Chapin makes payout to former administrator. Where’s the money coming from?
Months after Chapin eliminated the position of its top administrator, the town will need to find the money to complete the payout to the last person to hold the job.
Chapin owes about $47,000 to former Town Administrator Nicholle Burroughs, whose job was eliminated at the end of November. Town council approved a settlement Nov. 25 to settle outstanding obligations to Burroughs, and on Tuesday council members voted unanimously to “pay the remaining amount due to a former employee” after meeting in a closed-door executive session for more than an hour.
The money is owed to Burroughs’ retirement account under the S.C. Public Employee Benefit Authority, Chapin Mayor Bill Mitchell said after Tuesday’s council meeting. The town will have to dip into its reserve funds to cover the cost of the payout, Mitchell said, although the mayor stressed that the payment won’t cause any financial difficulties for the town.
“None whatsoever,” Mitchell said. “We’re not in harm’s way.”
Burroughs did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement payment before this story was published.
The town administrator was previously a nonpartisan, unelected position filled by the town council to oversee town operations and act as a liaison between town staff and elected council members. But Chapin operates under a “strong mayor” form of government that empowers the mayor to act as the town’s chief executive, and Mitchell made clear when he campaigned for office last November that he intended to run the town as a “full-time mayor” without an administrator duplicating the responsibilities he planned to execute himself.
Chapin Town Council also gave final approval Tuesday to a measure that will further empower Mitchell to personally hire or fire Chapin’s finance director, director of planning and zoning, the public works director and the chief of police. That measure passed 3-1, with Councilman Mike Clonts voting against. Councilwoman Vicki Shealy was absent.
That move has also been controversial among the actions Mitchell has taken since he took office immediately after November’s election. During Tuesday’s public comment period, resident Lill Mood questioned what safeguards would be in place under the measure.
“If you hand this over to the mayor, are there any requirements for vetting, for preventing nepotism, to make sure people can only be fired for cause or have a route to appeal to council?” Mood asked. “These are basic standards for HR, for human resources.”
But Mitchell said voters could trust him to not do anything “illegal, unethical or immoral” with his powers as mayor.
“We’ve worked through some difficulties, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Mitchell said. “I think this could be the best the town has ever been... we could set the standard for the state.”
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