Chapin mayor announces departure of town administrator, plans to be ‘full-time mayor’
Less than a month after taking over as the new mayor of Chapin, Bill Mitchell will now take a much bigger role in running the town.
After a specially called town council meeting on Tuesday, Mitchell announced Chapin is doing away with the town administrator position that formally oversaw town staff. Instead, Mitchell has indicated he plans to take a more active role running the town of just under 2,000 north of Lake Murray as a “full-time mayor.”
“The Town has reached an agreement to discontinue the Town Administrator position in our organizational structure effective today,” Mitchell posted on his Facebook page Tuesday night. “Mayor Mitchell will continue serving as Chapin’s first full-time Mayor. The agreement addressed contractual obligations and other relevant considerations, resulting in a settlement unanimously approved by Mayor Mitchell and the Town Council members who were present. Both the Town and Town Administrator Nicholle Burroughs are satisfied with the outcome.”
Mitchell had previously campaigned on the idea of eliminating the town administrator position. The town administrator is a nonpartisan, unelected position filed by the town council to oversee town operations and act as a liaison between town staff and elected council members.
State law requires municipalities to operate under either a mayor-council form of government, a council form or a council-manager form, each with different levels of executive powers for the mayor.
Normally, changing a town’s form of government would require a referendum by the voters. Such a referendum can only be called every four years, and any change requires notification to the secretary of state’s office and potential pre-clearance by the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act, according to an elected official’s guide printed by the Municipal Association of South Carolina.
Chapin lists its form of government as mayor-council on its website, which the form that gives the mayor the widest latitude to act as a town’s chief executive. Under this form, the town administrator would best be understood as an assistant to the mayor, said Eric Shytle, the general counsel for the Municipal Association.
“It is ultimately up to the council if they want to hire an administrator,” Shytle said. “But if the mayor is empowered to act as the town’s chief executive officer, and he’s decided he doesn’t want to have an administrator, they may not be a great situation to be in.”
Mitchell has moved to be a more active mayor since his election on Nov. 4. He moved to be quickly sworn in on Nov. 7, shortly after his election win was certified, citing the vacancy created by the death of former Mayor Al Koon three weeks earlier.
By Nov. 10, he had moved to stop the town from issuing any new water taps, also a move he promoted on the campaign trail to block new development outside the town limits that would need a connection to the town water system. Mitchell outlined all these steps in his Facebook post announcing the end of the town administrator position.
“Campaign promise made; promise kept,” Mitchell finished his Facebook post.
The new mayor has also found his share of controversy early in his term. The S.C. State Law Enforcement Division has said it is investigating Mitchell after receiving a referral from the Chapin Police Department the day he was sworn in reference to an alleged assault.
Mitchell has not commented on that investigation, and noted in his Facebook post that it was ongoing. The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The State on Wednesday.
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 9:58 AM.
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