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An attorney hired by Chapin’s mayor challenged whether a flurry of changes the town council has passed are valid, even as council members approved a measure that means he may not represent the town going forward.
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Bubba Samuels was hired by Chapin Mayor Bill Mitchell to give legal advice to the town for employment and utility matters, but the other four members of Chapin Town Council say they were unaware of that until a few weeks ago. Council members before Thursday’s meeting claim to have never met the Buford, Georgia,-based attorney before he appeared to defend his hiring at a specially-called town council Thursday.
This week’s meeting was the latest in a back-and-forth between the mayor elected last year and the rest of the town council who have voted no confidence in his leadership of the town, called on him to resign and pushed through a slew of measures to wrest more oversight of the town, over the mayor’s strenuous objections.
“It’s clear you need some legal advice and counsel,” Samuels told council members after observing much of the three-hour meeting at town hall. “You need a town attorney to advise you.”
That’s the intent of one measure the town council passed Thursday, to make the town attorney a post that reports to the council and not the mayor. Council members complained the mayor has withheld information about legal challenges facing the town and made decisions — like hiring an attorney — without their knowledge.
Mitchell, who was the only vote against the measure, contends he is empowered to make hiring, firing and spending decisions on his own as long as he operates within the town budget. Now, an attorney in theory would report to the council as a whole and would work with two designated council members in addition to the mayor.
Samuels, who drove three hours from his Georgia law office on 24 hours’ notice to be at Thursday’s meeting, told council he believed that measure violated the mayor’s authority under Chapin’s “strong mayor” form of government.
“The respective duties and obligations of the mayor and council are set out in statute,” Samuels said. “They have been analyzed over and over by the courts. The chief executive officer has to be in a position to work with the lawyers of the town.”
But many council members questioned Samuels’ ability to represent the town while living and working out of state. Many point out his law license was listed as “inactive” by the state bar association until recently. Samuels blamed that on changes to the mutual recognition of licenses between Georgia and South Carolina and has since been corrected, he said.
Council members also publicly questioned Samuels about a previous disciplinary action from the bar association. He said while serving as a county attorney, he inadvertently took a call from a magistrate judge about a case he was involved in separately from his work with the county. He said he self-reported the violation to the bar, and the incident taught him to be more careful in how he represents local governments.
He told council members, who may now decide if he remains the town’s attorney, that he would still like to use that experience to help them in what appeared to be an impromptu job interview.
“I don’t know why you want to,” Mitchell told the attorney at one point. “Many would not.”
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Samuels said his practice works with many municipalities “whose governing body is dysfunctional.”
Council members agreed they needed legal advice on how to handle pressing town concerns, including potential litigation with Lexington County over whether the town will provide sewer service to a new development outside of town that Chapin leaders oppose.
“We don’t know what litigation is being discussed or what meetings are happening,” said Councilwoman Ainslee Bost. “Our constituents ask us questions about it and we don’t know, so we look like fools.”
Discussion about lawyers was only one item the council majority approved over Mitchell’s objections Thursday, including other changes to how town council agendas are set and who can call council meetings. One measure introduced at the meeting would require a town council member to co-sign any spending decisions made by the mayor or a town department head.
“That’s not to say we think anything is going wrong or anyone’s doing anything bad,” Bost said at the meeting. “This is about providing oversight… so there’s a third party who is objective because they are not working here.”
Mitchell said before those motions passed that he would like to refer the motions to the S.C. Municipal Association or the attorney general’s office for an opinion on their legality, but the council pushed through the measures in 4-1 votes. Mitchell reiterated a previous threat to challenge the council’s motions in court, which would create the possibility of a mayor suing his own town.
Speaking to The State after the meting, Mitchell said he would “put on pause” any legal action to see if he and the council members can improve their working relationship moving forward, and said Thursday’s meeting had actually helped put them on the same page.
”What’s on display here is the raw reality of a brand new municipal council in place, a brand new mayor and two new council members,” Mitchell said. “And that is quite difficult to manage for all of us and painful for that to be on display while we’re working through it. But my desire is to be transparent, albeit I don’t want to put unelected people out in public like that.”
He acknowledged his council colleagues will now decide on the town’s attorney, but said he hoped they would decide to retain Samuels in that role.
“He took a six-hour round trip to be here and answer questions,” Mitchell said. “His heart for municipalities is quite impressive… we struck gold with him.”
The last motion passed Thursday was to ask the Municipal Association to provide training for all members of town council on their responsibilities. Mitchell suggested that training should take place at a future public meeting.
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