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  • Huge Crowd Rocks Blythewood Fireworks Event

    BLYTHEWOOD – “It was the best attended event we’ve ever had in the park,” Doko Manor and Event Director Steve Hasterok said of the crowd at the  July 3 fireworks event at the Palmetto Citizens Amphitheater in Doko Park. “It was already a huge crowd, then about an hour before the fireworks began, about 1,000 more people converged on the park with lawn chairs, blankets and the kids,” Hasterok  said.

    Crowd estimates shortly before the fireworks began, according to Town Hall, were between 5,000 and 6,000 people.

    The playground was overflowing and the lines at the food trucks were long and steady all night long.  The variety of food offerings ranged from barbeque, pizza and homemade lemonade to snow cones, popcorn, donuts and desserts.

    With three musical performances, 20 food trucks including Chick-fil-A, Papa John’s, Scotties and Doko Smoke, 20 minutes of fireworks and great weather, what was there not to like about the annual event?

    Mike and Gina Tanner entertained with some of their Lunatrix wonders – face and tattoo painting and giant bubbles.

    Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross summed it up – “This was the best yet! EboniRamm was a great addition to the performers with her poetry and music. Deluxe Blues gave us great blues music and DB Bryant topped it off. Then boom! boom! boom! and the sky lit up. Best yet!” Ross said.

  • All district schools to get SROs

    County will provide vehicles and uniforms

    WINNSBORO – Ridgeway Police Chief Christopher Culp has been the subject of at least 14 complaints from Ridgeway residents and businesses in the past 12 months, according to documents obtained by The Voice. Those complaints recently almost cost him his job.

    One of the complaints, though – that Culp doubles as the de facto school resource officer (SRO) at Geiger Elementary School although he is not certified to do so – will likely be mitigated through action by the Fairfield County School District.

    Superintendent Dr. J.R. Green and Board Chairman William Frick both told The Voice this week that the District’s recently approved budget includes funding for additional SROs.

    “We did budget for additional SROs to go into the elementary schools for the upcoming school year,” Frick said. “That was already in the budget that was approved at the last meeting, so we are looking forward to that.”

    While the the District already provides SROs for the high school and middle schools. Green said the district started feeling the need to add SROs to the five elementary school after the Florida shooting incident.

    “We decided it would be prudent to expand our SRO program to include the elementary schools as well,” Green said. “Obviously, we are committed to providing the safest environment we can as a district. This is just one added step to improving on the environment that we provide students.”

    Frick went on to say that the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is hiring for those positions.

    The budget that passed includes $325,000 for five new school resource officers, which works out to about $65,000 per officer. There was no mention during budget deliberations, though, exactly where those officers would be assigned.

    Green has previously said the funding covers the officers’ salaries and benefits, while Fairfield County would cover vehicle, equipment and training costs.

    “Our plan is to have resource officers in place by the fall of this year,” Green said Tuesday. “We’re providing resource officers to our elementary schools. That’s our plan provided we have officers available.”

  • Council opens door to vendors

    Vendor Johnny Dial runs a vegetable stand across from the Food Lion on Blythewood Road. | Barbara Ball

    BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council passed a temporary vending ordinance last week that opens the door for vendors to set up shop in the Town Center District (TCD).

    The ordinance, which took more than a year to pass, is a City of Columbia ordinance knockoff that basically allows street vendors to begin operating in the town if they are permitted by a property owner to locate on their property, leave the premises every evening and acquire the proper temporary vendor permitting from Town Hall. There are a few specific regulations for different types of vendors.

    Food trucks must locate more than 250 feet from the door of a lawfully established eating place unless the owner of that eating place provides a letter of consent.  Seasonal vendors and food trucks must obtain a zoning permit prior to operating in the town and must locate within a district that otherwise permits that type of business. Vendors located within 400 feet of a parcel zoned residential are not allowed to operate between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., and vendors cannot operate more than a total of 10 hours within a calendar day.

    Vendors are generally allowed to operate at the same time the other businesses in town are open.

    Unlike brick and mortar businesses in the town, vendors are not required to adhere to architectural review standards. A business owner in the TCD who is prohibited from painting his building garish colors could come in with those same colors as a vendor without penalty. There are no architectural review requirements or restrictions for temporary vendors.

    Still, vendor Johnny Dial, who has manned a vegetable stand across from the Food Lion on Blythewood Road for most of the past three years, says the rules are too tough on vendors.

    “Having to move out every night, pull up stakes and come back the next day and set up is a lot of work.”

    But Dial also says it is too expensive to lease a building.

    “People don’t like to buy produce in a store. They like to buy vegetables in open air markets,” Dial said.

    Dial purchases most of his vegetables from producers in Lexington County – Moneta, Mr. Rawl’s and William’s Produce – who deliver the products to him.

    The ordinance defines ‘temporary vendors’ “as a person who sells merchandise, goods, services or forms of amusement from a tent, awning, canopy, umbrella, stand, booth, cart or trailer, from a vehicle, from his person or other temporary structure.”

    A food truck is defined as a licensed, motorized vehicle that includes a self-contained or attached trailer kitchen and the vehicle is used to sell and dispense food to the general public.

    Grace Coffee, although it looks like a vendor, does not have to pull up stakes and leave every evening like the other vendors. It is allowed to stay on premises 24/7/365 like brick and mortar businesses, but is not bound by architectural review restrictions and regulations that brick and mortar businesses are bound by. Grace Coffee has been declared by Town Hall to be a ‘business in good standing.

    Cook said the term ‘temporary vending’ has to do with venders who are only in town for the day, but leave after business hours.

    The temporary vending ordinance was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on April 4. It was also shown to the Board of Architectural Review (BAR). While BAR members were not given any authority to make changes or vote on the ordinance, they asked that there be some criteria addressed for standards dealing with the architectural appropriateness of vendors.

    “I really have a struggle with the fairness of this,” Jim McLean, co-chair of the BAR said. “Are the brick and mortar stores being undercut? They have made a hard investment in the town and have to abide by the BAR regulations and restrictions. The caveat of unfair competition needs to be addressed.”

    Appearance of the vendors was not addressed by Council when it passed the ordinance last week.

  • County leases facility for RW library

    The old Ridgeway Post Office is being renovated for the temporary library.

    RIDGEWAY – During a special meeting last week, county council voted unanimously to execute a two-year lease on the old Ridgeway post office property at Palmer and Jones streets for a temporary library site in the town.

    The deal includes an option to renew for another two years and possibly purchase the property. Rent would cost $850 a month the first year and $892 a month in year two.

    Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor said at its previous location, the library had already been paying $600 a month out of its millage for operations. The county would pick up the difference, he said.

    “[The property owner] wanted to go up in the other two years, and we pushed back on that,” Taylor said. “We looked at a number of locations and did determine this was the best. Others would need a lot more upfitting, or had no parking or would be much more expensive.”

    When the time comes to build a permanent site, the county will consider pursuing a Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, to help pay for it.

    Eric Robinson, director of the Fairfield County Library has told Council that the library board wants the permanent site to be in the town.

    Ridgeway resident Moses Bell, who has announced he is running for the Ridgeway District 1 seat on county council, voiced concerns at the June 25 council meeting that the proposed temporary site is near what Bell said is a liquor store.

    Bell told council members he was contacted by a woman who called him, hysterical about the temporary site at Palmer and Jones street.

    “She had stated that in many municipalities, they have ordinances stating that liquor stores and bars cannot be located next to a public building,” he said. Bell did not identify those municipalities or the ordinances.

    Bell said he wants a library built outside the town next to the county waste and recycle center.

    Councilman Dan Ruff, who represents District 1 on county council, said the Palmer and Jones site is only temporary, noting the long-term plan is to build a permanent library elsewhere.

    “We’ve looked and looked. I’ve been looking for months for a good location,” Ruff said. “This one became available.”

    “We’ve been without a library for a year now,” Ruff continued. “We don’t want to wait two to four years until we can get another permanent site.”

    As for the library’s surroundings, Ruff didn’t see any issues.

    “Actually there’s a road and a cyclone fence before you get to the convenience store (City Gas) which has a liquor store attached,” Ruff said. “There’s also a church behind the liquor store, directly behind it. We have not had any issues with the store and I just don’t think that would be an issue.”

    County administrator Jason Taylor said the county will take over the leased property on July 1, and that renovations should be completed before the start of the school year in August.

    The Ridgeway branch of the Fairfield County Library closed in September 2017. It shut down after the building experienced leaks and mold issues.

    On June 15, the Ridgeway Town Council considered five proposed sites for the permanent library location.

    “[The county] asked us as a council to review some options that have been floating around for a while,” Ridgeway Mayor Heath Cookendorfer said.

    Those sites included:

    • Old Fire Department, Palmer Street
    • Teacherage, Means Street
    • First Citizens Bank property, Palmer and East Church streets
    • Charm Parking Lot, Means and Church streets
    • Fork of U.S. 21 and S.C. 34.

    Ridgeway Council members identified the Teacherage location as the preferred site, with the Charm Parking lot location as the runner-up.

    The Town of Ridgeway owns the Teacherage site. Fairfield County would have to purchase the Charm Parking lot site, though Cookendorfer said that when the county leaves a location, the property typically reverts back to the town.

  • It took a village

    Bunting, left and Peak with the rescued cat. | Photos: James Sims

    WINNSBORO – An evening phone call from a concerned CVS customer about hearing a cat down the parking lot storm drain turned into a four-hour, multi-department rescue effort.  Fairfield  County fireman Jay Joyner lowered the truck’s ladder into the storm drain for Trip Peak, Town of Winnsboro Director of Gas, Water and Sewer, and Mikey Bunting, Gas, Water and Sewer Foreman. The two crawled approximately 150 feet through the storm drains before locating the trapped kitten, which is now at the Fairfield County Animal Shelter awaiting adoption.

  • Fire battled in Blythewood

    Photo: David Kocsis

    BLYTHEWOOD – Approximately 30 firefighters responded to a call around 4:30 p.m. Monday for this Crescent Lake home on Winding Wood Court. Parts of the roof collapsed on the home, but no injuries have been reported. The home was formerly a stop on the Parade of Homes.

  • Blythewood restaurant owner killed

    Gaugenbaugh

    BLYTHEWOOD – After popular Blythewood restaurateur, Lawrence James ‘Po’ Gaugenbaugh, was found dead in an abandoned home in the 1000 block of Wilson Boulevard on Tuesday, June 18, the employees of his Carolina Wings and Rib House are doing what they say he would have wanted – keeping the restaurant open and busy until they know what will happen with it.

    A Michigan man and his girlfriend have been charged in connection with Gaugenbaugh’s death.

    Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a press conference on Thursday, June 21, where he announced the arrest of Erick Young, 36, for the strangulation death of Gaugenbaugh. Young’s girlfriend Stacie Lynn Rose, 36, is facing charges in connection with moving Gaugenbaugh’s body after his death.

    Lott said Gaugenbaugh had been reported missing by his employees on June 13, and that it was those employees who helped bring closure to the case.

    Erick Young

    They told authorities that Gaugenbaugh had been allowing a woman he had known in Michigan to stay in his apartment until she got a job and got settled, according to Lott. It was also reported that Rose was letting Young sneak into Gaugenbaugh’s apartment every day without Gaugenbaugh’s knowledge.

    On the same day Gaugenbaugh was reported missing, Rose was arrested on trespassing charges at the apartments where Gaugenbaugh lived. Young was with her, but escaped from deputies. At that time, Lott said, deputies were not aware the pair was connected to Gaugenbaugh’s disappearance.

    Stacie Rose

    Young was arrested when he returned to the property a week later and some of Gaugenbaugh’s belongings were discovered in Young’s vehicle.

    “I think helping someone out took his life,” Lott said about Gaugenbaugh.

    Young was also charged with trespassing and possession of narcotics. Rose was charged with trespassing and accessory after the fact. Both are being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia.

    Gaugenbaugh was previously part owner of Caps Pizza restaurant that was located where Papa Johns is now in the McNulty Shopping Center.

    “He always told us he had a plan for the restaurant in case anything ever happened to him. It’s in his will,” said Sandy Hare, who has worked at the restaurant for more than 10 years. The contents of the will have not been disclosed yet.

    “He wasn’t just our boss, he was a great guy. He worked hard and everybody here loved him,” Hare told The Voice. “We were like family.”

    Hare said employees and friends plan to hold a celebration of life for Po sometime in August.

    “We’ll be letting everyone know as soon as things get settled,” Hare said.

  • Blythewood Town Council increases Chamber funding

    BLYTHEWOOD – After months of threatening to withhold funds from the chamber of commerce and visitor center until the chamber’s executive director Mike Switzer produced the two organizations’ complete financials by June 12, council did just the opposite on Monday night.

    After being presented financials that one former council member described as little more than a difficult-to-follow profit and loss statement that took more than a month to produce, Council increased funding for the chamber Monday evening from $15,000 to $17,500 for the 2018-19 fiscal year and continued full funding for the visitor center at $18,500 annually, with $9,250 awarded up front along with the promise that it will pull the plug on the visitor center at the end of six months, on Dec. 31, 2018.

    Council also raised the allocation in the budget for accommodation tax funding for the Big Grab (which has been given to the chamber for the last two years) from $8,500 to $10,000 for fiscal year 2018-19.

    Council asked in return only that the chamber give it a premier sponsorship valued at $2,500. The sponsorship is given at no cost to the chamber, and for council to have a voting member on the chamber board. That member will be Ed Parler, the town’s economic development director and council’s current liaison to the chamber.

    Mayor pro tem Eddie Baughman, who led the discussion and the fight to keep the visitor center funded until the end of the year, expressed concern several times about the council being fair to the chamber.  Council offered no criticism of the chamber’s financials which, chamber member Phil Frye characterized Monday night as “an abomination.”

    “The [chamber’s] profit and loss statements were difficult to understand,” Ed Parler, council’s liaison to the chamber said Monday evening. Council had no questions about the chamber/visitor center’s past financial inconsistencies and while some council members suggested the chamber got off track because there of a lack of expectations from both sides, council offered no specific stipulations or expectations regarding the chamber and visitor center financials going forward. No reference was made to the chamber’s lack of financial disclosure, reporting and questionable distribution of funds as reported in The Voice.

    The vote to fund was unanimous with Mayor J. Michael Ross not voting, but not recusing himself either. Ross remained at the table, participating in the discussion of the funding and, when both Councilmen Malcolm Gordge and Larry Griffin suggested pulling the plug immediately on the visitor center, Ross intervened to encourage chamber members in the audience to come forward to present the chamber’s side.

    Ross announced on Monday night that his decision to no longer vote on chamber or visitor center funding is due to his several-year business relationship with the chamber, which rents office space in McNulty Plaza that is owned by Ross and a business partner. Ross did recuse himself from a vote last year on $7,000 that council awarded to the chamber to renovate the McNulty office space. Ross has not recused himself on other votes providing funding that was used to pay rent.

    During a budget workshop on April 24, Switzer requested a $4,000 increase in funding – $2,500 for the chamber, which was approved by Council Monday night, and $2,000 for the visitor center, which was not approved.

    “The $4,500 increase that you have in the budget for us will cover one-fourth of our rent increase of $6,000,” Switzer told council. That increase goes into effect on July 1, Ross told The Voice.

    “My partner and I basically gave the building to the chamber the first year they were there,” Ross said. “But you can only do that for so long if you’re in business. So we charge them $1,500 a month. That’s 45 percent less than what other people pay in our building. We’re just trying to help the chamber.”

    According to Chamber documents acquired by The Voice, annual rent for the chamber/visitor center space increased over $23,000 annually over three years. It was $600 in 2015-16, increased to $12,000 for 2016-17 and to $18,000 for 2017-18. The $6,000 increase in July will bring the chamber’s annual rental fee to $24,000 or $2,000 per month. A third of that amount is charged to the visitor center which is housed in the Chamber office space.

    The usefulness of the visitor center to the town was also questioned in relation to the $18,500 annual funding. During a meeting at the chamber offices recently, Baughman said he viewed only 67 names on the visitor’s register since the first of the year and that half of them were from Blythewood, not visitors to the town.

    “That’s expensive for 30 people,” audience member Tom Greer of Cobblestone commented during the meeting.

    Rich McKendrick, a town planning commissioner and resident of Ashley Oaks, expressed criticism of how the chamber is run and questioned why the town funds a visitor center that opened a gift shop that poses competition to small businesses in town.

    “We’re members of the chamber, but a couple of curve balls have been thrown at us by the chamber which relate to the visitor center which is in direct competition with what my wife sells in her shop. She pushes hard to offer local venders, local crafts, honey, eggs, needlepoint – those are drivers in our business. Then the chamber, which is funded by the town, pops up with the visitor’s center. We are trying to see how that visitor center works on behalf of the local businesses since it’s not open on weekends,” McKendrick said. “Then the gift shop pops up. If you’re a chamber, you’re a chamber. Then you open a gift shop. What if you open a coffee shop next? I cannot connect these dots.

    “Then they come to council and ask for money which helps the gift shop,” McKendrick said. “The chamber doesn’t do anything for us for free. We pay a membership, then when the Big Grab came along, they asked us to pay a sponsorship, then they spell our name wrong and then they make excuses. And it was the same thing with the Eclipse event. We have to pay again for what the town is already paying them for. And then they open a gift shop. It’s mind-numbing when you’re on the outside looking in. I’m telling you from a business owner’s standpoint, this plan makes no sense. We are a business here. But the chamber places itself in control of events that we have to pay extra for,” McKendrick said.

    McKendrick suggested the town pull the plug on the visitor center and use the money to otherwise help the merchants.

    “The chamber was already paying the rent [for its office space] before there was a visitor’s center,” McKendrick said.

    “According to a presentation [to council] by Mr. Switzer, the chamber’s expenses have not changed because of the visitor’s center. It [the funding for the visitor center] is just an additional revenue stream to what you are already giving the chamber,” McKendrick told council. “You’re supplementing a chamber that has not had any increase in expenses due to the visitor center. “

    “That makes sense,” Baughman said, “but we’re trying to do the fair thing for the chamber, to keep it [the visitor center] going for six months, then pull the plug. I’m trying to be fair.”

    In the end, there was no suggestion from council that the town should or would look into the chamber and visitor center financials, or hold them accountable for a number of financial discrepancies in the past that make it difficult to track funding.

    An examination of the chamber’s financial documents obtained by The Voice show amounts differed from report to report and there was little breakdown of revenue and expenses to know if the numbers shown on the profit and loss statement were accurate. In one instance, Switzer submitted a final report to the A-tax committee for The Big Grab listing chamber expenses as $12,114.23 but the chamber’s profit and loss statement for July 1, 2017 – June 22, 2017 lists total expenses for The Big Grab as $7,402.12. There is no explanation for the $4,712.11 discrepancy. This and other questions were emailed to Ross with only one response at this time. In that response, Ross only said that he did not approve of the chamber staff receiving payment for working on events funded by the town.

    Mayor pro tem Eddie Baughman led the fight to fund the chamber and visitor center until Dec. 31, 2018, in order to “be fair” to the chamber. But while some effort was made to set down expectations for what council wanted to see accomplished by the chamber and, particularly, the visitor center in exchange for the funding, no consensus was ever reached and no expectations were identified.

  • Documents detail complaints vs RW chief

    RIDGEWAY—Police Chief Christopher Culp has been the subject of at least 15 formal complaints from Ridgeway residents and businesses in the past 12 months, according to documents obtained by The Voice.

    Dating back to July 2017, the complaints that nearly cost Culp his job provide a more detailed look into what drove Ridgeway Town Council to consider terminating him.

    A motion to immediately terminate Culp failed at the June 14 council meeting when a motion to fire him never received a second.

    Instead, the council opted to work with Culp in addressing the complaints following a 90-minute discussion about them in executive session June 14.

    “We do have some underlying issues with the police department, and we’re going to correct those issues,” Ridgeway Mayor Heath Cookendorfer said following the vote.

    Obtained through the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, the documents paint a picture of absenteeism, indifference and other breaches of protocol by the chief.

    Documents dispute SRO claim

    At a packed council meeting June 14, some residents claimed council members targeted the chief because they thought he spent too much time at Geiger Elementary School, which doesn’t have a school resource officer.

    Council documents included with the June 14 meeting agenda stated that during the month of May, Culp performed 22 security checks at Geiger Elementary, or about once every 1.4 days.

    Culp’s supporters said they didn’t mind the chief doubling as a de facto SRO, even though he’s not technically certified to act as one, according to the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy.

    “You’ve done everything except for what you are elected to do,” said Tiffany Allison, chairwoman of the Geiger Elementary School Improvement Council, to Council. “You have put children in danger because of your actions. You should restore the trust that has been broken.”

    Betty Branham, however, told The Voice that Culp spends too much time at the school.

    “If he wants to help school children, he needs to get busy on Coleman St. A child is going to get hurt the way the traffic races up and down this road. I live on the corner of Coleman and Third, and it’s amazing what’s being ignored out here. I only see the police car parked down at the station down from the school. Mr. Culp is never in it. Where does he go all day long, do tell?”

    Complaints obtained by The Voice, however, list a litany of other complaints unrelated to the SRO issue.

    One complaint filed Jan. 8 said a traffic ticket was unlawfully issued long after the offense occurred.

    “Culp came to residence, honking horn, to issue ticket of parking wrong side,” the document states.

    A similar report stated that Culp showed up in an unmarked car in an attempt to issue a parking ticket.

    “He came to my house to issue a ticket and beat excessively on the door to the extent of scaring my mother in law,” the report said.

    Another complaint filed Jan. 11 asked why a theft that occurred Nov. 27, 2017 hadn’t been investigated. The complaint noted that security cameras in the area no longer showed the date of the incident.

    An undated complaint included in town documents said Culp never issued any tickets when a resident reported dogs running loose in the street.

    “He asked if I was afraid of the dog at town hall? Then I shouldn’t worry about my neighbor,” the form states. “I tried to explain that the dog at town hall was well behaved and behind a locked door and my neighbors [sic] dogs were running loose.”

    Suspicious person overlooked

    “I find his attitude lackadaisical, unprofessional, and not very caring about protecting the town,” one complaint stated.

    Those remarks appeared in a July 2017 letter signed by Carol Allen, owner of Laura’s Tea Room.

    In her complaint, Allen said Culp failed to investigate a suspicious person who “camped out” in front of her business, using an electrical outlet to charge his cellphone.

    According to the complaint, Culp stated he was too busy to investigate the man.

    Allen eventually asked the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office about the suspicious person. Deputies were familiar with the man and when they tried to speak with him, he took off running, the complaint stated.

    Deputies caught the man and took him into custody. He had multiple outstanding warrants for breaking and entering, and also had several pill bottles in other people’s names on his person, according to the complaint.

    “I feel we pay Officer Culp to serve and protect, and I understand he is just one officer, but I really feel he did not handle this correctly,” Allen stated in the complaint.

    Hard to find

    A complaint filed May 1 stated Fairfield County investigators were unable to contact Culp to review tapes at the police department.

    One week later, a complaint was filed that said Culp canceled a Feb. 7 meeting due to a family emergency, and couldn’t reschedule for two days later. Culp, however, clocked in from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 8-10, the complaint states.

    “Tried numerous times and when did reach Culp [he] said he didn’t have time and would call when convenient for him,” the complaint said. “It’s been 3 months and monitoring visit must be done.”

    Other complaints the town received were critical of Culp’s apparent lack of responsiveness.

    A complaint filed Jan. 28 states a person ticketed for an unknown violation appeared for court on Oct. 2, 2017, but Culp was absent. The document states Culp didn’t turn in the ticket until Oct. 11.

    According to the complaint, the person stopped by court on Nov. 29, 2017 so Culp could rewrite the ticket, but the chief wasn’t working. The person also tried unsuccessfully to call Culp on Jan. 28, 2018, the document stated.

    “[Three] visits no results,” the form said. “Requested jury trial.”

    The court complaint is in addition to one that Municipal Judge Adrian Wilkes filed June 14, the day before Ridgeway Town Council considered a motion to fire the chief.

    Wilkes stated in his complaint that Culp frequently and openly questions the judge in open court.

    “Chief Culp has shown a lack of manners, professionalism, and respect for the Court,” Wilkes wrote. “He has consistently attempted to speak over and interrupt myself and others within the court room.”

    Culp also called in sick for court with only 10 minutes of notice, resulting in a slew of not guilty pleas, the complaint stated.

    Related:  Judge, others issue complaints against chief,  Chief survives move to fire him

  • Fairfield settling Pauley lawsuit

    WINNSBORO—Fairfield County plans to settle a lawsuit its former recreation director filed earlier this year.

    Lori Schaeffer, the county’s former recreation director, filed suit against the county and Councilman Douglas Pauley in February 2018, saying in court documents that Pauley improperly inserted himself into recreation operations.

    Schaeffer was later terminated.

    Fairfield County initially sought to dismiss the suit. At Monday night’s meeting, however, the county voted to settle.

    In a 4-1 vote, the council approved a motion authorizing “the payment of an amount equal to, but not to exceed, the amount currently authorized by its insurer for final resolution of the Schaeffer lawsuit against the County and Councilman Pauley,” the motion states.

    Councilman Mike Trapp cast the lone dissenting vote while Pauley recused himself. Council Chairman Billy Smith was absent.

    The council didn’t state a dollar figure in its motion, and only the motion itself was available after the meeting.

    In Fairfield County court documents, Schaeffer said Pauley frequently interjected himself into recreation department affairs, even after being advised by County Administrator Jason Taylor to not do so.

    “Taylor said he had specifically informed Defendant Pauley that he should not be getting involved in the day-to-day operations and that he does not understand why Defendant Pauley does so despite his instruction,” the suit states.

    Schaeffer’s suit goes on to say that she and the entire recreation department were placed on a Performance Improvement Plan by the county, or PIP, in June 2017. She was dismissed in October 2017.

    In its response to the suit, attorneys for the county and Pauley asked for the case to be dismissed.

    The county’s response denies Schaeffer’s characterization of her conversation with Taylor. It also states “the disciplinary notices contained in Plaintiff’s personnel file speak for themselves.” The response also notes that South Carolina is a right to work state.

    In a separate motion for judgment that Pauley filed, the councilman said he was entitled to a favorable judgment because his inquiries into the recreation department were part of his legislative duties.

    “As a member of Fairfield County Council, Defendant Pauley therefore, as a matter of law, was not a third party capable of interfering with any alleged contract Plaintiff claims to have had with Fairfield County,” the motion states.

    Related:  Lawsuit filed against Councilman and County,  Pauley, County answer lawsuit