Cayce mayor, council butting heads
By: By CLIF LeBLANC
Published: Mon, 11/09 @ 12:00AM
A dispute between Cayce's new mayor and some City Council members has spilled into public clashes that observers view as either political jealousies or start-up problems for Cayce's first new mayor in 18 years.
Elise Partin became mayor in January with an energetic agenda to beautify the city and grow its commercial districts. Cayce's first female mayor also turned to the business community for money to devise a formal action plan.
Her supporters say she is succeeding despite opposition.
Her detractors, including some on City Council, say the mayor is being reimbursed for too many expenses and isn't working well with fellow council members, who have as much authority as the city's part-time mayor.
The clash of styles - and perhaps agendas - has erupted into arguments during council meetings about who should speak for the city in public and whether the mayor's solicitation of money from businesses violates state ethics rules.
Partin said she does not understand the attacks.
"I can come up with nothing legitimate for what's going on," she said.
A state ethics official said Partin's fundraising, while not by the book, did not break the law.
As for spending, The State newspaper's review of expense records shows Partin received about $2,000 in reimbursements during the first 10 months of her term, compared with her predecessor's nearly $4,000 during his last 10 months.
Still, critics are closely examining Partin's records.
The in-fighting might come to a head Tuesday, when council is to take up two proposed ordinances that would limit reimbursements and control what council members may say in public about city business.
After an informal opinion in May, the State Ethics Commission's chief lawyer said last week that Partin's techniques in raising $32,000 from businesses for the new city development and marketing plan, though not conducted as the commission suggested, were not unethical because the mayor did not benefit personally.
"Unless she's doing a shakedown of businesses for herself - not for Cayce - then you don't have a violation," the commission's Cathy Hazelwood said. Many of the contributors do business with the city.
Partin should have created a separate foundation to receive donations and designated a separate account for the contributions, Hazelwood said.
Partin requested the informal, written opinion as criticism of her fundraising mounted - and toward the end of her campaign.
The mayor said she was guided by advice from city attorney Danny Crowe and city manager Johnny Sharpe.
The route to complain for Partin's most vocal detractors, Councilman Steve Isom and former mayoral candidate Paul Giugliano, would be to file an ethics complaint. They have not.
Meanwhile, the president of a homeowners group in one of the city's most influential neighborhoods has asked the city for records of council expenses.
EXPENSES
Isom has questioned Partin's requests to be reimbursed for travel back and forth from City Hall to her home nearby, for a Blackberry phone and for Internet service at her home.
"I don't feel right about charging the taxpayers for personal calls, texting and Internet service in your home," said Isom, who has yet to bill the city for any expenses since he took office in January.
City records show Councilman Skip Jenkins has received about $950 in reimbursements in 2009; Councilman Kenneth Jumper, about $745; and Councilman Rick Myers, about $232.
Partin said Sharpe provided her with copies of expense claims from former Mayor Avery Wilkerson as a guide for her reimbursement requests. But Sharpe said Wilkerson did not bill the city for short trips to City Hall nor for calls on his personal mobile phone unless they were long-distance for city business.
City records show Partin has made long-distance calls to numbers in California and billed Cayce. Partin said the calls were to her best friend and her contract allows unlimited calls, which the city confirmed.
No other member of council has a city-paid phone or Internet service, Sharpe said.
In May, Cayce scaled back its Internet reimbursements to $25.20 per month.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
The mayor said she is frustrated.
"Somebody's got to ask the question, 'Why?' Why are they throwing up roadblocks left and right?
"I'm just not part of the good-ol'-boy network."
Partin said she wishes Isom, whom she called "a very bright man," would focus on the city's future, "not on discrediting me."
One of her staunchest backers is Howard Duvall, the former longtime director of the S.C. Municipal Association.
"I certainly believe she is leading Cayce's progress," said Duvall, who is a friend of Partin's mother and has advised the mayor.
"I am absolutely certain there is no ethical problem here," Duvall said. "It's pure political jealousy. You've got Isom, who really wants to be mayor and tries to embarrass Elise Partin every time he can."
Other Partin supporters have protested at council meetings.
On Oct. 6, Tara Almond called on council to put aside its "petty issues" and blamed Isom for trying to undermine the mayor. Almond backed Partin's mayoral campaign last year.
Partin said she has brought transparency to city government and is working to help Cayce - across the river from downtown Columbia and shoulder-to-shoulder with West Columbia - establish its own identity and improve its quality of life.
The controversial marketing plan, called a charette, was initially approved on a split vote but now is on hold because council sent it to the city's planning commission.
Isom and Partin agree on one thing - the disputes are bogging down city operations by diverting council's attention.
"In terms of money, it's very small," Isom said of Partin's spending. "In terms of getting things done, it's a significant issue."
On Tuesday, council will take up Isom's proposed ordinances, which would ban reimbursements for trips within 15 miles of City Hall, among other controls.
He also has proposed to prohibit any member of council from speaking for the city without a vote of council. Duvall, an expert in municipal government, said that would be an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech.
Partin said she has tried to accommodate her critics but they appear uninterested in compromise.
Giugliano complains Partin is deaf to complaints against her and to the operation of a city government where the mayor has no more real power than others on council.
"She doesn't listen to anybody," Giugliano said. "She has her own agenda."
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