Roland Windham, the court-appointed expert sent here by Judge Paul Burch to look into Dillon County, has issued his report. The report appears in its entirety at the link:
Judge Says ‘No More’
By Betsy Finklea
The contempt of court case regarding a letter sent to Chief Magistrate Mackie Hayes from the past County Administrator David Mobley stating that he was instructed by then Council Chairman Macio Williamson to hire an African-American for a position in the magistrate’s office was remanded back to Judge Hayes for him to handle by Judge Paul M. Burch at a hearing on Tuesday morning.
Also at the hearing a report was issued from Roland Windham, the court-appointed expert sent by Judge Burch to look into the county.
Judge Burch said this was not a situation where the Circuit court stuck its nose into the business of Dillon County. It started in 1992 when Judge Burch was approached with a consent order to stop county government from using public equipment on private land. Last year, there was another consent order dealing with the micromanaging of county employees by the Dillon County Council. Then, lastly, a letter was sent to Chief Magistrate Mackie Hayes instructing him to hire an African-American for his office.
Judge Burch, a former Chesterfield County Councilman, said he had reviewed Windham’s report. He said Dillon County government seems to be having trouble moving from the 20th century to the 21s century and there have to be some changes made.
He said the court was not going to be accused of a cover-up or favoritism. He said the court was not a law enforcement agency or prosecuting agency and that this was a review and inquiry, not a criminal investigation, to straighten things out and make necessary corrections if needed.
Judge Burch thanked several people for their work and cooperation.
“All of this was done to make Dillon County a better place to live,” said Judge Burch, who noted many of the county’s positive aspects.
Then Windham spoke about his report. He said that Dillon County citizens want the government to work in a proper manner. He said it took some courage for people to come forward. He said some were under duress, fearing they could lose their job or their standing in the community. Windham said some of these things were indigenous to a lot of small counties.
He said that some council members didn’t have a clear understanding of home rule. He said county councilmen can’t direct employees or direct the employees to work on private property.
Windham said some of the allegations in the report rise to the level that law enforcement may want to pursue.
Windham said that the biggest problem is their micromanaging. He said there is a lot of interaction between county council members and employees. This has created a morale problem with some of the employees who don’t know what to do. He said other allegations bear strict attention by council.
Windham outlined solutions to help with the allegations.
Windham said it was an “arduous” task. He had about 40 allegations to look into and ended up with 14 or 15 that he felt needed attention. He said it is up to law enforcement to determine whether these rise to the criminal level and that he is happy to work with law enforcement, free of charge, if they decide to pursue these allegations.
“Dillon County can prosper,” said Windham, “but Dillon has to get out of the mindset of how it operated 50 years ago.”
Windham said that county council needs to re-establish the confidence of the public, and he feels if they adhere to home rule there will be an improvement.
“Hopefully the end result will be a better form of government for Dillon County,” Windham said.
Judge Burch said that the bottom line was to try to restore the confidence of the citizens of the community. He said he was “outraged” that there were so many violations alleged of his previous orders. He said some had been caused by misunderstanding, but a lot are not caused by misunderstanding. He said he was glad there were no reported incidents after the petition was filed.
Burch said he had striven to be fair but that this situation had worn his patience about as thin as it can go.
Burch said he was not threatening anyone, but they could take this as as warning if he has an affidavit filed with the court stating that there has been a violation of his order, he will issue on his own a rule to show cause.
“I’m drawing a line in the dirt,” said Burch. “No more.”
He said there was no sense having to be here a third time over this issue.
“Don’t try my patience any further,” said Burch.
Burch said the ultimate issue here was going to have to be decided at the ballot box. He said the folks of Dillon County are fed up. Burch said he feels drastic changes are coming to Dillon County.
He said that it is now left up to law enforcement and the prosecuting agencies.
He noted that the solicitor’s office relies on the county for funding and then is asked to look into matters involving them. He said this puts them in a highly precarious situation that the legislature needs to change.
Judge Burch said he knew a lot of people had other expectations of what was going to happen. He said the court was limited on what they can do and the first hearing essentially settled the matter when an apology was issued and accepted. He said the letter may have technically violated his order, but not enough for him to come with sanctions. He said he was not taking the risk of being reversed on appeal.
Judge Burch said that this was an attack on the independence of the judiciary and that Judge Hayes had the right to run his office as allowed by law. He said it was an assault on the integrity of the magistrate’s court.
Judge Burch said he has thought many an evening and many a night about this and after much thought and consideration, he remanded the contempt case over to Judge Hayes for him to handle as he so desires because Judge Burch’s court has no jurisdiction.
Then the attorneys were allowed to speak.
County Attorney Ken Dubose said that the council had taken some remedial actions to keep these things from re-occurring. He said council had made strides to clarify the road maintenance policy.
Judge Burch added that town councils have more leeway than county councils.
Attorney Charles Curry then spoke. He talked about past investigations that no one knew the results of, how some cases are said to still be open, and how investigations seem to end. Curry said the county working on private property has been a problem for several years and has been pretty open and flagrant at times. He said when the action was brought, the activity stopped or at least slowed down.
Curry said he thought the sales tax had been handled properly, but some people may not like the way the money was spent.
He said that the interference of county council members with county employees is what he perceives to bring about the rest of the violations. He said some employees feel like they have eight different bosses. Curry said that he thought all the people of Dillon County wanted to see was that the county administrator/council form of government implemented. He said he doesn’t feel like it has ever been implemented.
Curry said the falsification of fire records has been investigated a number of times, but he felt like it had been pushed under the rug. As far as improper use of public funds, Curry said the problem he had was that some council members wanted to spend the money before council votes on it.
Curry also spoke about violation of the Freedom of Information Act. He said he didn’t remember any improper pay raises for county council. Also he said that he had never heard of any illegal gambling by a county employee, but that someone had signed an affidavit saying that they saw Dillon County inmates and a Dillon County truck at a place that had a gambling machine. He said he did not know if this was true or not.
He said that as far as misuse of county gas, one has to rely upon the credibility of the employees and possibly a video could be put up at the gas pump.
Curry said he feared nothing would happen if they could not get some assistance from the court in resolving these types of problems. He said if they can’t get help from the court, they might as well go home because he didn’t think they were going to get help from any other agency.
Judge Burch told Attorney Dubose that he should have a word of prayer with council and that no retribution against any employee better be reported to him. “We will abide by the law,” Dubose said. He also asked Dubose to look into the situation at Wood Park.
County Council Chairman Archie Scott then asked to speak. He said he felt one of the problems they had was understanding diversity. He said African-American officials get complaints and that they also have to be represented in the offices. He said the citizens need to accept the people who have been elected and work along with them. He said all have to be represented.
Judge Burch said that Windham was amazed at the diverse group that came to him to talk about the problems.
