Category: Government

Blythewood – Town Council and the Mayor’s Park Committee met separately last week to look at ways to cut operating and maintenance costs for the park and Manor. For its part, Council has already raised rental fees for the Manor and is looking to initiate a minimum-use fee of about $35 per hour to cover overhead expenses like heat, air conditioning, electricity, an attendant and other costs to the Town. Any group using table cloths, napkins and other equipment would pay standard charges, and ‘free’ use of the facility would be very limited and would be charged the minimum-use hourly fee.

Councilman Tom Utroska said he has been working closely with the new Director of the Manor, Booth Chilcutt, and that they agree the Town must charge for minimum use of the facility.

“We have costs associated with use,” Utroska said. “It’s not fair that the Town is covering the overhead costs for some groups to use it at no charge.”

According to a list of expenses and revenues provided by former Director Martha Jones last fall, the Town was not only allowing the Richland 2 School District and others to use the Manor for free, but was also sometimes laundering tablecloths and napkins for the groups without recouping the costs. At a recent Town Council meeting, Councilman Bob Massa questioned why Bravo Blythewood was allowed to use the Manor free of charge for 24 play rehearsals when the play was being performed at Westwood High School.

While the District sometimes paid token fees, it has used the Manor free more than other groups and he suggested that, in the future, the District be limited to free use only when that use involves students in certain charitable or educational endeavors and that they pay the minimum-use rate to cover overhead expenses plus the cost of any equipment used. He suggested all other administrative uses by the District, whether during the day or in the evening be paid uses. In all fairness to the District, though, a town official quoted a District official as saying, “We have other places to meet, and we were actually surprised that you’re not charging us to use the Manor.”

“The minimum-use fee will only cover our basic costs, not wear and tear,” Utroska told Council.

Mayor J. Michael Ross said he has asked all Town boards, committees and commissions to begin meeting in the Town Hall planning room instead of the Manor unless they need to accommodate a large audience.

Utroska said the Town is still operating the Manor at a loss and that it has to contribute, on average, about $2,000 per month right now to cover the Manor’s monthly expenses. Massa suggested that Council pass a resolution at the upcoming budget meeting to allocate funds from the Town’s Hospitality tax to fund a reserve.

Jim McLean, chairman of the Mayor’s Park Committee, said the Committee is also considering ways to economize in the park, primarily through energy savings by cutting off every other street light in the park and turning off all walking trail lights after midnight.

“Fairfield Electric has indicated that this is a possibility with a modest investment of about $25 per light to add a cell at the top of the light poles,” McLean said.

The Park Committee’s primary goal, however, is not to find ways to economize in the park, but to prioritize features to be built. While there is no more money in the park’s coffers according to Council, the Park Committee is still hoping to find economical ways to add features that were originally planned.

“We’re looking for better pricing on all the remaining park features,” McLean said. “Plus we’re looking to reduce the size and scope of some features to make them less costly and more attractive to individuals who might want to donate funds to build them.”

Both the Park Committee and Town Council will meet separately again on Tuesday, April 15 at the Town Hall. The Park Committee will meet at 6 p.m. and Council’s meeting is set for 9 a.m. until noon or so. The public is invited to attend both meetings. Call 754-0501 for more information.

WINNSBORO – A plot of land on River Road near Lake Wateree that fell through the County’s rezoning cracks back in 2011 took its first tentative steps toward being returned to its intended use Monday night when County Council passed first reading on an ordinance to reclassify the property to B-1 (limited business district).

The 2.37 acres at 4361 River Road had been rezoned from R-1 (single-family residential) to B-1 in 2004, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said, and was purchased in August of 2011 by Harry M. Parker Jr. Shortly thereafter, Council began rezoning property across the county as part of its new land management ordinance. When Council approved the new land management ordinance in December of 2011, Parker’s property was reverted back to its original R-1 designation.

“I don’t think the county intended for that to happen,” Pope said. “There were no improvements on the property, so it was looked at as undeveloped and it got picked up with other zoning overlays to restrict commercial zoning development around the lake.”

Winnsboro attorney John Fantry, who represents Parker in the rezoning matter, said he was encouraged to see Council willing to correct an obvious oversight.

“(This ordinance) indicates to me that when a mistake is made, and one that is not intentional, our County government will proceed to move forward with means to correct it,” Fantry said. “I applaud you and I hope we would do that for anyone who finds himself in a similar situation.”

Councilman David Brown (District 7) asked if there were not some safety mechanism that the County could put in place to allow staff or administration to correct similar errors, thereby alleviating the necessity of an aggrieved party having to go through the rezoning process.

“The Planning Commission or either the Planning Department could approve it and let somebody start using it, instead of us slowing an individual down 90 days going through the process,” Brown suggested.

But Pope said that even if a zoning classification is made in error, the County was legally bound to go through the required readings and public hearing process, allowing the public the right to comment on any proposed changes. However, Pope added, any fees associated with applying for rezoning in the event of such an error would be refunded by the County.

Council also gave the OK to replace six vehicles for the Sheriff’s Office, at a cost of $188,511.88. While Pope said that the funds had been budgeted by Council, he noted that the Finance Committee, which had made the recommendation to purchase the vehicles, had also recommended adjusting the budget by $8,511.15 to fill the order. The vehicles were state contract vehicles, Pope said, and were procured through the bidding process.

The purchase of a new control panel for the Detention Center was put on hold, Pope said, after all the bids for the item came back over the $200,000 approved by Council. The panel will have to be re-bid and come back to Council through committee, Pope said.

Pope also informed Council that the architectural/engineering firm of Godwin, Mills & Caywood had been retained to begin inspections on Drawdy Park, where a 50-foot section of retaining wall, constructed by Four Brothers Construction under the supervision of S2 Engineering, collapsed in January. Pope said the firm will inspect other buildings and projects completed by S2 in the county as well. The County will also begin procurement on a scope of work to address safety issues at the Dutchman Creek pedestrian bridge, Pope said.

The County’s $3.5 million recreation plans will officially have some shepherding, as Pope announced the County had retained the services of Kenneth Simmons & Associates (KSA) to act as consultants. KSA will review Council’s master plan of proposed recreation projects to determine costs, maintenance and staffing. Estimates will then be reviewed by Council and plans will be trimmed accordingly, Pope said.

Vice Chairman Appeals for Peace After Public Squabble

WINNSBORO – A County Councilman who not once but twice spouted cries of racism during Council’s February meetings was called on the carpet Monday night by a citizen demanding that the Councilman back up those claims with facts.

Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3) said during Council’s Feb. 10 meeting that criticism of S2 Engineering, the firm responsible for the construction of the new football field at Drawdy Park where a 50-foot section of retaining wall collapsed in January, was motivated by race.

When Trapp took some heat for those comments at Council’s Feb. 24 meeting, he doubled down, lashing out at the Fairfield County citizens’ watchdog group, Saving Fairfield. Trapp said that member of Saving Fairfield had used racial slurs against him on numerous occasions and had even telephoned his place of employment in an effort to get him fired. Saving Fairfield “promotes hatred and racism,” Trapp said on Feb. 24.

Saving Fairfield spokesman Bob Carrison denied Trapp’s accusations the very next day, and Monday night Tim Schroll, another Saving Fairfield member, said Trapp’s claims have no basis in reality and that Trapp’s behavior was outside the bounds of Council’s guidelines for code of conduct.

“(Trapp) claims someone or several members of (Saving Fairfield) used a racial epithet toward him. He also claims that there were no witnesses to this and he refused to give any names, dates or places it occurred,” Schroll said during the meeting’s second public comment portion. “He’s made previous statements that have no evidence to support it. Maybe someone should depose this council member under oath where he can repeat these charges as well as be forced to substantiate them for the record as well as accept the full weight of the law for false statements he makes. It is time for this council member to either prove these allegations or publicly withdraw them. I ask the council to hold themselves to the same standards they hold us to. If you agree to do that, I can ask no less.”

But Trapp appeared unmoved and instead instructed Schroll, who identified himself as a resident of District 6, to stay on his own turf.

“It would probably serve you better if you concentrate on District 6 and let District 3 operate the way it operates because District 3 is running just fine,” Trapp said.

Monday night’s meeting got off on an even more sour note when Dawkins resident Jeff Schaffer was ejected from chambers in the middle of the meeting’s opening public comments portion.

“It’s hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. That would be you folks,” Schaffer began, quoting from Thomas Sowell, he said. By the time Schaffer got around to adding, “Whenever I think you folks can’t get any dumber . . . I’m just amazed,” Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) lowered the gavel.

“Don’t you slap that thing again,” Schaffer said.

“I’ll slap it if I have to,” Ferguson replied.

“Slap all you want,” Schaffer taunted.

“You will not address this Council like that,” Ferguson said.

“I’ll address you any way I want to address you,” Schaffer said. “You address me with some respect. You’re not intimidating me. You may do that to some other people, but you’re not doing that to me.”

At that moment, Schaffer was escorted from chambers through the grumbling audience by a Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy.

Bookending a standard slate of routine business, the public comments sessions caused Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1) to reflect on decorum.

“We should be professional enough to get our points across without attacking one another. Any time you attack someone it rarely builds a bridge to developing trust,” Perry said. “If I were ever to call one of you ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’ sitting up here, that would be very disrespectful. I think my mother would turn over in her grave if I’d said that to you all.

“I think we should be kind,” Perry said. “That’s a pretty strong word, but I think we should be kind and considerate. Sometimes it does hurt and it’s sad to sit up here and see the way we act toward each other. It didn’t used to be like that and I’d prefer, if there’s any way possible, we get away from that and get back to the business of this county and treating people like we want to be treated.”

Financials Still Incomplete

BLYTHEWOOD – The S.C. Secretary of State has reduced the fine for Bravo Blythewood for continuing to not register with and file financial information with the agency’s Public Charities Division from $2,000 to $200. Martha Jones, who has been Bravo Blythewood’s CEO since it was incorporated as a non-profit on Aug. 3, 2011, had never filed with the Public Charities Division, according to Shannon Wiley, Deputy General Counsel.

While the fine was paid on March 5, Wiley said Jones has not yet met the agency’s financial reporting requirement. Wiley told The Voice that there is still some work to be completed with the group’s financial report that must be addressed by the accountant working with Jones. Jones did not respond to an email from The Voice for comment. Wiley was not sure when the accountant would come in to complete the financial report.

Bravo Blythewood is the cultural arts arm of the Town of Blythewood and is primarily funded by the Blythewood government.

WINNSBORO – At an emergency meeting Thursday evening, Fairfield County Council approved a $500,000 loan to Fairfield Memorial Hospital. The loan, approved by an emergency ordinance, will allow the hospital to meet its payroll obligations as well as satisfy a portion of the hospital’s approximately $3 million in outstanding debt to vendors.

At a meeting last week between the hospital’s Board of Directors and County Council, Tim Mitchell, the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer, said that if the hospital didn’t get its hands on at least $200,000 by March 6, payroll could not be met.

Councilman David Brown (District 7), who during last week’s joint meeting grilled hospital administrators about the financial future of the hospital and the progress being made on a deal to marry Fairfield Memorial to a larger facility in Richland County, had additional questions Thursday night.

“After our conversation last week, and knowing the necessity of this and knowing the situation we’re in, what do the next 12 months look like?” Brown asked.

Mike Williams, the hospital’s CEO, said Fairfield Memorial was weighing three options: partner with a larger hospital, lease the hospital to a private entity or downsize the existing facility to an urgent care center. Williams said that one month ago Fairfield Memorial contracted with Stroudwater Associates, a healthcare consulting firm with offices in Atlanta, to put together a proposal for a potential collaborative agreement with a larger hospital. Williams said the Stroudwater study was costing a total of $75,000, with Fairfield Memorial on the hook for $30,000. Fairfield Memorial’s potential partner and other private entities are footing the rest of the bill, Williams said.

Leasing the hospital to a private company, Williams said, could reduce if not eliminate the amount of charity care Fairfield Memorial currently provides to county patients, while downsizing the facility to an urgent care center would mean serious cases would have to be seen at other hospitals. The most desirable option, Williams said, was a collaborative agreement with a Richland County hospital.

“I hope we’re working on all three (options) simultaneously,” Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said. “This is something we’re going to have to get real busy at real soon.”

The $500,000 loan is the third loan from the County to the hospital in as many years. The County fronted Fairfield Memorial $400,000 in March 2011. According the County’s most recent financial audit, that note became payable in April of 2011 in monthly installments of $13,333. During the 2013 fiscal year, the audit states, the County received no payments from the hospital.

“Due to management’s uncertainty as to the likelihood of collection, the County has maintained an allowance of $333,333 for the full amount outstanding at June 30, 2013,” the audit states. “The County plans to continue attempts to fully collect the note.”

Last January, just weeks after the County had advanced to Fairfield Memorial the final $245,000 of its annual $980,000 contribution, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope approved a loan of $50,000 to the hospital. That loan was also issued in order for the hospital to meet payroll obligations and was paid back a week later.

“We can’t keep throwing good money after bad money,” Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1) said Thursday. “The (hospital) Board has got to deal with it. We have to have some projections over the next six months and show new revenue and what the expenses are, or this $500,000 is going to be gone and we’re right back in the same place.”

Thursday’s emergency ordinance gives the hospital three years, with no interest, to repay the $500,000 loan.

WINNSBORO – Board members of the new Midland’s STEM Charter School came before County Council’s Presentation Committee last week asking the committee to recommend that Council include on its next agenda a request for approval of a $39,261,000 bond, $3,422,000 of which will go to help fund the school. The attorney for the school, Steve Cox, and Interim Fairfield County Administrator Milton Pope explained to the committee that the approval, in the form of a resolution, was little more than a technicality. Pope said the approval of the bond was merely a requirement by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the school to receive tax exempt status. County attorney John James explained to the committee that there was no risk to the County to approve the bond, and that the County would not be liable should the school default for any reason.

“It would not be a debt or responsibility of the County,” James assured the committee.

Still, the three committee members, County Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) and Councilmen Mikel Trapp (District 3) and Dwayne Perry (District 1), quizzed the members of the STEM group and, in the end, delayed the approval, voting unanimously for a motion by Perry to defer the matter until March 10, saying they needed more time to study the issue.

“This is certainly something new to us,” Ferguson told the STEM group. Cox explained to Ferguson that Council had given such approvals for industrial projects and that this was the same thing.

Pope explained at the beginning of the meeting that under new guidelines for agenda items, Council now requires that agenda items first go before the Council’s Presentation Committee, which will then recommend to Council that the item be placed or not placed on the agenda. Or, as Pope pointed out, the committee does not have to even make a recommendation.

Ferguson asked Cox why the bond is for $39,261,000 when the school is only receiving $3,422,000. Cox explained, “The bond’s issuing authority is the Wisconsin Authority, which covers projects in a multitude of states. So you see several other projects listed in this bond besides STEM. Only $3.5 million of the bond goes to STEM. But the law requires the full amount of the bonds to be listed in the resolution.”

“Is this approval process customary (to ask for County Council approval)?” Perry asked.

Cox explained that not only is it customary, but that, “if our bonds are to be tax exempt, the governing body of the jurisdiction in which the project is located must have a public hearing and approve the bond issue. So these are held all the time. You probably do them for industrial projects.”

Perry asked if there was another way to have the bond approved. Cox said there are two candidates for approving this bond – the county or the state. But Cox said it is not customary to ask for the state’s approval.

“That would be very unusual. Neither the Governor nor the Attorney General have an established procedure to do this,” Cox said, adding that it had been done only once that he knew of, in Charleston, when a council member had a conflict of interest.

“The reason we came to this council is because you are customarily the body that approves bond issuances,” Cox said.

Still, Perry asked again, “Has anyone ever gone outside that (the local government of jurisdiction) process?”

Cox reiterated that it had been done in Charleston and re-explained the situation.

“Every charter school in South Carolina that I’m familiar with has come before the local government,” Cox said.

James told the committee, “We would be doing this as a resolution, so this does not bind the Council on its ability to borrow or its credit rating.”

Perry asked how many charter schools there are in the state. Cox explained that 30-40 have been authorized by local school districts, but that now most charter schools are authorized by the State Charter School District. He said there are about 20-30 authorized in this way.

Perry asked why the STEM school had not asked to be authorized by the local school district, and Cox explained that the Charter School District offers a uniform procedure throughout the state and that its procedures are more streamlined and easier to navigate. Kevin Thomas, Board Chairman, also explained that the drive to establish the school began in 2011, prior to the hiring of J. R. Green as Superintendent of the Fairfield County School District.

To make it easier for the committee members to understand, Pope explained that the approval they would be giving the school would not be an endorsement of the school, but approval of a process. Cox compared the approval the school seeks to a business license requirement.

“A business needs a license. The County may or may not like a certain business, but it issues a business license as a technical satisfaction for that business to operate,” Cox said.

Perry asked Pope if the resolution would require three readings, and Pope reminded him that it would be just like any other resolution.

“A resolution only has one reading,” Pope said. “And if you place the item on the agenda, it is just to fulfill the technical requirement of the IRS.”

“So if I want to deliberate longer and reconvene another committee meeting, I can do that?” Perry asked, to which Pope answered that he could. Perry said he needed two more weeks to study the issue.

The committee voted unanimously to defer a recommendation until they could meet again early on March 10 before the Council’s next regular meeting. Ferguson said the item would appear on Council’s agenda for a possible vote that night in case the committee recommends it to the agenda. If the Council votes to approve the item to be on the agenda, a public hearing would be held at a later date. Ferguson said he would poll the other Council members prior to the next meeting to see if the STEM members need to come back to answer questions at the next Council meeting.

WINNSBORO – In a move designed to fit some of the final pieces of infrastructure into place at Fairfield Commerce Center, the future new home of BOMAG Americas, County Council voted 7-0 during their Feb. 24 meeting to award the contract for the installation of wastewater lines in the industrial park to Richardson Construction Co. of Columbia.

The unanimous vote on the $1,084,275 contract came after Council’s executive session and after Council voted to remove Upstate Grading and Engineering (UG&E), of Spartanburg, from consideration. Council voted to consider UG&E a “non-responsive bidder and therefore ineligible to proceed,” after UG&E had failed to provide proof of adequate bonding.

Milton Pope, Interim County Administrator, said that while Richardson was the second-lowest bid, their bid came in well under the original estimate for the project.

The wastewater lines will serve all parcels on the western side of the industrial park, including the site for BOMAG. Lines will also extend to serve the County’s new spec building at the Walter Brown II Industrial Park.

Council also received a list of suggestions for the naming of the road that cuts through the new industrial park, for which Council will vote during their next meeting March 10. Names for consideration are: Pinnacle Point, Summit Parkway, Buena Vista Drive, Meridian Parkway and Commerce Parkway.

During his Administrator’s report, Pope gave Council a brief update on the ongoing postmortem of the collapsed section of retaining wall at Drawdy Park. Pope said the County has, through procurement, solicited an engineering company to assist in the evaluation of the structure and to review information received from S2 on the collapse. Some information is still outstanding, Pope said, but should be available for Council to consider at the March 10 meeting. Once the Drawdy Park collapse has been reviewed, Pope said, the firm will begin the review of S2’s other County structures.