Eight days after the Batesburg-Leesville City Council voted to fire its top executive at a meeting that was subsequently deemed illegal, the City Council again voted to fire the man who has led the city since 2014, despite the mayor’s performance praised.
There was also an item on Friday night’s agenda regarding the appointment of the city attorney, and the body likely would have voted to fire him as well had he not resigned earlier this week. It was the lawyer who ruled that the previous meeting had been held illegally. He resigned earlier this week after the council decided to hold its second special meeting on the day he buried his recently deceased father.
City Manager Ted Luckdoo and attorney Christian Spradley were formally fired Friday during a meeting called by council members Steve Cain, David Bouknight, Bob Hall, Shirley Mitchell and Betty Hartley.
The moves were stunning to Lancer Shull, mayor of the city of about 5,300 on the western border of Lexington County, who praised the progress Luckadoo had made while leading the city over the past decade.
“Just this week we were awarded a $1 million grant from the Rural Infrastructure Authority, which is a direct result of the relationship and work of Mr. Luckadoo and his staff,” said Shull, praising Luckadoo for the work that he did for the city. “We have a water project that is fully funded by the RIA for $14 million, I believe. We have millions of dollars for sewage treatment, water treatment plants that Mr. Luckadoo brought in, with him and his staff and the relationships that he has.
Luckadoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shull also spoke positively about Spradley’s job as city attorney.
“He is considered by the municipal association to be one of the best municipal attorneys in the state of South Carolina,” the mayor said.
The move to terminate the city manager came on a 5-2 vote, with Shull and Councilman Jason Prouse voting against the motion. Councilors Barbara Brown and Paul Wise were absent.
The decision leaves the city in the lurch just three days before the City Council meets for a budget workshop to prepare the city’s financial plan for the next fiscal year, which is due July 1. Assistant City Manager Jason Hendrix, elevated to the top manager position in an interim role with a 20% pay increase while the city searches for a permanent replacement, will now lead the budget process.
“From the city’s perspective, it’s a challenge because by state law we have to have a budget by the end of June, just like all other municipalities,” the mayor said. “We do have an assistant city manager, and we either turn that in on time or we go back to the previous year’s budget.”
Despite the timing issues and the esteem in which Luckadoo was held by some, Bouknight and Hall said the city manager should go.
“I don’t think the city is going in the right direction,” Bouknight said. “I checked with my constituents. I asked the people I know in my district. And the consensus there was the same.”
“I believe that for the betterment of the community and the future, we need a more aggressive city manager who will look at long-term plans and act more aggressively on the needs of the municipality and our community,” Hall said. “There are a lot of details. Actually, it is a personnel matter and I am not at liberty to comment on specific policies.”
Bouknight’s son, Dave Bouknight, a major and second-in-command on the city’s police department, was passed over as chief two years ago when Luckdoo brought in Darren Amick to fill that role. The counselor said this had nothing to do with his assessment that a change of city manager was necessary.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I think the best thing for my son is to work for Darren. He’s a good man. I think it was good for him. I think my son would tell you the same thing. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. Nothing.”
Spradley, the now former city attorney and managing partner at the West Columbia firm Moore Bradley Myers, is both Hall’s cousin by marriage and his godson.
Both Hall and Bouknight blamed Spradley for the encounter with the meeting deemed illegal last Thursday. Five members were present, and Bouknight, who chaired the meeting in Shull’s absence, decided to abstain. As a result, the body did not have a sufficient quorum, and the agenda item on Luckadoo’s dismissal was not considered specific enough to meet the disclosure requirements.
“I was angry that someone declared it illegal,” Bouknight said. “My opinion is that a court should decide that it is illegal and not the lawyer. They have an opinion, just like I have an opinion.”
“It was deemed illegal without anyone going to court to prove it was illegal,” he added. “I’ve been accused of doing something illegal, and I don’t like that. All I did was show up to a meeting.”
Hall seemed more concerned that the council had entered illegal territory in the first place.
“We had some procedural issues that, in my personal opinion, could have been avoided,” he said.
Shull said he was surprised by the request for last week’s meeting, and he urged members to postpone it, explaining that he had a conflict: His son graduated from college the day after the meeting high school and had family in town for the occasion. The mayor said he was first contacted about the meeting the previous Monday.
“I said, ‘I have a conflict. I would respectfully request that you move this to next week,” Shull said.
Spradley resigned as city attorney Wednesday when he learned the meeting would take place on the day of the funeral of his father, who died Monday.
“The choice of the five council members to hold the meeting tonight, knowing the personal events I was dealing with, led me to decide that my family was more important,” he said via email. “I have had the honor of representing the city for a number of years and I think at this time I need to spend time with my family. I hope there is something urgent going on that can’t wait until next week, but then I always try to think best about others and their motivations.”
Hall emphasized that there was no malicious intent in the decision to move forward with the agenda item on his cousin’s employment on Friday.
“It’s hard for me to understand this situation,” he said. “This meeting was planned. There has been searching and planning, and I will have to look at the timing of his father’s death.
“We disagree sometimes, but whatever,” Hall added. “No offense was intended per se.”
