Category: Government

Winnsboro Town Council voted unanimously at their Aug. 7 meeting to turn over the creation and maintenance of a new town Web site to Splash Omnimedia of Lexington.

“Splash will be our best vendor,” Connie Shackleford, Grants Administrator, said. “They’re not the lowest bid, but they will work with us, and their ‘back end’ (of their Web site) is easier to work with.”

Shackleford added that Splash was eager to add a municipality to their client list and would likely use the Winnsboro site as a showpiece to attract future towns and governments.

Winnsboro will shell out $12,850 for the site, plus a yearly maintenance fee of $1,428.

Other companies competing for the contract were Red-Dog Marketing, VC3 and Civis Plus. Red-Dog submitted a bid of $9,000, plus a yearly maintenance fee of $3,600. Red-Dog’s proposed site was limited to 35 pages, and video streaming would have been $1,200 extra. VC3 offered a price of $13,320, plus an annual fee of $1,116. Mobile applications and social media networking would have been $1,000 extra, each. Civis Plus submitted an offer of $17,644, plus an annual fee of $7,881 with a 36-month contract.

Council also voted to pony up $500 for paint and supplies to paint the Town’s flower pots lining Congress Street, and offered to send a street sweeper to clear the parking lot of a new restaurant opening in the old Captain’s Galley location just outside the Town limits.

Public Safety officer William Gonzales told Council that a pair of lightning strikes at the station had severely damaged the department’s computer and communications networks. While insurance is covering a great deal of replacement costs, Gonzales said the Town should brace themselves to pay anywhere between $10,000 and $15,000 out of pocket.

Councilman Bill Haslett reported that the County had begun enforcing their new building and zoning codes and that he has seen numerous red stickers all over town (indicating a violation).

“I don’t always agree with everything the County does,” Haslett said, “but I agree with this. It has made a difference, and I hope the Town will have the guts to go forward and clean up our town and follow suit with what the County is doing. When you ride through our town, there’s a lot of it that’s in pretty bad shape.”

Haslett said he has collected more than 30 photographs of some of the town’s worst eyesores, which he said he will present to Town Council at their next meeting (Aug. 21) in an effort to goad them into action.

The Richland County Development Review Team (DRT) approved an application by LongCreek Associates, LLC, Aug. 9 to develop 332 housing units (including high-density cluster homes and duplexes) on 100.7 acres within LongCreek Plantation subdivision. The project is called The Villages at LongCreek.

The approval did not require a public hearing or a vote by County Council, but  was based on the DRT’s determination as to whether the project complied with Richland County’s Code of Ordinances.

After much opposition last winter from the residents of LongCreek Plantation, the same developer withdrew its application for PDD zoning for the project. That proposal would have permitted the development of 425 new housing units on about 140 acres.

The developer recently sought approval to develop the project under Richland County’s Green Code standards. The new proposal contains no multifamily or commercial uses.

Many of the residents of LongCreek Plantation opposed DRT’s decision to approve the new plan, citing the misapplication of the County’s Green Code ordinance to this project.

Ridgeway Town Council conceded at their Aug. 9 meeting that they would have to reach into the Town’s savings account to cover the cost of repairing more than a dozen windows on the Old Town Hall building which recently housed YesterYears restaurant. Mayor Charlene Herring said it would cost nearly $2,700 to have the windows repaired, and that would not include any painting that would need to be done.

Renovations to the Old Town Hall are pressing, since Council voted to offer a lease on the building to a new restaurant. As the lease remains unsigned, Ridgeway is keeping a lid on the name of the potential new business. Ridgeway is also quiet about who will manage the property for the town in the future. Council is seeking an agreement with a property management firm to handle the Old Town Hall, but has not, as of press time, finalized a contract.

Council also took a peek at the latest drawing and bid proposal for a set of six new welcome signs, but took no action on a final decision to approve the signs.

Herring said that the Pig on the Ridge Committee had agreed to pay for the new signs, but changes to the design have made the price from Sign-A-Rama in Irmo creep up somewhat. The most recent changes include a smaller sign underneath the Ridgeway sign, indicating the Pig on the Ridge and Arts on the Ridge festivals. The new total for the sandblasted wood signs has grown to $10,409.59, including tax.

The decision on the signs, as well as on new garbage cans, which the Pig on the Ridge Committee had also offered to pay for (ranging from $299 to $385 each), was left in the hands of the Committee for their consideration.

In preparation for the upcoming Big Grab 25-mile yard sale, being held Sept. 7-8 between Blythewood and Winnsboro, Council agreed to waive their standard $5 yard sale/garage sale fee. No decision was made on whether or not the Town would donate to the event.

And finally, Council appointed Croom Hunter as their next Zoning Administrator, effective next month.

To tax or not to tax? That is the question currently being kicked around by Fairfield County Council in regards to The Shaw Group, Inc., the major contractor working in Jenkinsville to construct two new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.

During their July 23 meeting, Council passed their second reading of an ordinance for a “fee-in-lieu of tax” agreement between the County and Shaw, which would essentially freeze the company’s taxes to the County at 6 percent for the next five years. Without the agreement, Shaw’s contribution to County coffers would remain at the standard 10 percent.

Although he voted in favor of the second reading, Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) made it clear that he was beginning to have doubts about what such agreements have actually done for employment in Fairfield County.

“My concern is that we have this $10 billion industry out there and so many people in Fairfield County can’t get jobs,” Marcharia, whose district is home to the nuclear plant, said. “This group (Shaw) is working over there and calling it ‘economic development,’ but I don’t see a whole lot of that. I don’t know what the actual benefit of this is, and I don’t know if I can continue to support it.”

Phil Hinely, the County Administrator, said the agreement between Shaw and the County was actually part of early discussions when construction of the reactors was in its planning stages and that such agreements have, over the last several decades, become commonplace among counties trying to lure economic investment.

“We’ve kind of given them our word that at some point the County would do this, early on,” Hinely said, but added that the County had “sent a strong message to them to be a little more sensitive to the community.”

Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said he felt that Shaw may not be holding up its end of what those early talks were all about.

“I know for a fact they’re not doing all they could do,” Ferguson said. “I know what promises were made to start with. I’m not sure they’re doing everything they can to hire folks they can, and that’s what concerns me.”

Ferguson said a public meeting between the County and Shaw, as well as SCANA (operators of the nuclear plant), might be necessary in order to refresh their collective memories. But, he said, the County couldn’t mandate that Shaw hire local people.

“It’s against the law,” Ferguson said.

Councilman David Brown (District 7) said Council should have some actual numbers to review before a final decision is made on the ordinance.

“I know people who are working out there and a great many of them are from Fairfield County,” Brown said. “Maybe it has made an impact on Fairfield County already. I would like to have a body count.”

Ferguson said one major obstacle prospective employees face is their ability to pass a criminal background check. The County has, he said, been pursuing avenues to help non-violent offenders get their records expunged, but with limited success.

“If you’ve got one blemish on your record, your application goes into File 13 pretty quick,” Ferguson said. “They set their standards pretty high.”

But expunction, Marcharia said, has turned into a cottage industry; and with a price tag of $1,000 to $1,500, it is a luxury that many cannot afford.

“I’ve looked at this (expunction) thing for many people in my district who have come to me and asked for help,” Marcharia said. “A lot of these folks have served their time, followed the law, been paroled by a judicious group of people and they’re back out. They want their record expunged. These are poor working people. These are not rich middle-class people, for the most part. Now you’ve created a whole new industry, in my opinion, to victimize people who don’t have jobs and can’t find a job because they have a record.

“They’ve already paid their debt,” Marcharia continued. “We continue with this type of thing – you won’t allow them to survive and support their family and be responsible and change their character and be responsible human beings – you’d be crazy not to join a gang. A lot of people can’t pay these $1,000-$1,500 (expunction fees) when they’re already poor.”

Another hurdle facing prospective employees is training, and Marcharia said the County is not doing enough to educate and train their citizens. Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1) said the County had invested in the Midlands Tech QuickJobs Center, but it couldn’t force people to take advantage of it.

“When we built the QuickJobs center it was also a challenge to get people to come out and take those classes to qualify for jobs at Shaw,” Perry said. “I think we knew going in that we could control the controllables, which is to make sure we have a facility where we can train or help train individuals to have an opportunity to work out there. We also knew going in the challenges of being able to be employed at a nuclear site. I think there’s still some time to have those records expunged. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have individuals applying for those jobs who can pass the background (check).”

“Why can’t we get our agencies to get our people to the training center?” Marcharia asked. “They drop out way before they even get there. Why is that? They don’t have a mechanism to follow up.”

Marcharia said last week that, unless the numbers of local hires requested by Brown convince him otherwise, he was not likely to support the ordinance on its final reading, which will be taken up by Council at their next meeting Aug. 27.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The following transcript (in its entirety) was delivered by Town Councilman Jeffery Branham to Town Council Monday and later that evening e-mailed to The Voice for publication. It is in response to The Voice reporting on: 1) Mr. Branham’s failure to properly recuse himself (according to state ethics rules for government officials) when council recently voted to give Mr. Branham’s father a $25,000 contract to clean up the railroad right of way in; 2) Mr. Branham’s, the town administrator’s and the council’s failure to disclose that the bidder was Mr. Branham’s father;  3) that, of the three bids voted on at that meeting, the bid awarded Mr. Branham’s father was the only one for which specific amounts and names of the losing bidders were not disclosed and 4) the great disparity in the bid range. The following letter was copied and not retyped or edited.

My apologies to the Council, Mayor, and citizens of Blythewood for not writing a letter to the Mayor about my recusal at a recently special called meeting. I reviewed my Municipality Handbook and learned the err of my ways and will do better in the future.

• As a professional I am called upon to write reports. These reports are released to management and the leaders of the R&D group and are used to guide the direction of the company based on performance of products during testing. I base these reports off of facts and at times I am called upon for my opinion. I have learned that my opinion is often times not a good conclusion, because I don’t have all the facts. My point is this: If I don’t have all the facts I don’t share my opinion because it leaves me open to be discredited in the future. Although, in my reports I am not selling blocks of advertising, so I also realize that making assumptions or conclusions without all the facts is of no benefit. After all, I am not trying to sell my reports. I also do not share my opinion in my reports because when opinion is inserted it loses the integrity of being called a report. This is what I call an editorial. A report shares facts and does not include bias. If I don’t have the facts I ask for them.

• As I have said before, I did not know anything of the bids that were being taken on the RR project. That is why the Town has a Town Administrator. Mr. Perry knew of the potential issue, and asked a landscape architect to write the bid description and review the bids individually with each bidder. The Architect made his recommendation to Mr. Perry, who, in turn made the recommendation to Council. We received three bids from people that I know have worked for the town before. Two of the bids were from companies that are currently working for the town. I learned years ago to stick to the business that I am in and not cast stones on business that I don’t understand or know anything about. I spent my high school and college years in the landscaping/clearing and grading business. After having worked for several both in the private and government sectors I learned the bidding process. My experience is that smaller businesses typically have the better price on project bids.

• When you work regularly with a company it is not out of the ordinary for them to be contacted directly about upcoming projects. If you are looking to buy tires and you shop around at four places and Pope-Davis in Blythewood has the best price do you believe them, or do you call everyone back again and ask them to give you the price again? Common sense doesn’t say get new quotes – common sense would tell you that you are getting a great price for the work. Say you buy tires at Pope-Davis in Blythewood and have a good experience, the price is cheap and the tires last a long time, are you going to consider them the next time you buy tires? Of course you will! They are local, they do good work, and you are satisfied. I learned to grade people on their work. That is the job of the town citizens. If work is done and it isn’t satisfactory to the citizens, then the council and mayor should know about it.

• RABCO is a company that is owned by my father. In the summer of 2010 Billy Raines was required to undergo surgery and was unable to perform his duties with the town for the period of several months. RABCO was hired then to maintain the grounds in the town and including the grounds around the building we are sitting in. The point being RABCO has been employed by the town before Jeff Branham, Town Councilman, even came into the political spectrum. For the record it is not appreciated that RABCO or Richard Branham is made in to bait to sell newspapers. Richard Branham served this community tirelessly as the fire chief here before the new fire station was built. He and his firemen were the only people that protected this town for many years before Richland County built a station here. They did it because they cared for their community and knew that somebody had to step up and protect it as it related to fire protection. Blythewood was selected as the site for Dixie Youth All-Stars baseball in the mid 90’s. The fields were beautiful and in pristine condition. Few people know that this was because Richard Branham spent his time and money from his pocket to fertilize the fields and make sure they received the care needed so that people visiting Blythewood would receive a positive impression of our community. One spectator was heard to say, “man this looks like a professional field.” USC Football coach Brad Scott had a son playing in the tournament and was there to watch. He found out that Richard had been maintaining the fields and pulled him to the side and inquired as to whether he would be interested in working for the University. He politely replied that he was happy with his company and the time that it allowed him to spend in his community and more importantly – his family. If there are any issues with dealings to do with Jeff Branham, Town Councilman I am available, there is no need to tarnish the reputation of a devoted servant of this town with non-existent conspiracies.

• As for doing anything wrong or illegal- you can dig to the People’s Republic and not find anything illegal, immoral, or unethical with any of my dealings, including the RR bid deal. Or should I say the artist formerly known as the People’s Republic can dig to wherever they want and find nothing. It should be an easy dig- after all, digging where there’s no dirt sounds simple. It may be hard to believe, but there are good • people in government with good intentions to help their communities and protect the freedoms that we all enjoy as Americans. I do not think that anyone in this country that has given the ultimate sacrifice would appreciate those that work hard to do what is right in government being demeaned and put down publicly due to personal bias and personal gain.

• The entire council received an email today with the bid amounts and they are as follows:

• Southern Vitas – $90,215.68

• RABCO – $24,735.00

• Keeler Landscape – $133,883.00

• Conder Construction – $45,200.00

• If you want to know what the bids are just ask. They are public knowledge. Calling for the town to release the bids at once is deceiving and leads town citizens to believe that something that is public knowledge is being hidden. Some people call it being careful with the truth, I call it a lie. Just because you fail to ask for it does not mean that the town is hiding anything.

• The good news is if a slow news week comes where there are no possible ethical or legal challenges to talk about from the local elected officials- you can always run that article about how the moon landings were a scam.

• As a well know radio host says, “Now you know, the rest of the story.”

At its regular meeting Monday, Town Council passed a resolution declaring the town’s intent to reimburse itself for certain expenditures made prior to the town’s consummation of federally tax-exempt financing (bonds) of a Municipal Improvement District (MID) for business properties along McNulty Road.

The resolution stated that the town anticipates incurring expenditures not to exceed $1 million for the project.

The source of funds for the expenditures with respect to the project will be the town’s general fund.

Town administrator John Perry said that bonds used to pay for an MID would be paid back through a property tax on the commercial property owners within the MID, not the residential property owners in the town. Perry said the tax would be collected by the County. The assessment would become a lien on the property.

Perry said Municap, Inc. a financial consulting firm, has been contracted, at a cost of $10,000 – $15,000, to conduct Phase I of the project to determine the methodology and property assessments of each property in the project. He said this phase should take four to six weeks and will determine whether the town should move forward with the project.

If council goes forward, then bonds will be issued to cover the cost of the project, which should take about a year and a half to complete according to Perry.

The project encompasses the business properties along all of McNulty Road to the visitor center and includes street trees, landscaping, signage and sidewalks, as well as funds for staffing the  town’s visitor center and painting the water tower.

Members of the MID committee are Charles L. McCallum, Ken Parnell, Larry Sharpe, Kem Smith, Mike Switzer, John Perry, Michael Criss and Robert Cappadona.

Perry said the Town Council will hold a series of public hearings prior to the issuance of bonds. He said if the project goes well, then he would expect to move forward with the remainder of the town’s business district.

In a report to the Town Council Monday, the town’s accounting consultant, CPA Kem Smith, said the mayor had asked her to research and come up with improvements to the town’s hospitality tax ordinance that requires businesses in the town who serve prepared meals and beverages or have on-premises consumption of alcohol, beer or wine, to collect for the town a two percent hospitality tax.

Smith said changes to the ordinance would give the town more recourse for non-payers and would clarify rules and penalties.

Smith said she found that, when comparing sales tax reported to the town by the town’s hospitality businesses with the sales those businesses report to the Department of Revenue, “we have a lot of discrepancies. The discrepancies are usually under-reporting to the town.”

She said she would like to get a copy of each businesses’ Department of Revenue’s sales report at the time that businesses turn in their local hospitality tax returns to the town.

“Then we can see if there are discrepancies,” Smith said. “We don’t have a lot of teeth in our [current] ordinance so even if there are discrepancies, there isn’t a lot we can do about it.”

Smith suggested that other towns have penalty clauses that “will spank somebody for not doing the right thing. A 5 percent penalty is common and some charge up to 20 percent. And that can be for being even one day late.”

The proposed ordinance states that Town Council would be the only entity allowed to waive a penalty.

Council members discussed penalties, including any or all of the following:

•  A business’s license would not be renewed if that business has outstanding taxes or penalties,

• The Town would not conduct business with offenders, and

• Up to 25 percent penalties after two offences, and 25 percent more for each subsequent offence.

Council passed first reading of the ordinance. The hospitality tax is a major source of the funding for construction of the town park.

In other business, Council passed a resolution opposing funding cuts to Ft. Jackson and McEntire Joint National Guard Base; authorized delivery of deeds and easements for water and sewer utilities for the park;  authorized the mayor to execute an encroachment agreement for the city of Columbia water connection and passed first reading to annex a property owned by Councilman Jeffery Branham into the Town.