. Wood said Winnsboro collects 1.5 percent on each water bill and transfers that money to Blythewood annually. Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross, however, said the fee only amounted to around $13,000 a year, and the resolution was less about money and more about ensuring future development for Blythewood.

“This is about an economic development issue – Doko Village – that came to us and was dead in the water because the developer went to Winnsboro and couldn’t get water,” Ross said. “We can’t grow, and there’s plenty of water available from Columbia. They’re supplying us already.”

Blythewood is indeed supplied by the Capital City, thanks to a deal two summers ago between Winnsboro and Columbia that brought up to 400,000 gallons a day through Winnsboro’s meters and into Blythewood homes and businesses. The deal was revised last year to bring the amount up to as much as 1 million gallons a day. That revision was put in place largely to help supply Fairfield County’s new Commerce Center on Peach Road. The Doko Village project, Ross said, would have been a tremendous boon for Blythewood, bringing homes and businesses into the community.

But as large a part as future growth played in Tuesday’s resolution, Ross said another factor instilled fear in Blythewood. When word leaked out earlier this month that a private corporation was interested in purchasing Winnsboro’s Blythewood infrastructure, Ross said Blythewood “hit the panic button.”

“I think it sent up a red flag that that infrastructure could be sold out from under us,” Ross said. “It scares me a little when private enterprise gets involved with public utilities.”

That private enterprise, Ni America, LLC, which owns Palmetto Utilities in Elgin, recently approached the Town of Winnsboro, according to a source close to the situation, and threw down an $800,000 offer. But Tuesday night, Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy said the Town was not, in fact, in negotiations.

“We’re not anywhere with it,” Gaddy said. “We haven’t set a price on anything. We’re not in the process of negotiating anything.”

Councilman Stan Klaus agreed, and said after the meeting that Ni America had come to Winnsboro “to talk,” but that there were no negotiations to sell. The Voice’s source also said the rumored “negotiations” barely even qualified as “talks,” and that he felt it was very unlikely Winnsboro would be interested in selling.

“That’s real easy to say,” Ross said. “We’re just trying to look out for the future of the Town of Blythewood.”

RIDGEWAY – Although a number of his votes were whittled away by the Fairfield County Election Commission Friday morning, write-in candidate Heath Cookendorfer’s surprise victory in Ridgeway’s April 8 municipal election was upheld by a final tally of 43 votes to 41 over incumbent Town Councilwoman Belva Bush.

The two-vote margin put Cookendorfer just beyond the mandatory recount threshold and the 42-year-old native of Alexandria, Ky. was sworn into office Friday evening.

Debbie Stidham, Director of Fairfield County Voter Registration & Elections, said the Commission discounted some votes that did not clearly indicate voter intent, per state guidelines, such as ballots that simply read “Heath,” or incorrectly read “Heath M.”

Other vote finals remained unchanged, with incumbent Charlene Herring easily beating out Bush for mayor, 91-27, and Councilman Russ Brown earning a second term with 98 votes. Herring and Brown also renewed their oaths Friday.

WINNSBORO – Disaster was averted Wednesday night as the Town of Winnsboro granted a six-week extension to Mid-County Water while the finishing touches are put on a new five-year water sale agreement between the two entities. The Town had been poised to cut off the flow of water to Mid-County, effective April 16 at noon, as negotiations between the two bogged down last month. A special meeting was held at Town Hall Wednesday night to rekindle the water talks.

“We had a really good dialogue,” Herb Rentz, Mid-County’s manager, said. “We have a good understanding, and we’re going to meet more frequently – which is important for all water purveyors, to address growth and capacity needs.”

While the new contract still has to be officially drawn up by Winnsboro’s attorney and ratified by the Mid-County Board of Directors, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rentz said he was confident the deal was done.

As talks on a new deal stalled last month, Town Council unanimously passed a resolution at the end of its April 1 meeting to close all valves supplying water to the Mid-County Water Company, effective April 16 at noon. The cutoff could have affect as many as 5,600 customers, as well as fire protection in the area. Kelly Miller Elementary School would also have been impacted by the decision, Rentz said, as would the Jenkinsville Water Company, which purchases a portion of its water from Mid-County. Rentz said that last month, Jenkinsville purchased 100,000 gallons from Mid-County and that over the years they have purchased millions more.

The new agreement includes a rate increase, but not the increase originally stipulated in the Town’s proposal. Winnsboro had initially suggested an increase from $3.75 per 1,000 gallons to $5.83 per 1,000 gallons. Instead, that rate will be $4.52 per 1,000 gallons.

“But we still have very reasonable rates,” Rentz said, “even compared to Chester.”

Penalties for water use in excess of the contracted sale amount are still in place, but Mid-County did receive a capacity increase in the new proposed deal, from 5 million gallons a month to 8 million gallons a month. Details on the penalties were not available as this story posted to the Web.

State Fine Reduced, Not Dropped

BLYTHEWOOD – In several news articles published in The Voice during February and March of this year, it was reported that Bravo Blythewood, the cultural arts arm of the Town of Blythewood, was sent a notification of fine for $2,000 from the S.C. Secretary of State’s office on Jan. 1, for continuing failure to register with and file its financial information with the agency’s Public Charities Division. The arts group was told it had 15 days to register.

The group did not register until Feb.10, at which time, according to Shannon Wiley, Deputy General Counsel of the Secretary of State’s Office, Martha Jones, CEO of Bravo Blythewood, submitted a registration form but did not include the required financial report and Internal Revenue Form 990 EZ.

In an email to The Voice, Wiley said the agency would not waive the $2,000 fine entirely for late registration, but would reduce the fine to $200 for administrative costs if Jones forwarded the financial report (990 EZ) and the $200 fine to her attention, again, within 15 days.

In the minutes of the Feb. 17 meeting of the Blythewood Artists Guild that were forwarded, unsolicited, to The Voice by members, it was reported that Jones told the group that Bravo Blythewood had not been fined by the Secretary of State’s Office. In a letter published in the March 7 issue of The Voice, Bravo Blythewood vice president Buddy Price also refuted reports in The Voice that the group had been fined. Price stated that the group had not been fined by the Secretary of State’s Office. However, when his letter was forwarded to Wiley, she sent an email to The Voice stating that, “The organization did pay a fine of $200 for the late filing of the registration…”

On Feb. 12, Wiley told The Voice that no financial records had been filed with the Public Charities Division for Bravo Blythewood since it was incorporated as a non-profit on Aug. 3, 2011. Jones was CEO of the group since that time. While Bravo Blythewood was registered as a non-profit corporation with the business filing division, Wiley said because it solicits money and is funded by the town government, it must also be registered with the state’s Public Charities Division and file an annual financial report and an annual registration form.

According to the notice of fine dated Jan. 1, 2014, the $2,000 fine would have been dismissed entirely had the group filed the requested information in a timely manner, within 15 days.

Bravo Blythewood received $17,750 in funding from the town government’s Hospitality Taxes from Nov. 30, 2011 – Dec. 20, 2013.

BLYTHEWOOD – Two members of the Planning Commission who live in Cobblestone Park voiced strong objection to 10 or so single-family model home lots proposed by builder DR Horton for the tennis court area of Cobblestone Park. According to a drawing presented by DR Horton, the lots will be located on a short cul-de-sac street that will run alongside Cobblestone Parkway where it intersects with Links Crossing Drive. DR Horton spokesperson Andrew Allen, Project Manager for the design group Thomas & Hutton, said the up front location of the models will help home sales in the Primrose section, which is located in the back area of Cobblestone.

Randy Humphries, a member of the Commission, and Mike Switzer, Chairman of the Commission, both residents of Cobblestone, expressed concern that some of the homes in the 2.5-acre model home area, which would include smaller homes, would back up to Cobblestone Parkway, which is the primary entrance into the gated community. Their objection was that the back yards could be unsightly along that entrance road.

The Town’s Planner Michael Criss suggested that Thomas & Hutton might be able to design appropriate screening for the homes. Humphries suggested that the builder reduce the number of models by as much as half, and situate them on the opposite side of the cul-de-sac road facing the Parkway. Still, he said he did not want the models built there. Humphries said he did not think fencing or a berm would sufficiently screen the homes from the entrance.

Commissioner Ernestine Middleton suggested the builder meet with all of the Cobblestone homeowners to get their input on the proposed model homes section.

To accommodate construction of the model homes, the Commission is being asked to rezone the Town Center District portion of Cobblestone Park to Cobblestone PUD zoning district.

The number of Cobblestone Park residents who sit on the Commission (three of seven) and the fact that the Town Council is made up of a majority (three of five) of Cobblestone residents would not present a problem as they decide the fate of the zoning map amendment, according to Town Attorney Jim Meggs. He told the Commissioners that he had been informed by the S.C. Ethics Commission that the Cobblestone residency of Commissioners and Council members would not prohibit them from voting on the matter.

The Commission deferred action on the matter pending new street-level drawings showing how the aesthetics of the entrance to Cobblestone Park would be affected. Switzer also suggested that DR Horton schedule a meeting to allow Cobblestone owners to give input on this proposal so the Commission would know better how to represent the people who would be affected by this decision.

In another action concerning the Primrose section of Cobblestone Park, the Commission approved reducing the side setback for 220 lots owned by DR Horton from 5 feet and 12 feet to 5 feet and 10 feet as the Commission had previously approved on other lots last year near the same area in Cobblestone.

Resident wants to remove trees

Ashley Oaks property owner Frank Parks presented the Commission drawings and photos of five trees he would like to remove from his front yard because of erosion caused by the trees’ exposed roots. Parks said after the removal of the trees he planned to re-sod his yard.

Commissioner Middleton said she had the same problem in her yard. Commissioner Marcus Taylor said he had no objection to the tree removal given Park’s erosion problem caused by the trees, and Town Planner Michael Criss agreed that tree roots do compete with turf grass. Switzer objected to the removal of the healthy, mature trees, saying his personal experience with sustainable design would favor keeping the trees and letting the yard grow into a natural area around them. Parks said he didn’t think the Ashley Oaks Home Owners Association (HOA) would approve of that. Switzer argued that leaving the trees would be more in accordance with the Town’s Master Plan goals of sustainable neighborhoods.

Commissioner Malcom Gordge suggested he should recuse himself because he lives on the same street as Parks, and the Town Attorney agreed, saying he would supply Gordge with the appropriate forms for recusing himself following the meeting. However, Gordge continued to have input in the meeting, which is contrary to the requirements for recusal.

The Commission voted unanimously to defer action on the matter to give time for them to visit the site with a landscape architect to determine if there are other remedies for Park’s problem.

Landscape & Tree Preservation

The Commission agreed to send Commissioner Gordge, Criss and Park Architect Rick McMackin to the Town Council work session on April 15 to address council’s questions regarding the new Landscape & Tree Preservation ordinance before Council takes it to second reading. Council approved first reading of the ordinance at its the March 28 meeting.

Plan Review

The Commission approved drawings for preliminary plat review for Holly Bluff’s subdivision near Ashley Oaks pending the developer’s revision to show sidewalks on at least one side of each street and a better visual marking on the drawing that show 100-foot setbacks.