FAIRFIELD – If searching for a new Administrator, debating recreation and coping with a State Attorney General’s opinion were not enough, County Council Monday night faced claims by one citizen that they had misappropriated more than $5 million in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds since 2006.
Maggie Holmes told Council that she had tried to discuss the funds with Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) and Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1) in March and was unhappy with the outcome. A subsequent Freedom of Information Act request, Holmes said, filed a short time later, has not yet been answered to her satisfaction.
“I have lost trust and confidence in Council’s ability to manage the financial affairs of the County,” Holmes said Monday. “You knowingly allowed more than $5.2 million of Local Option Sales Tax money to be withheld from the taxpayers of Fairfield County. As a governing body such an act on your part should be illegal.”
According to local attorney Jonathan Goode, retained by Holmes to pursue the matter, voters in Fairfield County approved the LOST in 2005. It went into effect in 2006. There are a number of ways in which LOST funds can be allocated, Goode said, as far as what percentage goes into the county’s general fund and what percentage is used toward property tax relief. In Fairfield in 2005, he said, voters approved 100 percent for property tax relief.
During this year’s budget session, Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson said $2.5 million in LOST funds enabled Council to lower the millage rate this year by nearly 9 mills.
“We were told we were using half of that money this year and half next year,” Robinson said this week.
But the money cannot accumulate from one year to the next, Goode said, according to what Fairfield voters passed in 2005.
“We’ve got a little more digging to do,” Goode said, “but if the County can’t make this right, then we’ll file a class action lawsuit. There’s no money in this for us – only for property tax relief.”
WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro woman made an appeal to Town Council last week during their July 2 meeting asking for help to restore her Cemetery Street community.
“I want to apologize for not having got here earlier, because it’s out of control down there now,” said Betty Gunthrope, who lives in the 300 block of neighborhood. “Cemetery Street is the worst looking street in town. It is horrible down there. A majority of the properties are uninhabited, dilapidated. The lots are overgrown, they’re covered with weeds and grass and whatever.”
Gunthrope said the services provided by the Town are not in question, as the police are always on patrol and Streets and Sanitation always respond to calls for clean-ups.
“It’s bigger than that,” Gunthrope said. “It’s out of their scope.”
Gunthrope said the majority of the homes on the street belong to the McMaster family, and asked Council if they could possibly reach out to the McMasters to tear down the vacant homes and perhaps donate the occupied homes to the residents. Barring that, she asked that the Town consider taking ownership of the properties there. She also asked Council to remember Cemetery Street the next time grants are applied for.
“Let’s bring the street back into the town,” Gunthrope said. “We don’t want to be left out. We want to be a part of the community. The people down there are decent people.”
Council took no action nor made any recommendations on Gunthrope’s comments.
Council did vote unanimously to appropriate $64,310 for the painting of the outside of the 11th Street water tank. The contract went to E&D Contracting Service, Inc. of Savannah, Ga., which will guarantee the work for up to 30 years. Council had the option to expend $44,880 for a lower quality paint that was only guaranteed for 15 years, but went with Town Manager Don Wood’s recommendation for the higher quality paint.
Councilman Clyde Sanders contributed $100 from his crime prevention fund to a neighborhood crime watch meeting in Forest Hills, and Councilman Danny Miller contributed $300 each to back to a pair of school events, one held by the family of Tillie Armstrong and one by Betty Young, in the Zion Hill community.
Following a brief executive session, Council recommended to pass along to the Planning and Zoning Commission a review of fees paid by vendors at Winnsboro’s new farmers market. The review should take place within the next 30 days, according to Councilman Jackie Wilkes’ motion.
Wood said the Town’s current ordinances do not encompass farmers markets and that some type of fee will have to be devised to cover vendors there.
“We want to find something that’s compatible with what other communities have done,” Mayor Roger Gaddy said.
State Sen. Creighton Coleman (right) delivers the news to Council Chairman David Ferguson as Shryll Brown, Clerk, reads along.
FAIRFIELD – As County Council continues to take body blows from the public over their handling of former County Administrator Phil Hinely, another bombshell fell on their doorstep Monday as the State Attorney General issued a damaging opinion regarding the County’s policy of tuition assistance for Council members and their long-standing practice of health insurance reimbursements.
The opinion, dated July 8 and written by Robert D. Cook, Solicitor General, and Harrison D. Bryant, Assistant Attorney General, concludes: “It is our opinion that State law prohibits a county from using public funds to make cash payments directly to individual members of county council who elect not to participate in the group health insurance plan offered by the county in lieu of making payments toward the premiums for such plans on their behalf or as reimbursements for expenses incurred by such non-electing members in obtaining separate insurance. While only a court may so conclude with finality, we believe that such payments are unauthorized and that it is a departure from the law for the country to pay them. We are also of the opinion that State law prohibits county funds from being used to pay for the college tuition of individual council members. The use of public funds for such purposes grants such members extra compensation in violation of Article III, Section 30 of the South Carolina Constitution. Furthermore, the use of county funds for such purposes violates Section 4-9-100 as such expenditures cannot reasonably be construed as reimbursements for ‘actual expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties.’ Both forms of payment, in our opinion, also constitute the use of public funds for private purposes. Should a court determine that these forms of payments are prohibited by law as we believe they are, there may be personal liability for the wrongful receipt or payment of such funds.”
Until a month ago, the County was paying for Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3) to take business courses at Columbia College, a practice that was in line with the County’s education policies, according to former Administrator Phil Hinely. Trapp has since declined tuition assistance, but not before the County paid $26,806 toward his degree.
“We have a fairly liberal education policy,” Hinely said last month while he was still serving as County Administrator. “If the training benefits the County, the County will pay for it. A Councilman having a degree in business benefits the County. The policy is being used by a small number of County employees.”
In fact, only one employee, Marvin Allen in the County’s IT Department, is currently taking advantage of the tuition assistance program, but that falls outside the scope of the current Attorney General’s opinion.
The practice of paying certain Council members for coverage of their hospitalization insurance is a long and complicated one and dates back to 2009, according to county administrators. Council members are eligible for the County’s insurance policy, unless they are already, through their current or former employer, covered by a state plan, as is the case with Trapp, Chairman David Ferguson (District 5), and, until her retirement from Fairfield Memorial Hospital a few weeks ago, Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6). Because they were covered by a state plan, the County’s hospitalization supplement was not available to them.
Prior to 2009, these Council members, along with all part-time employees, were covered for hospitalization by the Carolina Cares plan, Hinely explained last month. For each of the Council members in question, it was costing the County approximately $877 a month – or $31,560 a year total – to include them on the Carolina Cares plan. As the County worked through attrition to wean part-time employees from the plan, Hinely said they also asked the three Council members to drop the plan and take a direct payout of $475 a month each – or $17,100 a year total – to get their own hospitalization insurance. That practice, also, is under attrition, Hinely said. Once any of the three Council members leave Council, the same payout will not be offered to their replacements.
The Attorney General’s opinion was written in response to a question from State Rep. MaryGail Douglas (D-41), who had the support and assistance from State Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17) in drafting the letter and getting the response. Douglas said the question about the propriety of the hospitalization insurance payouts had been a concern for years. Finally, as a State representative, she was able to get those questions answered.
“From the first time I saw that in the (County) budget, I thought that was so wrong,” Douglas said. “This is going to inflame County Council, but if we are going to do things the right way, we’ve got to take a stand to do things the right way. This should have been cleared up a long time ago. We never should have had to go to the Attorney General to get clarification on an issue like this. It was brought to their attention many times. I brought that hammer down to them and it fell on deaf ears.”
Coleman presented the opinion to Council during their meeting Monday night.
“There’s one County Council member being sent to school, from what I understand, by county taxpayer money,” Coleman said. “Also there are various members of county council who are receiving insurance reimbursement, and that’s totally improper. If this is a barometer of how we’re spending our county funds in this county, we’re in bad shape.”
Coleman said the opinion suggest Council members may have to pay back years of premiums to the County. Ferguson said he would have to consult with his attorney before cutting any checks.
“This is really a way to stick it to somebody, and it seems like that’s the way it was intended,” Ferguson said. “I don’t know where it’s going to stop. I’m wondering where the Attorney General says anything about the money spent on some Council members and not on others is fair. If they’re spending $680 a month for their insurance and $475 a month for mine, there’s a little about this that doesn’t seem right.”
District 4 Councilman Kamau Marcharia put up a good fight, but was defeated in efforts to erect a recreation facility in Dawkins.
FAIRFIELD – Western Fairfield and the Dawkins community will have to wait, indefinitely, for their long-promised recreation facility after County Council defeated – in not one, but two separate votes – a motion to erect the facility on the 8.12 acres off Ladds Road. The vote came after much debate and after Council had received, for the first time, a cost analysis of site construction.
Lori Schaeffer, the County’s Recreation Department Director, delivered some stunning numbers to Council prior to the votes, presenting Council with two building options – a $895,000 facility that would include landscaping and would outfit the building with a basketball gymnasium, but without office furniture, telephones or computers, and a $483,000 option that would just cover the construction of the building. A third option for an outdoor facility that would include ball fields, tennis courts, walking trails, a parking lot and a multi-purpose field came in at $720,000.
“I’m sure that some of that could be mitigated to be more reasonable,” said Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4), who placed the motion to erect the building on the floor. “The community has requested a building that’s already been paid for and laid on the ground for (five) years (see the June 28 edition of The Voice). Whatever it would take to build that building, if all the amenities are not there, we have next year in allocations.”
Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said Marcharia’s plan to put up the building consumes nearly the entirety of his $500,000 recreation budget, as allocated in the County’s March $24 million bond issue.
“With those figures, there’s no way to put that building up,” Robinson said. “We just started the new budget. There’s not one dime to staff that building, pay for power, anything that’s in there. So we’re going to build it and just let it sit out there?”
Robinson said that churches in the community, as well as the School District, should step in and fill the recreation gap.
“Where are the churches in this county? I think it’s time the churches stand up and be a part of the community and provide for these children,” Robinson said. “The schools have been asked to open their gymnasiums. Those are the same tax dollars that we’re receiving in this county to meet the requests that you want. Why can’t we work with the school system and be able to provide the other facilities that are out there so that children, adults, etc., can take advantage of those not just the months when the schools are open?”
Marcharia, however, was undeterred. He said that, over the last 10 years, the County has received nearly $90 million in tax revenues from the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, a plant that sits in the heart of District 4. Yet District 4, he said, continues to go without adequate recreational facilities.
“We have a community that’s living in imminent danger, and we have absolutely nothing but chasing balls, if you want to call that a recreation sport,” Marcharia said. “Somebody should have something decent that we could be proud of in our district for this money.”
Councilman David Brown (District 7), while he said he supported Marcharia’s request for recreational facilities, said Council should take at least one more meeting to analyze the numbers.
“I don’t think we’re looking at this thing systematically from a money standpoint,” Brown said. “District 4 will be shortchanged from the many fine looking plans we had promised. I know we’re tired of studies. We’ve studied everything in this county five times. But I think it would be wise at this point . . . not to shortchange District 4 . . . if we could have one more meeting to seriously look at the finances of taking a building that’s been in storage, that sounds easy, that sounds cheap, but ends up costing you twice as much for half as much.”
Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) agreed that further meetings on the proposal might be necessary and said the numbers did not add up.
“To say we can just put that building up, I don’t know how we would pay for it,” Ferguson said. “I’m not sure how we can take $500,000 and build a $900,000 program with it.”
Marcharia said he felt the project could be done in increments and asked his colleagues what had become of the remainder of the original $500,000 Council had allocated to the now defunct Recreation Commission to purchase the building in question and erect it on the 8.12 acres (on Feb. 28, 2005).
“I’ve been asking for four or five years,” Marcharia said. “How many times have we had things in Western Fairfield when people get sick and the ambulance service can’t even get out there, and it’s still like that. It’s raggedy. And we’re living under horrendous conditions in terms of imminent danger, and that’s where a lot of your taxes come from. The County has spent millions on the industrial park. Where’s the jobs? So all that money can go for these industrial parks . . . and the first job from that is five years down the road. . . . If we want to argue about money later on, we can argue about it; I asked that the Council approve putting it on that property.”
Robinson said that, to the best of her knowledge, the balance of the original $500,000 had been placed back into the general fund. In May of 2006, the Recreation Commission paid MAR Construction of Lexington, S.C. $15,000 to clear the site, install a septic tank and put in sidewalks. A deal to purchase a building from an Alabama company for $453,710 never materialized, but two years later Council voted to settle a lawsuit with that company for $79,500, which included delivery of the building. The building has sat in crates ever since.
Marcharia’s questions on the remaining money from the 2005 vote went unanswered, however, and his motion died on a 5-2 vote, with only himself and Mikel Trapp (District 3) voting yea.
In a second motion, Marcharia asked that the $500,000 earmarked for his district in the County’s March bond be used to begin construction of the same building on the same site. Trapp offered the second. The move raised questions about how each district representative may choose to spend their funds in the future.
“Are we voting for Mr. Marcharia’s money, which, if it is his discretion to do with what he wants, why are we voting on it?” Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) asked. “This is your $500,000 to do what you like, why do we have to vote on it?”
Ferguson said that, since the money was Council funds, such a vote would have to take place for each district.
That motion, too, failed, 3-2. Trapp and Marcharia voted in favor. Brown, Robinson and Dwayne Perry (District 1) voted against. Kinley abstained.
“We are not a poor county,” Marcharia said near the close of Monday’s session. “Other people here have gotten what they want, but Western Fairfield has been kicked to the ground. But as Sam Cooke said, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’.”
BLYTHEWOOD – The Board of Architectural Review will meet on Monday, July 15 to give final approval for a Certificate of Appropriateness for the Larry Sharpe’s EXXON service station/Bojangles rehabilitation. The Board will make a site visit and will address landscape and traffic safety at the rear of the building along the curve in McNulty Road.
The agenda also lists as discussion items certain subcommittee updates: training, lighting and signage and interior regulations for historic structures.
BLYTHEWOOD – The Richland County Sheriff’s Department will soon move its Region 6 Headquarters from Lake Carolina to downtown Blythewood. The Headquarters will be located in the former Ace Hardware building at 118 McNulty Road. The building was owned by Karl Yoas and most recently occupied by Rivers International Church.
According to Capt. Chris Cowan of the Sheriff’s Department, Richland County Council approved a total of $1,050,000 at their July 2 meeting for purchase of the building, the lot and the upfitting of both. Cowan said he expects the move to take place during September.
Cowan said only half of the building will be occupied by Region 6 and the other half by the Town’s Chief Magistrate, Donald Simon.
“This is a good situation,” Cowan said. “It puts us in direct collaboration with the magistrate for serving warrants and for court proceedings. Plus it’s a good fit for both the town’s residents and us. It puts us in the middle of Regions 6 so our deputies will be more centrally located and better able to serve the community.”
The Headquarters will have four shifts with two-hour rotations and four squads just as it is currently at Lake Carolina, and with the same command structure — Capt. Roxanne Meetze and Lt. Harry Polis.
“While the Town has 24/7 service from the Department now, there will definitely be more of a presence of the Sheriff’s Department in the town with this move,” Cowan said.
Charleston just has a way of making you feel special. If you’re like me the moment you turn onto Meeting Street you feel so much better. The everyday world you left behind is just that. Behind. A 145-mile drive. That’s all it takes to get the feeling you’re in Europe.
Walking the Holy City’s streets provides a feast for the senses … beautiful buildings, beautiful people, the clop-clop-clop of horse-drawn carriages, tantalizing aromas from restaurants and lilting accents from the world over please the ear. Conde Nast’s readers declared Charleston the world’s number one tourist destination in 2012. History, restaurants, churches, old cemeteries and more make the Holy City a favored place. Five million tourists visit Charleston each year. They come to see one thing – and here’s the main point: Charleston is the attraction.
Is it ever. The city serves up delights at every turn. Excuse my long list, but what a list! Walled gardens, sweetgrass baskets, historic venues, the old market, Rainbow Row, cascading fountains, cobblestone streets, sumptuous restaurants, magnificent architecture, the Battery, gallant boutiques, old cannon, tolling bells, gas lamps, and everywhere you look you see historic societies, preservation societies and related foundations. The past is closely guarded here. And from where does the Holy City get its endearing sobriquet? Majestic steeples. You can’t walk 15 feet without encountering historic markers and plaques. The National Register of Historic Places works overtime here. The list can go on and on but let’s dot the “I” with that pleasure known as she-crab soup.
Many Southern cities are renowned for their wrought iron gates. Savannah comes to mind, but Charleston towers over others when it comes to wrought iron artistry. The incomparable artistry of the late Philip Simmons, a blacksmith, graces the Holy City from one end to the other.
Yes, the city is a pure delight. The glimmer of gas lamps brings a touch of ambience from the 1880s to homes and streets. Something as simple as watermelon-red crepe myrtle blossoms falling onto cobblestone streets says, “You’re in Charleston.” And what an irony that walking among its hauntingly beautiful old cemeteries makes you feel more alive than ever.
Summer makes for a great time to see this charming shrine of the South. Drive south and walk about. Sure, Rainbow Row gets a lot of glory but other streets have their charm. Walk down Queen Street. Looking a bit like Rainbow Row on East Bay Street it’s in the French Quarter and one of Charleston’s more photographed venues. Charleston has it all. Add the meticulously preserved architecture of renowned homes and a certain fort in the harbor where a war began and the Holy City steeps in history. Take a good camera, a keen appetite and comfortable shoes. Walk the Holy City and leave all things ordinary behind.
If You Go …
Make your way to I-26 East and follow it until the road ends on Meeting Street and do it soon.
Learn more about Tom Poland, a Southern writer, and his work at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to him at tompol@earthlink.net.
BLYTHEWOOD – Two of the three horses surviving months of neglect, seized from a pasture off Highway 34 in Fairfield County June 10, are recovering, but are still looking for a permanent home. Blythewood horse trainer Minge Wiseman has been looking after Sandra, the aged mare, and Izzy, the 3-year-old filly, since they were taken, along with another filly, by Fairfield Animal Control from the property on Cook Road. The third filly, which weighed only 200 pounds and was too weak to stand for any length of time, was later euthanized, but the mare and the 3-year-old are progressing, Wiseman said.
“They are steadily gaining weight,” Wiseman said.
While foster care has been offered for the horses, Wiseman said they still needed someone to adopt them permanently. The horses will probably never be in any shape to ride, she said, but would make excellent companion animals.
“They would make a good buddy for another horse,” Wiseman said. “The young one never grew enough and the older one will never be in shape to take any weight on her back again.”
Wiseman said the animals, while recovering, would still require a bit more care than healthy horses for now.
“They need more frequent feeding,” she said. “Three times a day. Their sores have healed, so they really just need a little TLC.”
Wiseman said anyone wishing to adopt the animals should contact her via email at: wisemanminge@bellsouth.net.
“They are ready to go at any time,” she said. “They are up to date on their shots, their worming, their teeth, everything.”
BLYTHEWOOD – While surveying continues along both sides of Rimer Pond Road for construction of the City of Columbia’s proposed 48-inch water line, City Water Engineer Jason Shaw, manager of the project, maintains that the line is still planned for the east side of the road where most of the homes are located and that the City does not plan to lay the line in the road right of way, but intends to secure easements on the private properties along the road.
“We haven’t changed our original strategy,” Shaw told The Voice. But he did say that in some places along the road it might be more suitable to run the line on the opposite side of the road for some distance. He did not say which areas that might include.
Shaw said that after the surveying is finished later this summer, work will begin on a detailed design for construction of the line. He said the City could begin drawing up easement agreements for property owners to sign as early as the first of next year. But the City will have to reach an agreement with the property owners before going onto the private properties.
“The construction is not in this year’s budget,” Shaw said. “Construction probably won’t begin until budget year 2015-2016.”
Asked what the property owners would be offered in exchange for their property easement rights, Shaw said that would be decided on a case by case basis. The line will follow Rimer Pond Road all the way to Kershaw County and continue in a circle back to the City of Columbia.
In a phone interview earlier this year, Engineer Joey Jaco told The Voice that the purpose of the proposed water line was to improve water pressure and flow services to Northeast Columbia.
“It is also our intent to provide water service to the properties along Rimer Pond Road,” Jaco said.
Once the City acquires the easements, Jaco said the City could remove trees and make improvements in those easements as necessary to construct the line. He said those residents who agree to receive Columbia water would be required to sign a covenant agreeing to be annexed into the City of Columbia should their property ever become contiguous with the City.
Shaw told The Voice that the City plans to meet with property owners at a location on the road, perhaps at one of the schools, before they begin asking residents to sign easement agreements.
BLYTHEWOOD – It’s time for potential candidates for Blythewood Town Council to begin thinking about filing applications for candidacy. Filing deadlines run concurrent with deadlines for county and state candidates this year. Candidates who file by Statement of Intention of Candidacy must file no later than noon, 60 days prior to the election. The election is for Nov. 5.
In the past, the Town of Blythewood elections, which are non-partisan with at-large candidates, were held in January of even-numbered years. However, last year Council voted to align the Town’s elections with the dates of national November elections on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November of even-numbered years. To make the transition, this first election will fall on an odd numbered year.
Three Town Council seats held by Paul Moscati, Ed Garrison and the seat recently vacated by Jeff Branham due to his resignation last month will be up for election this year. Branham had only served a year and a half of his first term as Councilman.
All candidates must file a Statement of Economic Interest form, a Campaign Disclosure form and the Candidates’ Roster form. The three forms are available from the State Ethics Commission at www.ethics.sc.gov.
For questions about candidacy application, call Town Hall at 754-0501.
