By admin After recent clashes between Chapin’s mayor and town council, both sides sat down for a training session in town government put on by the S.C. Municipal Association.
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Mayor Bill Mitchell welcomed the open meeting at town hall on Tuesday that included the four other members of town council and town department heads, calling it a chance for all of them to learn about their roles.
The meeting was meant to guide local officials through their powers and responsibilities under state law and Chapin’s “strong mayor” form of government, using a brochure published by the association, Mitchell said.
Such training isn’t unusual for part-time elected officials serving in municipal government. But in Chapin, where Mitchell and the rest of the town council have publicly clashed over the mayor’s management of the town and the council’s ability to check him.
Chapin Town Council passed a motion of no confidence in Mitchell’s leadership in July, and have pushed through a string of measures to try to curtail his powers since, often over Mitchell’s objections and threats of legal action.
The town council unanimously passed a motion to ask the Municipal Association for the training at its Aug. 20 meeting, and set the date a week after the rest of the council walked out on Mitchell following a heated exchange.
Municipal Association Field Services Manager Rob Wolfe told all elected officials that civility is ultimately a necessity for local officials to be able to work together for the betterment of the town.
“I tell people there is no partisan way to pick up a trashcan,” Wolfe said. “It either gets done or it doesn’t.”
He advised council members to study town finances and the meeting agenda packets, but he also stressed the importance of building trust and teamwork, making sure all council members have the same information and there are no “surprises” during meetings that can generate conflict.
Chapin operates under a mayor-council or “strong mayor” form of government, which gives the elected mayor the powers of the town’s chief executive officer. Chapin previously had a town administrator who managed town staff, but she was dismissed and the position eliminated when Mitchell took office in November.
The Municipal Association broke down both offices’ role under a mayor-council government. The mayor supervises town departments, prepares the budget and financial report and can appoint and remove employees under rules adopted by the council. Council members adopt the budget, creates town departments, and appoints positions such as town attorney and town clerk.
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At times, the Municipal Association’s attorney was asked dueling questions by the mayor and the council members about their long-running disputes. Attorney Sara Weathers answered questions about how many members are needed to set the agenda for one of the town’s many specially-called meetings (a majority is needed to call the meeting, although the specifics depend on the town’s own adopted procedures, she said.)
But asked whether the council could remove the town clerk, as some council members called to do before the previous walkout, she said that the hiring power in such a position is vested in the town council, and that courts have ruled “the power to hire is the power to fire.”
Mitchell made clear he considers the clerk to be one of the town employees he oversees. “When she walks across that hallway, she literally goes from the legislative to the executive branch,” he said, where the mayor “supervises day-to-day operations.”
But Weathers said the law was clear on where the hiring authority lies.
“There are few areas where I can say, ‘this is black and white, this is pretty clear,’” Weathers said of who has ultimate authority over the town clerk. “But this is pretty clear.”
When Mitchell asked if any firing should at least follow “standard procedures,” the Municipal Association attorney agreed.
“I certainly would tell you to follow federal and state labor laws,” she said.
Council members have criticized Mitchell after he ran through a string of attorneys without the knowledge or input of the rest of the council. The other four members voted to make Ryan Hicks the town attorney earlier this month, even as Mitchell said the decision infringed on his ability to manage town staff and said he wouldn’t pay Hicks from town coffers.
Mitchell raised his concerns that the actions council members have passed in recent months are unlawful, but the Municipal Association attorney said once passed by council, an ordinance is presumed to be valid and in force until a court rules otherwise.
“There are a couple of attorney general opinions that say a mayor in South Carolina does not have veto power,” Weathers said.
Hicks was hired as the town faces a lawsuit brought by Lexington County over a moratorium instituted by Mitchell to pause issuing any new sewer connections to the town, including a planned 600-home development on land currently owned by the county just outside the town limits. Lexington County argues Mitchell’s decision violates a service contract Chapin and the county signed more than a decade earlier.
The Municipal Association said a 90-minute training session could not go into all scenarios, but Weathers suggested that now that the town had hired a town attorney, council members should address their concerns to him.
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