With mayor absent, Cayce City Council votes to investigate one of its members
The city of Cayce will bring on an outside attorney to investigate a member of its own after a vote was taken at a special-called city council meeting Monday night.
After sitting behind closed doors in executive session for more than three hours, city council members voted to engage attorney Ryan Hicks for the purposes of conducting an investigation into communications between a city elected official and a city employee.
The 4-0 vote was taken without the city’s longtime Mayor Elise Partin, who shared in a statement ahead of the meeting that she would “not participate in a process that does not follow city procedures.” In that statement, Partin said the special called meeting was in regards to a personnel complaint against her. At the Monday night meeting, members of the council declined to name which elected official they were investigating.
The results of the investigation, which is being conducted by a third-party law firm after city attorney Will Dillard recused himself due to the fact he was a “potential witness,” are set to come before the council on Oct. 27 at another special-called meeting.
How did Cayce get here?
Members of the council did not share what led to the investigation, but the move comes after months of tension and fighting between council members and Partin. In the last two council meetings, Partin has reprimanded both the city clerk and the city attorney. It also comes after former city manager Jim Crosland left Cayce after less than a year into the job over issues he had with the mayor and the city council, a letter from Crosland obtained by The State showed.
Partin, who was first elected as the city’s mayor in 2008, “does not respect the chain of command and contacts and directs employees directly without the City Manager’s knowledge,” Crosland asserted in that letter. He also noted that it was clear that Partin and the city council didn’t communicate outside of council meetings.
“Since this issue has come to my attention, it’s quite apparent that this council needs to take some sort of action,” Councilman Phil Carter said of the investigation at the Monday meeting. “We understand the gravity of the incident that has transpired and now we have a clear understanding of what took place after last week’s meeting.”
Councilman Hunter Sox said at the meeting that he was “committed to fully investigating any wrongdoing and holding any member of council accountable” and Councilman Byron Thomas added that “the culture we create sitting up here on council sets the tone for how our city operates.”
Mayor Pro-Tem Tim James called the meeting, he confirmed to The State. The majority of the council had to agree to the meeting.
“It is unfortunate that a matter like this comes before city council,” James said during the meeting. “Matters such as this warrant a fair, impartial manner of due process and that due process is exactly what our council is expecting.”
Partin, who did not attend, issued a statement ahead of the meeting asserting that the city was required to turn over documents related to a state investigation over its use of taxpayer dollars and that the meeting was called to “distract public attention” from that.
When reached by The State, the city manager said he was not aware of an investigation. The city later issued a statement saying it is “not under investigation regarding taxpayer funds.”
Sox said he believed Partin was referring to a request by the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee to review documents related to allocations from the city’s accommodations tax, charged to local hotels and lodging.
A letter, first reported by The Post and Courier, was provided to The State that indicated the review committee had “received a complaint that the Greater Cayce West Columbia Chamber of Commerce has not been spending accommodations tax revenues in accordance” with state law and that the committee had “initiated an investigation into this complaint.”
The review committee, a state oversight agency for tourism-related expenditures, has the ability to investigate and research facts on written complaints submitted to it. It’s unclear who submitted a complaint. When reached by The State, Damita Holcomb with the review committee declined to answer questions or comment on the situation.
At an early June meeting, the city council approved sending accommodations tax money, funds that come from a 3% tax on hotels and other overnight stays within the city, to just one organization — the Greater Cayce West Columbia Chamber of Commerce — as opposed to the three that had applied and were recommended by the city’s accommodations tax committee.
Partin, who was the sole dissenting voice in the vote, has been vocal in her disapproval of the council’s decision. Multiple calls and texts to Partin from The State went unanswered Monday.
Continuing tensions
Councilman Hunter Sox compared her absence at the Monday night council meeting to her absence at a March 20, 2024 meeting in which the four councilmen voted to remove Partin from boards on which she served.
“She intentionally didn’t show up and didn’t tell anybody, and then ran with the narrative that we did this to spite her while she wasn’t there to defend herself, and that’s probably the play that she’ll have tonight, because everything’s political with her,” Sox told The State.
Ahead of the council entering into executive session, James asked Dillard, the city attorney, two questions: was the meeting legally called and were the matters listed legally allowed to be discussed in executive session? Dillard said, “Yes,” to both.
That clarification came after Partin questioned the meeting’s legitimacy in her statement, which she shared to social media. She argued the meeting did not follow the city’s procedures. When asked by reporters whether the city council had investigated a claim from a city employee before, James said he could not recall an instance.
The council’s decision comes after months of turnover at some of the city’s highest administrative positions and tension between city council members and Partin.
Some of that tension has spilled out towards staff members in recent meetings. At the Sept. 17 council meeting, Partin sparred with Dillard, the city attorney who was hired in January, after Councilman Phil Carter interrupted her to call in the attorney when Partin began discussing a candidate who was running for city council in the upcoming election.
Dillard explained that the council members weren’t allowed to endorse a candidate in a public meeting. When Partin asked whether she’d endorsed a candidate, Dillard responded that she hadn’t, but that he was “just answering the question I was asked.”
“You were not asked a question,” Partin responded. “I was interrupted … but thank you for clarifying.”
“Mayor, I was asked a question. It was clear that he was asking me to clarify,” Dillard said.
At the council’s last meeting, on Oct. 7, there were two tense exchanges: one between Partin and the city’s longtime clerk, Mendy Corder, and another between Partin and councilman Hunter Sox.
Multiple council members have publicly bashed the mayor, both at meetings and in the media, amid the escalating tension. When staff openly disagreed with an assertion Partin made about where funding for cost-of-living adjustments came from, Councilman Phil Carter told The State, “It’s simply the mayor trying to continue to be divisive and build up ill will in the community. It’s sad, but that seems to be the climate right now.”
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
