BLYTHEWOOD – On Dec. 3, the Camp Discovery Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Joanna Weitzel to the position of Executive Director. Weitzel was previously the Assistant Executive Director of Camp Discovery. She comes to this position with significant experience in management of non-profit organizations, a BS in Marketing and an MBA in Business Administration.
“We are delighted to appoint Ms. Weitzel as Executive Director. She understands our mission to provide a special place for participants of all ages and abilities,” said Camp Discovery Executive Committee Chairwoman Dr. Cindy Nord.
Weitzel has been a Blythewood resident for more than 20 years. She will continue to work closely with the founder of Camp Discovery, Donna Johnson, to provide continuity of programs and expand the mission of Camp Discovery to make the Camp available to our neighbors.
BLYTHEWOOD – Tuesday night, Richland 2 Board Chairman Bill Fleming addressed the recent embarrassment brought on the District by Board member Melinda Anderson.
Reading from a prepared statement, Fleming said, “The Board considers themselves compromised” by the words and actions during and following the incident involving Melinda Anderson. In early October Anderson, in a District office meeting to discuss her grandson’s lack of playing time on the Westwood football field, was alleged in a Richland County Sheriff’s report to have said, “I’m so angry I just want to kill the coach and I have a gun.”
Superintendent Debbie Hamm and Human Resource Office Roosevelt Garrick support hearing the statement in the filed police report. Anderson denies making any such statement. Several weeks later a family friend was sent by Anderson to the fields to observe how the coach was handling practice. As in the first incident, charges were not filed.
Board member Chip Jackson said, “There are no winners in this situation.”
The censure is a public admonishment from the Board to express their disapproval for Anderson’s actions. The censure passed 5-2 with Anderson and Monica Elkins-Johnson voting against the measure. When asked to explain the meaning of the censure, Anderson responded, “I have no idea. I am finished with it. I have no comment . . . God is my witness.”
With the censure voted, the Board considers the matter resolved.
BLYTHEWOOD – In the second of two executive sessions in a special called meeting on Monday night, Town Council continued to discuss negotiations incident to a proposed lease agreement with Jonathan Bazinet for a restaurant the Town Council proposes to build on the grounds of the park across from the Town Hall. No member of Council nor Mayor J. Michael Ross have revealed how they think former Administrator John Perry’s resignation might impact the future of the restaurant.
Present for the almost hour-long executive session in addition to the Mayor and Council were Ray Jones, an attorney with Parker Poe who drew up the restaurant lease agreement; Mike Tighe, a principal with Callison, Tighe and Robinson and Ed Parler, the Town Hall’s economic development consultant. No vote was taken following the executive session.
At issue currently is whether a performance bond is needed to guarantee lease payments on the restaurant. On Nov. 25, shortly after three new Councilmen were sworn into office, the three new members (Massa, Mangone and Utroska) caused the second reading of the lease agreement to be deferred, saying they felt the agreement should include a performance bond to protect the Town against any failures of Bazinet to make lease payments. The lease payments go to the Town to pay back construction loans on the building. Bazinet has agreed to guarantee lease payments for five years and his family’s corporation, Red Fox Development, Inc. would guarantee lease payments for 10 years. Councilman Mangone wanted more than the guarantee. After much discussion, Council agreed to defer the vote to a later time.
The next meeting of Town Council is scheduled for 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 16.
BLYTHEWOOD – Following a half-hour executive session in a special called Town Council meeting on Monday night, the full Town Council voted unanimously and by roll call to “accept John Perry’s resignation as Blythewood Town Administrator . . . and approve the severance agreement and authorize the Mayor to execute the [severance] agreement with the actions that are in the best interest of the Town.”
Town Attorney Jim Meggs, a member of the law firm of Callison, Tighe and Robinson, said prior to the motion to accept Perry’s resignation, that Perry had already executed the severance agreement. Another Callison, Tighe and Robinson attorney, who specializes in labor and employment law, was present in the executive session along with Meggs, Mayor J. Michael Ross and councilmen Roger Hovis, Tom Utroska, Bob Massa and Bob Mangone. Since the issue arose over Perry’s employment termination, the Mayor and Council members have said they were advised by Meggs to not make any comments on the record concerning the matter.
On Tuesday, the morning following the meeting, without alluding to the conflict between the Town Hall and Perry that was reported to The Voice by sources last week, Ross told the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce at its regular monthly breakfast meeting that Perry had resigned, effective Dec. 29, and “we accepted his resignation last night. We’ll be looking for an interim [administrator], then we’ll form a committee and search for someone who will carry Blythewood into the next era,” Ross said. Ross told the group that he wished Perry well.
“If you get a chance, stop in and wish him well,” Ross said.
But following the Chamber meeting, Ross did not answer questions from The Voice specific as to when and if Perry would actually be back at work at the Town Hall before the end of the month. The six-page severance agreement that only provided Perry with salary and benefits through Dec. 29 and no other compensation, was not only the “full and final settlement of any disputes that have arisen between them [Perry and the Town],” but silenced Perry from any disparaging words about Town Hall and its employees and prohibited Perry from bringing any actions or claims against the Town or its employees according to the agreement.
The agreement prohibits Perry from divulging, commenting upon or characterizing any aspects of the terms of the severance agreement. It also prohibits him from making any statements, written or verbal, that defame, disparage or in any way criticize The Town or any of the Released Parties (elected officials, employees, town attorney, etc.) The Town and the Released Parties are, in turn, prohibited from divulging, commenting upon or characterizing any aspects of this agreement with actual or potential future employers of Perry. The agreement also specifies exactly how the Town is limited in what it reveals to Perry’s prospective employers.
Perry signed the agreement on Dec. 5 and the Mayor signed it on Dec. 9. Perry was hired in January 2008 by then Mayor Keith Bailey.
The Voice reported last week that the resignation was forced by the Mayor and Town Council following an ongoing employment-related conflict between Perry and a Town Hall employee, according to sources with direct knowledge of the issue but who were not authorized to comment on the record.
BLYTHEWOOD – Town Councilman Roger Hovis has submitted a letter of resignation to Mayor J. Michael Ross, effective Sunday, Dec. 15. The letter was submitted to Town Hall on Dec. 3, and forwarded to the media on Dec. 6 by Town Clerk Martha Weaver. In her email, Weaver stated that Hovis had accepted a position with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. “Regretfully,” the email continued, “this new opportunity requires Councilman Hovis to resign his seat on Town Council.
Article XVII, Section 1 A of the S.C. Constitution states that, “No person may hold two offices of honor or profit at the same time.” Hovis stated in his letter, “The experience of being an elected official for our great town has been very rewarding and I submit this resignation with sadness but full of confidence with the knowledge that you and the three newly elected gentlemen will carry out the wishes of the people of Blythewood.”
At a special called Town Council meeting on Monday night, The Voice asked Hovis what position he had been hired for at the Sheriff’s Department. Hovis said he “had no idea.” He said he hoped to know that before too long.
Ross said he would make an announcement soon as to when a special election would be held to fill Hovis’ seat. Hovis, who serves as the Mayor Pro Tem, has two years to serve on his term. He was elected in January 2012 to a four-year term.
WINNSBORO – A deal has been struck between the Town of Winnsboro and the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI) to make one final effort to salvage the old Mt. Zion School building.
Vicki Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, said in a letter to The Voice this week that the FOMZI Board had accepted the Town’s offer and terms for the building. FOMZI, Dodds said, “will be ever grateful that (the Town was) willing to take another look at the project.”
Mayor Roger Gaddy said at Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting that the agreement between the two entities had not been officially signed and details of the deal were not available at press time.
Hannah Phillips (left) and Frankie O’Neal share a little punch at last year’s open house spectacular.
When the Christmas holiday season starts in Fairfield County, things start happening — the Town of Winnsboro lights a Christmas tree in Gazebo Park following the Christmas Parade, the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce begins promoting Shop Fairfield First and the Fairfield County Museum opens its doors for the Holiday Open House.
During this annual event, the public tours the Museum, enjoys sumptuous holiday refreshments and listens to the sweet sounds of the season. The Museum is decorated to the nines with fresh greenery by several discerning women from the local gardening clubs. It’s a glory to behold.
This year’s Holiday Open House will be held Sunday, Dec. 8 from 4-7 p.m. When the Town of Winnsboro Christmas parade ends, turn your steps toward the Fairfield County Museum to hear music provided by the Johnson Family String Quartet, the distinctive sounds of Christmas music on bagpipes, provided by our community’s own “proper piper” Brian Ogburn and the lilting vocal talents of Kerry Matthews, accompanied ably by Lauren Livings on piano.
This musical feast continues as you will also hear a trumpet duet by Hal Frish and grandson Aaron and the Halfway There Quartet, composed of Lynne Douglas, Susan Miller, Jeanie Roundy and Beth McFadden. And the evening’s musical finale happens when everyone joins in a sing-along of carols with Susan McLane playing tunes on the 1854 Rosewood piano in the parlor.
Come for the music, stay for the food. It was at one of these Open House events that your faithful scribe was introduced to the taste of room-temperature Brie on crackers. You are sure to find something savory or sweet to please your palate.
But the event is about more than great food, Christmas carols and beautiful seasonal greenery, believes Pelham Lyles.
“This is a Winnsboro tradition,” she said. “It’s Fairfield’s kick-off to the Christmas season.”
She added, “this event is all about our community coming together, everybody participating, creating, enjoying. It’s a warm spirit – sort of like going to the Post Office in Winnsboro in the mornings where everyone is friendly, and people always open the door for each other.”
This Christmas season, Pelham Lyles and her museum volunteers are opening the door for you. Please come inside and celebrate the season with the community.
Dear readers, this will be my final column for The Voice. The Man About Town is moving on to new challenges in a full-time position at another newspaper. I have enjoyed bringing you news of community events both historical and cultural from Winnsboro, Ridgeway and Blythewood and I hope that some of my columns have inspired you to attend a new event, join an organization or give of your time as a volunteer to one of our many agencies that depend on volunteer assistance to make our communities a better place. It’s been a great joy to share some of my discoveries with you. I have appreciated the opportunity The Voice has given me to write. Thanks, Barbara and James. It’s been a blast.
BLYTHEWOOD – The long awaited zoning text amendments to the Town’s Landscape and Tree Preservation Ordinance were on the agenda at Monday night’s Planning Commission meeting, but were deferred to the next meeting because they were not complete.
After a subcommittee had spent several months making modifications to the Ordinance, the Town Hall staff was to put the ordinance into codified form so it could be recommended to Council for first reading, at which time Council could send it back for any suggested modifications or concerns before second reading. The Commission was told that town attorney Jim Meggs would finish the work. However, after reviewing the Ordinance at Monday’s meeting, Commissioners Malcolm Gordge and Michael Criss both agreed that what they were presented did not reflect the final work done by the subcommittee.
After the meeting, Switzer said the Mayor had assured him that the work would be completed before the next Planning Commission meeting.
Rob Perry, Director of the Richland County Transportation Penny Tax program, presented Commissioners with a county wide list of approved projects to be paid for with the penny tax, along with a timeline for implementation. Blythewood’s listed projects included:
• Widening of Blythewood Road from I-77 to Winnsboro Road (Highway 321)
• Sidewalks on Blythewood Road from I-77 to Main Street
• Bike lanes on Blythewood Road from Main Street to Winnsboro Road
• Bike lanes on Wilson Blvd. from I-77 to Farrow Road
Blythewood has presented an alternative request to widen Blythewood Road from I-77 only to Fulmer Road (where a new school is scheduled to be built) instead of all the way to Winnsboro Road, and to use the savings toward the Town’s proposed complete streets plan as shown in the Master Plan.
Gordge said he will schedule a meeting with Perry before Jan. 7 to update and finalize Blythewood’s project list.
BLYTHEWOOD – At the Oct. 28 Town Council meeting, the Town’s CPA, Kem Smith, reported that the Doko Manor was in the red, operating at a deficit of more than $100,000 just six months after opening, and was continuing to sink further into financial despair with each passing week. She suggested that, to stop the bleeding, “We’ve got to increase rentals and the rates.”
Smith added, “We have to increase revenue. There is nowhere else to cut the fixed expenses.”
Monday night, Martha Jones, the Manor’s Events and Conference Center Director, who is responsible for the Manor’s rentals and rental rates, told Council that she is “now privy to some numbers and reports that will help us look at the actual costs and revenues of the Manor.” When contacted later by The Voice and asked what numbers and reports she was referring to, she said it was the Manor’s fixed costs, such as electricity and other utilities.
Asked why she was just now learning what those fixed costs are, Jones replied, “I didn’t have access to the monthly expenditures such as electricity and utility costs.” Asked whether she had ever sought those numbers, she said, “There was some conversation.” But when asked specifically whether she had ever asked for the fixed costs since being named to the post last January by the Mayor, Jones did not answer.
When contacted by The Voice and asked about the availability of information about the Manor’s revenues and costs, Smith said she sends a complete report of the Manor’s revenues and expenses to Town Hall every month and that anyone in Town Hall should have access to it. She also said she is always available to answer any questions concerning those reports. She said Jones had never come to her with those questions.
“Numbers are a clear and concise indicator of things,” Smith said. “You must always stay on top of your revenue and expenses when operating a facility like The Manor.”
Jones told Council Monday night that she had restarted the promotional plan that the Town had created almost a year ago with Big Eyed Bird for branding and promotion of the Town and the Manor.
“We should [soon] have some mockups of promotional materials with the intent of using those materials to approach and garner some rentals from organizations and businesses that will be more prone to use the Manor during the week,” she said.
Jones said she plans to have in place a new plan and rental rate chart by Dec. 16.
“We’re looking at rates and hours of other venues like the Columbia Convention Center and 701 Whaley,” Jones said. “We always knew we would eventually have to raise rates.”
Jones said she expects the Manor’s financial fortunes to turn around in two to three years.
Dec. 2 Resignation Plot May Have Been Hatched in Illegal Session
BLYTHEWOOD – “This sort of leaves our town in a lurch,” former Town Councilman Ed Garrison said Monday after learning several days earlier that Blythewood’s Town Administrator John Perry had abruptly left the Town’s employ under pressure from the Mayor and Town Council.
“Who’s going to run the Town now? No one was more about town administration than John Perry. He was credentialed, experienced and a great money manager. He had vision and the financial and planning genius to carry it out,” Garrison said. “He’s going to leave a tremendous void in our town.”
Following what several sources have told The Voice was an ongoing employment related conflict between Perry and a Town Hall employee, Council went into executive session on Nov. 25 to discuss employment matters, including the “demotion, discipline or release of an employee.” While there was no prior indication that Perry was to be discussed in the executive session, he was not included in the executive session as he usually is.
Following Council’s return to the public meeting after the closed door session, no public vote was taken, but Council may have committed to a course of action while in executive session by agreeing to propose terms to Perry in regard to his termination of employment. Sources who asked not to be identified told The Voice that Council was awaiting some kind of answer from Perry. Such a commitment on the part of Council would be in conflict with the S.C. Freedom of Information Act (SCFOIA.) Section 30-4-70 of the SCFOIA states, “No vote may be taken in executive session except to (a) adjourn or (b) return to public session. The members of a public body may not commit to a course of action by a polling of members in executive session.”
According to Bill Rogers, Executive Director of the South Carolina Press Association, “A vote can be taken in public on a matter like this without disclosing information about the employee. School boards do this all the time.”
According to Blythewood Town Ordinance Title III: Chapter 32 (01), the Mayor does not have the power to terminate the Town Administrator. Such action requires a vote by a quorum of Town Council and that vote must be taken in public. The statute states, “The Town Council shall appoint persons to the positions of Town Administrator, Town Clerk, Town Attorney and Municipal Judge and, when it deems it necessary for the good of the town, suspend and remove such persons from such positions.”
Neither the Mayor nor any Council member would go on record to say what transpired in the Nov. 25 executive meeting, citing the exception provided under the SCFOIA for executive sessions. In addition to the members of Council, Town Attorney Jim Meggs and two other attorneys were present at the meeting. At least one of those attorneys, who specializes in employment law, is a member of the Callison, Tighe & Robinson Law Firm in Columbia where Meggs is employed.
Asked if, prior to the Nov. 25 meeting, they were privy to plans to terminate Perry, two of the town’s new Council members said they had been instructed by Meggs not to answer questions regarding the matter. Neither the Mayor nor any of the Council members have had any official comment for The Voice regarding Perry’s situation since the Nov. 25 meeting.
While sources told The Voice that Perry had until Monday evening, Dec. 2, to respond to a resignation proposal, the Mayor still had no official comment Tuesday evening as to whether Perry had actually resigned.
Perry was hired by former Mayor Keith Bailey in January 2008. Prior to coming to Blythewood, Perry had served as Planner and or Manager for Port Royal, the City of Beaufort and Beaufort County among others.
Perry had his detractors during his tenure at Town Hall, but many supported him. Most agreed that he ushered a new era into Blythewood. He upgraded the Town’s computer system, converted Town Hall to paperless record keeping. He pushed through the Master Plan that Council is now implementing and brought a number of grant funded projects to the Town such as the $300,000 beautification of the I-77 exit. However, the park, the new restaurant and their associated expenses rankled many.
“John understood funding and how it worked,” Garrison said. “He fleshed out our capital improvements plan to make it compatible with the Town’s budget. We are set to go. Now I think some of us are waiting to see what’s next?’
