Milton Pope
FAIRFIELD – County Council voted 5-0 during a special called meeting July 17 to hire Milton Pope as a consultant to serve as the County’s interim Administrator. Pope sat in on his first meeting with Council Monday night.
“With the experience he’s had at a big county like Richland, I don’t think we’ll encounter anything he hasn’t already encountered,” County Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said this week. “Milton has a lot of experience, he knows a lot of people and he knows how to get things done.”
Pope is a principal with Parker Poe Consulting of Columbia and leads the firm’s local government division. Prior to joining Parker Poe, Pope served as the Richland County Administrator, managing 2,000 employees and a $700 million budget. Pope was also Richland’s Assistant County Administrator for more than seven years, managing multiple departments, including Emergency Services, the Register of Deeds and the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
Terms of Pope’s contract, released to The Voice this week, call for him to serve with the County for a period of up to 180 days, effective July 19. The County has agreed to pay Pope $10,833.33 per month as compensation. Pope will report to County Council, the contract states, and “perform the functions and duties as the County Council shall assign.”
Ferguson said Pope will also assist with Council’s search and recruitment for a full-time Administrator, and added that Pope has made it clear that he was not interested in a permanent position with Fairfield County.
“We’re not floundering in the water now,” Ferguson said. “We’re dealing with things we need to be dealing with. Hopefully, he’ll have a calming effect on us. We need to all pull together and do what we can, and we’ve been having some problems with that.”
