After legal fight between leaders, SC town seeks to curtail mayor’s power
A small but growing town north of Columbia is in the midst of a governmental shakeup.
The town of Blythewood is currently overseen by a mayor and a four-member council. But the council wants voters to change that structure, removing the mayor’s administrative privileges by switching to a different form of government: one where everyone on the council has equal duties and a manager runs the administration of the town.
Blythewood town council members Monday held a press conference where they said the move is because the town is growing, and argued that means it is time to change how Blythewood is governed.
The effort comes as disagreements between Blythewood council members and Mayor Sloan Griffin have boiled over all the way to the attorney general’s office, and just a few months after the AG’s office opined in the mayor’s favor in a hiring dispute.
Council members Monday asserted that the change in government structure was not about Griffin.
“This has nothing to do with the mayor. This really is about what’s in the best interest of the town of Blythewood, and I don’t know that there will ever be the perfect time,” council member Andrea Fripp said during a press conference held before the council’s regular meeting Monday evening.
Griffin has not responded to a call from The State requesting his perspective on the effort by his colleagues. He was the sole “no” vote Monday on an ordinance that if approved at next month’s meeting would put the government change before voters in a special election.
The council cannot change Blythewood’s style of government on its own. It must hold a referendum, giving voters the choice in a special election. In order to hold that referendum, the council must first pass an ordinance declaring its intention.
The council passed that ordinance on first reading Monday night. It will take its second and final vote at its next meeting, May 27. That is also when a public hearing on the issue will be held.
If the ordinance passes, Blythewood would have no more than 90 days to hold the special election.
If voters did decide to change Blythewood’s style of government, it would not eliminate the mayor’s position. There would still be a mayor, and that person’s vote would still count the same as the other four members of council. But administrative duties would fall to a city manager, instead of with the mayor.
“In all … forms of [municipal] government, the legislative or law-making function rests solely with the municipal council as a body,” the South Carolina municipal association explains on its website. “All members of the council, including the mayor, have an equal vote. What sets these forms of government apart is who exercises administrative authority.”
Ongoing tensions
In 2024, Griffin hired two employees without approval from the rest of the Blythewood council: a social media specialist and a deputy town administrator, and gave them salaries worth a combined $149,000, according to reporting by The Voice of Blythewood and Fairfield County.
The rest of the Blythwood council pushed back, arguing that the mayor did not have the authority to hire those positions because the council did not approve them in the town’s roughly $5 million budget.
The council responded by specifically de-funding those positions during the town budget process that followed. The person hired for the deputy town administrator role, Tiffany Cooks, ultimately turned down the position after it was reported that she had been under investigation by SLED. The social media position was eliminated at the end of 2024.
In response to the situation, the town asked the state Attorney General’s Office for legal guidance. In January, the office responded with an opinion that supported Griffin’s ability to hire those positions.
“South Carolina Code clearly gives the mayor in a mayor-council form of municipal government the authority to appoint and remove municipal employees as he or she deems necessary,” that Jan. 14 opinion reads.
Fripp on Monday denied that the effort to move away from a mayor-council form of government had anything to do with Griffin. Instead, she referenced the town’s major growth and its role in the Midlands moving forward.
Scout Motors is building a massive, $2 billion plant to build electric trucks and SUVs. State leaders believe the project will be an economic boon to the state as a whole, but particularly communities surrounding the plant, like Blythewood.
“This is a call in response to the public by a majority of council and discussed in our goal-setting session to initiate a change that will bring our town into the 21st century,” Fripp told reporters and members of the public during a briefing prior to the council meeting Monday.
“The town of Blythewood is changing. There’s no denying that. While Blythewood is still a small town, to some, the changes that are happening and those to come call for forward thinking as well as fair and balanced governing,” Fripp said.
Fripp and Griffin both joined the council in 2024 after winning elections in November 2023.
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 12:23 PM.
