AG Responds With Mixed Opinions
BLYTHEWOOD – After Mayor Sloan Griffin created two positions and hired two employees to fill them last fall without notifying council he was doing so, council met in a special called meeting on Dec. 5, 2024, and voted 4-0 to pass the first of two required readings of an amendment to the Town’s budget ordinance to, among other things, defund certain of the town hall’s full-time employee classifications, including the two created and filled by Griffin. (Griffin did not attend that meeting.)
Griffin subsequently requested and received an Attorney General’s opinion on the issue. That opinion, discussed at the Jan. 27, 2025 town council meeting, was mixed.
While one of Griffins’ hires – a deputy assistant town administrator – had already walked away from the job prior to the Dec. 5, 2024 meeting, another one – a social media specialist – was still on the Town’s payroll and, during open citizen’s comment time at that council meeting, pleaded with council not to defund his job.
Also, on Dec. 5, Griffin sent a letter to the S.C. Attorney General requesting an opinion as to 1) whether a “strong mayor” could appoint a deputy assistant town administrator without seeking council’s input or approval, and 2) whether town council could lawfully amend a municipality’s budget so as to usurp a “strong mayor’s” responsibility and duty to appoint municipal employees.
According to Media Attorney Jay Bender, who represents the S.C. Press Association, “There is no such thing as a ‘strong mayor’ form of government. That is a myth fostered by mayors in the [mayor-council] form of government where the mayor serves as the administrative executive,” Bender said.
During council’s Dec. 27, 2024 meeting, members held a public hearing on the budget amendment and finalized it with a 4-1 vote, with Griffin voting against.
“With this budget amendment finalized and passed, it says, ‘here are the positions that are approved and funded, and here is the specific account number from which employees in these positions can be paid,’” Councilman Rich McKenrick said. “There will be no means to pay for positions not approved by council and not funded in the budget,” he said.
“This cautions the mayor about arbitrarily creating positions for people he knows, but who have not applied for the position, have not been properly vetted, and who council knows nothing about,” McKenrick added.
After Griffin secretly hired a woman to serve as the deputy town administrator with a $90,000 annual salary, the Voice learned from an internet search that she is under criminal investigation by SLED (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division).
Another person hired by Griffin to serve as a social media specialist was being paid a $57,000 annual salary. He was employed for two months before council members finalized the passage of the budget amendments on Friday, Dec. 27, resulting in the employee no longer being paid.
The money that had been appropriated for administration salaries was moved to a contingency fund elsewhere in the budget.
On Jan. 14, 2025, in a four-page opinion, Assistant Attorney General Cydney Milling responded to Griffin’s request.
The Town’s Attorney Pete Balthazar paraphrased the opinion for council members at the Jan. 27, 2025 regular monthly council meeting.
“In answer to the mayor’s first question, the Attorney General opines that he believes the mayor has the authority to create such positions for the good of the community …without the approval of council,” Balthazar said. “He recognizes the tension between a “strong mayor” being able to establish and fill some positions and the legislative (council) prerogative to enact and amend budgets, as that has always been a legislative function,” he said.
In answer to Griffin’s second question concerning whether council could lawfully amend a municipality’s budget so as to usurp a “strong mayor’s” responsibility and duty to appoint municipal employees, Balthazar said the Attorney General said ‘yes’ [council is authorized to approve the budget] with a caveat that council cannot do it in such a way that would completely strip the mayor’s powers under SC Statute 9-5-30, which lists the powers the mayor has under the mayor-council form of government.
But Balthazar said the Attorney General did not express a real opinion on whether the council’s defunding of positions filled by Griffin actually stripped the mayor of his ability to perform his statutorial duties.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2025 at the Manor.
