Friday, Jun. 27, 2008

AB council at standstill without a tie-breaker

Detente may require courts' intervention

No matter the dispute, the reason for the recent gridlock on the Atlantic Beach Town Council is the same: the lack of a tie-breaking vote on the four-member council.

With Mayor Irene Armstrong suspended amid a bribery charge, plus a contested mayoral election that could take even longer to resolve, the Atlantic Beach Town Council is left with two factions with two members each - enough that any disagreement can come to a tie and be abandoned unresolved.

Although the deadlock has killed a number of issues, such as appointing a replacement to a vacant Housing Authority board seat, it flared most dramatically at two Town Council meetings this month, one on June 3 and a second on Wednesday.

In both cases, Town Council members walked into the meeting already in discord, failed to agree on an agenda for the meeting, and thus had to abandon the meeting before conducting any of the town's business.

The key to breaking the 2-2 voting cycle, state officials say, may lie with the courts.

Resolve the election?

Retha Pierce, who won the November mayoral election by one vote before the election was thrown out by an Horry County judge, has appealed the case to the state Supreme Court, where she has until July 9 to file her first brief. Then, the normal court schedule would require a series of responses and other filings that would take a minimum of three months before the first oral arguments could be heard - and that is without any of the usual deadline extensions, said Clerk of Court Daniel Shearouse.

The process could be sped up, Shearouse said, if Pierce or Armstrong or the town's election commission requested it. If an outside entity, such as the governor's office or the Municipal Association of South Carolina, filed a friend-of-the-court brief, that could add to the likelihood that the Supreme Court would move the case up, Shearouse said.

"They can expedite cases if they find it appropriate, but usually someone has to ask," Shearouse said.

Any movement from the Supreme Court in the next several months would only come in the most extraordinary of circumstances, Shearouse noted. Thursday was the last day of court before a two-month recess until September.

Once the mayor's election is resolved, however, the deadlock may still remain.

If the court deems Pierce the rightful winner of the mayor's election, or if it upholds the local judge's call for a new election and Pierce or another council member wins that, it would still leave the council with four members. A special election would then have to be called to fill the vacancy left by the new mayor.

Stripping authority?

After the collapse of the most recent meeting, interim town manager Charles Williams said he planned to ask for more drastic and immediate action from the Municipal Association of South Carolina, the authority that sent him into Atlantic Beach after Armstrong's and town manager Marcia Conner's suspensions in late March.

Despite the town's debt, pending lawsuits and collapsing public services, Howard Duvall, the association's executive director, said he was optimistic then about the town's prospects. Between the valuable beachfront property and the busy highway, it has revenue resources many towns its size would envy.

"Properly managed, it could be a very good example of a historic African-American beach," Duvall said. "There's a strong sentiment in the state that we need to honor that heritage."

He also said that Williams is widely regarded as an expert in getting struggling governments back on track.

"Charles has a unique ability to go into these types of critical situations and help get towns out of trouble," Duvall said. "If he loses the support of the council and we pull him out of there, the situation is only going to spiral down."

Now, with the paralysis at Town Council meetings, Williams and Duvall are discussing other options, such as asking the governor's office and state legislature to get involved. Those options, however, wouldn't be immediate since the legislature has just adjourned until January.

The legislature also does not have the power to remove the town's charter - that requires a petition by residents and a two-thirds vote on a referendum. The state could, however, write a new law giving the legislature new powers over failing towns, Duvall.

The governor cannot suspend any more elected officials unless they are indicted on a felony, said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for the governor. Pierce was indicted on a resisting arrest charge after a traffic violation in December, but that case, still pending, was a misdemeanor.

The governor will remain open to any suggestions the Municipal Association has, Sawyer said.

"It's certainly a unique situation, and if they came to us with a request, we could consider it very carefully," Sawyer said.

Authorities have said the criminal investigation into the town and its officials is continuing

If two more council members were indicted, Duvall said, the state would find itself in a new situation, as far as he knows: There is no law or mechanism to govern a town so racked by scandal that it simply cannot operate.