WINNSBORO – Days after he was offered the job, Gerald Seals is no longer Fairfield County’s interim county administrator.
County Council Chairman Moses Bell informed members of the council prior to Monday’s council meeting.
Seals is the second candidate in the past week to be publicly offered the position of interim administrator, only to abruptly leave. He’s also the third to receive serious consideration.
Councilman Doug Pauley placed some of the blame on Councilman Mikel Trapp and Bell. Pauley said Bell and Trapp quashed efforts to offer Laura Johnson, the departing deputy county administrator, the interim administrator role.
“They did not want her because they could not control her,” Pauley said. “When will we stop running around with no plan in hiring a new administrator? We need to be moving forward but we are definitely moving backwards.”
Council members had voted to offer Seals the position on May 20.
That vote came three days after the council previously offered the position to Jim Rex, the former S.C. Superintendent of Education. Rex declined to take the job the following day.
The council had voted May 20 to offer Seals the position, which he accepted.
The council also abandoned plans to offer the post to a former Midlands area administrator, who was never publicly named.
The candidate had faced complaints of sexual harassment in a previous position, according to public records reviewed by The Voice.
Monday night’s meeting was the last council meeting for County Administrator Jason Taylor and Johnson.
Taylor is leaving the county to become town administrator for Winnsboro. Johnson is retiring.