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Robinson Elected Chair, Marcharia Vice Chair

WINNSBORO – County Council launched its 2015 session Monday night by tapping Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) as its new chairwoman. Robinson took five of the seven votes in the secret ballot election. Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) earned two votes.

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) was elected vice chairman with four votes over District 5 newcomer Marion Robinson’s three votes. Marion Robinson, Dan Ruff (District 1) and Billy Smith (District 7) were all sworn in earlier in the evening in a ceremony prior to Monday’s meeting.

“I know we are going to have some changes,” Carolyn Robinson said after her election as chairwoman. “One of the things is we are going to have to continue to promote economic development. It’s most important for our county, but in order to meet the challenges that are going to be facing us, we’re going to need to communicate and to work together so that we can face all of the problems, all of the challenges that are presented to us.”

On the Road Again

Chairwoman Robinson, adding the item to the agenda after the meeting had convened, informed Council that State Rep. J. Gary Simrill (R-46, York County) and his House Transportation, Infrastructure and Management ad hoc committee had met earlier in the day to consider moving forward with a state plan to turn over to S.C. counties about half of the state’s roads and highways. Part of that plan, she said, includes a promise to fully fund the state’s local government fund, but even that, County Administrator Milton Pope said, would not be enough for counties to maintain roads.

“We don’t have anywhere near the funding to take over and to maintain state roads,” Pope said. “In regards to the local government fund, that’s really a separate issue altogether. The state actually owes local governments to be able to fund the local government formula fully, as to what’s due for local governments to where we can help to reduce taxes on the local level. Combining those two issues, it’s a little skeptical packaging it that way. Even if we were to get what’s fully funded, that’s not going to go anywhere near where we need to be.”

On Robinson’s recommendation, Council voted to send a letter detailing their opposition to the Simrill plan to every member of Simrill’s committee, as well as to Fairfield County’s local legislative delegation.

State Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17) told The Voice last month that he was not in favor of turning over state roads to the counties, adding that he did not think the plan would muster enough votes to pass.

“It’s a pretty radical idea,” Coleman said in December. “To me, it’s a state problem and the state ought to find a solution.”

Jenkinsville Sidewalks

Jenkinsville Mayor Gregrey Ginyard, addressing Council during Monday night’s second public comment session, asked Council for support in completing a sidewalk project in the western Fairfield town. Ginyard said three-quarters of the project, from Buttercup Lane to approximately a quarter of a mile shy of Baltic Circle where the Lake Monticello Park is located, had been completed using Department of Transportation grant money. To take the sidewalk all the way to the park, Ginyard said Jenkinsville is applying for another grant and needs $100,000 in matching funds. Ginyard said the town only needed half of that – $50,000 – from the County, and in two installments of $25,000 each in 2015 and in 2016. Ginyard said Jenkinsville didn’t need the cash right away, but did need a letter of commitment from the County by March to submit with their grant application.

Council took no action on Ginyard’s request Monday night.

Meeting Schedule

Council also reviewed and approved their meeting schedule for the remainder of 2015, voting to delay their Feb. 22 meeting until 7 p.m. to accommodate a drop-in at the Carolina Events Center to honor former Sheriff Herman Young.

During the discussion, Smith noted that the Aug. 10 meeting had been listed as ‘canceled’ on the schedule. The meeting would have come on the heels of the annual Association of Counties conference on Hilton Head Island, but Smith pointed out that the conference ran from Aug. 2 through Aug. 5.

“You would have five days to get back from Hilton Head to Fairfield County,” Smith said, and moved to hold the regularly scheduled meeting.

Ruff seconded the motion, which passed with only Mikel Trapp (District 3) voting in the negative.

New Council Sworn in Monday

WINNSBORO – With three new County Council members waiting in the wings to be sworn into office at an official public ceremony on Monday evening, a fourth Council member in the yet to be decided race for District 3 will apparently be allowed to keep that seat until the March 3 special election.

Councilmen-elect Dan Ruff (District 1), Marion Robinson (District 5) and Billy Smith (District 7), who rode a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment into office in last November’s elections, will take their oaths Monday in Council chambers at 5:15 p.m. A reception will follow at 5:30, after which Council will get straight to work with the election of officers at 5:55 before convening their 6 p.m. meeting.

Councilman Mikel Trapp will, in all likelihood, remain in his District 3 seat to start the new year, sources wishing not to be identified indicated Tuesday. Trapp faces a special election on March 3 against Walter Larry Stewart and Tangee Brice Jacobs. Stewart successfully challenged Trapp’s four-vote margin of victory in the November election and last month Gov. Nikki Haley officially ordered a new election. While only Stewart protested the November results, just this week The Voice learned that Jacobs’s name would also be on the March 3 ballot.

At the time of Gov. Haley’s order, her office said it was considering the appointment of an interim to serve in Trapp’s stead between Jan. 1 and the March 3 do-over. However, sources said, the governor’s authority to appoint such an interim does not extend to cases where a special election is pending and an incumbent is still in place. Incumbents are legally authorized to continue serving until the special election, sources said.

The public is invited to attend Monday’s ceremony.

BLYTHEWOOD – With a 3-2 vote Monday night, Town Council created and filled the position of full-time town attorney, hiring Jim Meggs for $40,000 a year. Councilmen Bob Mangone and Bob Massa voted against the hire.

Meggs, who has served as the town’s attorney through his law firm, Callison, Tighe & Robinson, since 2011, said his firm was fully aware of the proposed transition from contracted attorney to full-time town employee. Meggs said he would provide his own computer, telephone and IT and would maintain his ability to practice law in S.C. at his own expense.

“I think folks have found me to be pretty reasonably available,” Meggs said. “This would be an at-will arrangement, so if you get tired of me give me the nod and I would give you the same courtesy.”

Mayor J. Michael Ross said he has discussed the transition with Meggs on “several occasions,” and that the move would save the town between $6,000 and $7,000 a year in legal expenses. But Mangone, who said he had no objections to Meggs specifically, said he disagreed with the process.

“I think the process is wrong,” Mangone said. “We’re creating a position within the Town and to do that we need to follow a different procedure and not just say we’re going to be changing money from one budget to another. So my objection is not to Mr. Meggs, but to the process. I would like to see a more open process. I would like to see us post the job and see what other candidates may be available.”

“(When) the town administrator left we had an open position,” Ross responded. “This position has never been open. This is just, really, a re-doing of the contract.”

Councilman Tom Utroska said that the only real difference between hiring Meggs outright and keeping his current contract in place would be to whom the Town cuts the checks. Under the prior agreement, he noted, the town paid Meggs’ law firm, who then paid Meggs. Now, he said, the town will simply be paying Meggs directly.

Councilman Bob Massa disagreed. “Since I have been critical of previous administrations that  hired employees similarly. despite liking Mr. Meggs and being pleased with his work, I could not approve his hiring.

 

 

WINNSBORO – Nearly three weeks after the State Election Commission upheld the County Commission’s decision to overturn the results of the Nov. 4 election for the District 3 County Council seat, Gov. Nikki Haley issued her official order for a new election Friday. Incumbent Mikel Trapp and challenger Walter Larry Stewart will square off in a do-over on March 3.

The decision marks the end of a long legal battle by Stewart and his attorney, Debra Matthews, taking the election out of the realm of protest and putting it back into the hands of voters.

Trapp edged out Stewart by five votes on Nov. 4, but following a Nov. 7 recount, that advantage was trimmed to four. Irregularities found on absentee ballot envelopes by Stewart supporters, as well as reports of voters in District 3 receiving the incorrect ballot style at their polling places, prompted Stewart to file an official protest of the results, which the County Election Commission heard on Nov. 17.

Matthews successfully argued before the Commission that five voters – two in Mitford and three in Monticello – had been presented with the wrong ballot style on election day and therefore were unable to cast a vote in the District 3 race for County Council. The State Commission, hearing Trapp’s appeal on Dec. 1, upheld the County’s ruling.

Trapp’s appeal hinged on the ability of his attorney, John C. Moylan III, to introduce to the State Commission new evidence – sworn affidavits from two of the five voters who had been given incorrect ballot styles, testifying that both voters would have voted for Trapp had they received the correct ballot styles. The State Commission, however, bound by the rules of the Circuit Court, could not accept new evidence in an appeal and upheld the County’s decision without considering the affidavits.

Trapp and his attorney had the option of appealing the State’s decision to the S.C. Supreme Court, but the Dec. 11 deadline to do so passed without them doing so.

As Trapp’s term is officially up at the end of the month, the Governor’s Office said it is also considering the appointment of an interim to fill the District 3 seat between Jan. 1 and the March 3 election. A decision on the appointment is expected before the end of the year.

Council Out of the Loop on Ridgeway Plan

RIDGEWAY – As County Council forges ahead with its comprehensive recreation plan that will spend as much as $500,000 in each of the county’s seven districts, Town Council reacted with some surprise at their Dec. 11 meeting to the County’s choice of location for the District 1 recreation facilities.

The County has recently erected a sign near one of their recycling centers just outside the Ridgeway town limits, on Highway 21 S. across from Smallwood Road, announcing the future site of a community center, as well as an outdoor basketball court. But Town Council last week said they had been left largely out of the loop on the decision and suggested an alternative site in town.

“When the sign went up by the recycling center, I got a lot of people who called and asked me why the County was putting a community center down the road where nobody can get to it and people fly by there,” Councilman Russ Brown told Council. “At the time I didn’t really keep up with what County Council was doing.”

But since then, Brown said, he had learned that District 1 County Councilman Dwayne Perry initially contacted Ridgeway Mayor Charlene Herring to inquire about constructing the facility in town at the corner of Church and Means streets, where Ridgeway already has a baseball/softball field. But Herring, Brown said, had told Perry no.

“I told him there were already plans in the strategic plan, that the Arts on the Ridge committee wanted to put some other things there,” Herring said. “We had looked at adding another maintenance shed over there.”

The strategic plan, Brown said, was only a recommendation or suggestion, not something written in stone. Herring, on the other hand, pointed out that the strategic plan comes from input from the community.

“The community was not aware of this, or the potential of this going over there,” Brown said, “and you said no to him and told him why before (Council) even had a clue what they were doing.”

Brown said he had recently spoken with Perry and that the County could move the facility to the downtown location.

“We have 5 acres over here with the ball field,” Brown said. “This center is going to have a place for adults and children for exercise. You’re talking about having something centrally located in a town that has children and people looking for something to do other than go to Dollar General. And we already have a walking trail, we already have a ball field and we can lease (the land) to them for $1 a year and still retain ownership of it and put a nice attractive facility on it.”

Herring said she thought it was a good idea, but added that she had some concerns about who would maintain and monitor the facility.

“But you’re saying no before you explore it,” Brown said.

“No, I’m not saying no,” Herring said. “I’m saying it’s a good possibility, but I’m saying there are other things we probably needed to discuss with it. But we never got those details.”

Councilman Heath Cookendorfer told Council he would ask Perry, who attended his last meeting as District 1’s County Councilman Monday night, and Perry’s successor, Dan Ruff to come discuss options for the relocation of the site at a future Council meeting.

The proposed new site at the corner of Church and Means streets is also home to the Ridgeway Arch, all that remains of the old Ridgeway School and its auditorium. At Council’s Nov. 13 meeting, Robert Hartman, a Ridgeway attorney and former Town Councilman, told Council the arch was not structurally sound, nor was it “artistically finished.”

“It needs to be finished,” Hartman said. “The Town saved it to finish it. It wasn’t meant to be left like that.”

Hartman presented Council with a conceptual painting, which he had done himself, of how the arch might look once complete. In 2008, the auditorium suffered severe storm damage, for which the Town received an insurance payment of $478,185.

“We netted about $420,000 (after fees and expenses from the demolition of the auditorium),” Hartman told Council last month. “I don’t know how much is left now, but I would assume a good bit of it. Why not take some of that money and do an engineering study and get a price on what it would take to do this?”

But at last week’s meeting, Brown suggested a different strategy.

“Even though that money was from the building, I wouldn’t mind seeing if we can’t try to have some type of campaign to help raise some money and help support that expense,” Brown said. “Rather than just dip into a CD (Certificate of Deposit, in which the funds are held) it wouldn’t hurt to see if we can get people or ways to get people who want to contribute.”

Councilman Donald Prioleau said Council needed to appoint a committee to spearhead the project, while Councilman Doug Porter said the fundraising portion of the campaign should have a deadline, after which time the Town would take funds from the CD.

Council made no final decision on the project.

BLYTHEWOOD – A discussion at the Dec. 9 Town Council work session revealed that while the finances of The Manor, the two-year-old Town-owned conference center, have improved since last year, the facility is still hemorrhaging money, and with no end in sight.

“A year ago we were losing about $8,000 each month. Now it looks like we’re losing about $4,200 each month,” said Councilman Tom Utroska. “I don’t understand how it shows a minus $91,922 on page 1 of the Profit and Loss Statement. It looks like we’ve double dipped and added the numbers twice, but we show having a shortfall of ordinary income of $45,961 for the year. And it appears that’s going to be the case.”

While Utroska and Town Administrator Gary Parker had high praise for the efforts of Booth Chilcutt, Events and Conference Center Director of the Manor, and his Assistant Director, Pat Connolly, in renting the facility, Council agreed that the Town faces an uphill battle for The Manor to break even.

Utroska said that while weekends are booked through the end of 2015, the pricing has not been set high enough to break even on weekends alone.

“We have a building that we can rent out every weekend but not during the week,” Utroska said.

Wondering what to do to solve the financial dilemma of The Manor, he asked, “Do we just double the rates in 2016? Do we try to get someone to help Booth and Pat with the marketing? I’m concerned about the outflow here and then if something happens with the SMS4 (a newly state-mandated storm water management program that could cost the town $50,000 or more annually) and the outflow there, what’s going to happen with the Town’s reserves and where are we going to get the money?”

Parker said he planned to put together a budget addressing maintenance expenses, which has not been done previously.

“The revenues from the operation (of the Manor) were supposed to cover the costs,” Parker said. “And that’s not the case.” But Parker said progress is being made. “And if you raise the rates, there will be further progress by the end of the year.

But Councilman Bob Mangone pointed out, “We’re so far behind the curve. We’ve got to stop the downward spiral.”

Concerned that there is no reserve or enterprise fund to cover long term expenses of the park and Manor, Utroska suggested the Town would need “somewhere between 1 and 1-1/2 percent of the cost of the building per year. Since the building cost $2.3 million, that’s $20,000-$30,000 we need for reserves.”

“Can we even afford to keep the building open?” Mangone asked.

Utroska agreed, “That’s a worry.”

Councilman Bob Massa suggested that to help defray the heavy fixed costs of the building during the week, “Instead of raising rates during the week, perhaps we should lower the weekday rates to make it more affordable for businesses to hold meetings there. Those fixed costs during the week are killing us.”

“As a local government administrator,” Parker said, “I’ve never been faced with an enterprise quite like this.”

He suggested that a couple of the members of Council might want to meet with him, Chilcutt and Connolly to talk about how to best improve the financial situation of The Manor.