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MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

COTTAGEVILLE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
MONDAY, August 3, 2009
7:00 P.M.

Mayor White called the meeting to order, and led the Pledge of Allegiance.  Councilman Eustler gave the invocation.

Members present were Mayor White, Council Member Thomas, Council Member Eustler and Council Member Strickland.

The following takes place in open session.
ATTESTATION

Page        Line        Change/Correction        Reason

Minutes approved: ______________

_________________________
Terri Crosby, Town Clerk

MAYOR WHITE:     At this time I’ll entertain a motion for the approval of the July, 2009 minutes.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Make a motion we approve the July, 2009 minutes.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.
Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
Public hearing on the minutes for June 29 at 7 p.m.  It was the public hearing.  Do I hear a motion?
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion they be approved.
MAYOR WHITE:     Second?
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.
Okay.
Committee report.  Peggy Thomas, revitalization.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Yes.
Our revitalization committee met couple weeks ago and we had a good meeting, had good participation and we’ve got some things coming up.
In September we’re going to be having an event that we’re calling it Community Day and we are making plans to get some things together for that day.  We plan on having a lot of activities for the children and of course we’ll have food to eat and we’re looking forward to it just being a good, fun day for everybody in the community to come out and have a good time.
And then in October we’re planning on having Halloween the same as did last year at the vacant lot next to the car lot.
Now, last year we had some churches participate in being over there on that lot giving out tracts and we’ll be open to be doing that same thing again this year and we encourage your church, if you would like to, to come over and we’ll try to space the spaces out where everybody can have representation and so we’re looking forward to having a good time that night and afterwards, after the younger children have already left and, I hope, gone to bed, we’re gonna have something for the teenagers in the town.  So we’re working, trying to work something out that would be interesting for them to participate in that night.
So we’re open for suggestions so we’ll advertise when our next meeting is at and, you know, we want people to come and make suggestions.
In November we’re gonna have a Turkey Run and that’ll be sometime close, around Thanksgiving and then on the first Saturday in December we’re having our Christmas Parade. So for the next four months we’ve got some things lined up that we want to ask the community to participate in.  So we’re open for ideas and look forward to getting some suggestions from the community, what you would like to see, like to see us do and, you know, what you’d like for your children to be participating in.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Carlie Strickland, emergency preparedness.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I don’t have any.
MAYOR WHITE:     No report?
Charlie Cook, public works.
COUNCIL MEMBER COOK:     Yeah.
We have a few lights out so I have to call SCE&G.  But other than that, that’s it.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
Unfinished business.  Ditch update.  I did hear from Bubba Unger concerning the ditch behind the car lot.  We’re still going back and forth between the state but we’re gonna get permission to go ahead and clean out that ditch to give Mr. Card some relief.
I have a couple people that are interested in doing that work and I’ll have more information later.  That may be something that we want to put out on bids or we may end up wanting to hire a contract labor to go ahead and do it.
At this time we’ll have the second reading on Ordinance 14.098, Drug Paraphernalia.  Do I have a motion to go ahead and approve the second, second reading of the ordinance on drug paraphernalia?
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I make a motion that we go ahead and approve it.
MAYOR WHITE:     Do I have a second?
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay. So move and be coming around for your signature.
New business.  I have down there no new business but I do see out in the audience Tracy McDonald.
Tracy, I don’t mean to embarrass you but Tracy is the — I don’t know if y’all know her or not but she is the new principal over at Cottageville Elementary and . . .
MS. MCDONALD:    And beside me is Brad Brothers (phon.).  He is the assistant principal at the school.
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, thank you so much for coming this evening.
Okay.
This evening I want to go ahead and give you an update on the town’s financial condition.  There has been some talk and there’s also been concern.  You know, it’s been expressed in the newspaper and I just want to go ahead and put out that information. I was the one that put the information out and I’ll go ahead and tell you what tonight.
And so at this time I’d like to turn it over to the town clerk for her to go ahead and give her report.
MS. CROSBY:     I worked for a circuit court judge when I heard there was a job opening for town clerk position in Cottageville.  I thought, oh, boy, I would love that job and be able to get the experience and move up in to different area.  I knew I wouldn’t there where I was now.  Remember several people asking me, are you sure?  You know how Cottageville is;  they are known for their name as Speed Trap.
Well, I came for an interview with the Mayor Pro Tem Acosta and she hired me.  I started work on January 22, 2004.  When I started looking at things I thought, oh, no, this town is in bad shape.  QuickBooks had red numbers.  There were past due bills that had pages and pages.  I was getting late notices on bills in the mail all the time.  Several bank statements were not reconciled.
Then I was getting letters from the South Carolina Retirement System on paying police retirement.  I thought, no, that could be a law suit if an officer retired or stopped working for the town, they wanted to draw their money out.
I worked for the City of Walterboro for 12 years.  I know what looked wrong and what looked right and this town didn’t look right.
So then in March we had a special election for the mayor’s position because the ex-mayor resigned.
After the mayor was in office, one day I went to the post office to get the mail.  When I opened the box it was stuffed full of IRS envelopes. I started to open them and when I did it was payroll taxes that wasn’t paid for years and years.  I went crazy.
I went back to town hall and called the mayor.  I was in tears.  I told him please come to town hall right now, we have a problem.  The mayor came in.  He was shocked, just like I was.  He came in to this office and this is what he gets, too, as he started as mayor.
Well, I went over everything with our accounting.  They got on the phone with the IRS.  There were interest penalties added in the bill.  The total was sky high.  We ended up settling with them for $30,000.  The mayor went out and took the loan out to pay for this because the IRS was going to take further action if we didn’t settle with them.
The mayor and I took several trips to Columbia to meet with the municipal association because we wanted to find other means of revenues.  When we were meeting with Mr. DeVaul (phon.) he asked us how do we do our business license.  I told him we collected $20 from every business, some nothing.  He said, no, no, that was against the law and that we needed to change our ordinance.
So the mayor and myself worked on gathering information from other town businesses and sent it to our town attorney. I got the ordinance in to place.  The town didn’t even have a Code of Ordinances book.  There was ordinances in folder that wasn’t much to them.
Here’s the new books here.
The mayor started looking in to it and got an approval from council to hire someone to update the Code of Ordinances books.
That wasn’t all that went on but I will go on now to the new mayor.
Mayor White came in to office.  After I swore him in, the next day he met with me for three hours.  While I was in tears I asked him, are you sure you want this job?  I showed him everything we had pending, from lawsuits on vehicles that was purchased from Chicago, loan at the bank for past payroll taxes that we hadn’t made a payment on yet and a drug account, also about Pine Tree Cable that hasn’t paid our franchise payments and still, to this day, has not paid.
Well, Mayor White came in and took care of the lawsuits.  We started making payments on the payroll taxes and started fixing up the old town hall.  We were parking in the sand and when it rained it was mud.
We had people to come in to pay traffic tickets and they would make some remark about our parking lot but yet we were collecting traffic fines.
Yes, we do travel together then and we still do now.  We went to Columbia on several times to visit the municipal association attorney offices.  The mayor goes to class I attend for clerks to learn business licenses, financials and other things that he may need because he is the chief administrator for the town.
By the way, we’re not the only people in this town that travel together.  I believe me and Dawn travel together.  Dawn and the judge travel together and the chief and his officers travel together.  Sometimes me and the chief travel together.
Mayor White graduated from the Municipal Elected Official Office.  Has Cottageville ever had a mayor to graduate from that class?
I have my CMC – Certified Municipal Clerk.  Has the clerk for the town — Has a clerk from the town ever had that?
We attended these classes to find ways to better this town and laws that’s changed and other means of revenue.  Here are our certificates from our GFOA classes by USC if anybody wants to see them.  You’re welcome to see them.
Yes, and you do see me working long hours with the mayor sometime.  Next time you see that why don’t you stop by and see what we’re doing?  Maybe you can help us out.
The mayor does have a full-time business and I do try to work around his schedule.  I busted my behind in this town for five years.  I don’t live here and I’m concerned for this town and I do enjoy my job.
People can keep talking, talking, whispering to each other about me, the mayor or whoever else you want to talk about that works for the town but ask yourself this question, what have you done for this town?  Oh, I know, you’re trying to fire me because I do my job.
I could tell you more but I think I will stop here.  Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Rick Eustler.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     The comments made in the minutes from last, last meeting regarding the budget, I’d like to just address a little bit of that and also tell you a little bit of history.  So I don’t go too long I wrote it down.
I moved to Cottageville in November of 2002 for many reasons.  I like the small-town atmosphere, the freedom people seemed to enjoy and the chance to grow my business while working from home.  I moved my family and my business here so that I could enjoy the good life in a small town.
I remember my wife and I attending a town meeting early on.  It was interesting.  The atmosphere seemed a lot like a little town in Vermont where I had lived for many years.
That little town’s an interesting little town.  You see, in nearly 10 years since I have been gone – and I visit regularly because I have family there – not much has changed, same old houses, same family-based power structure, same political topics, just more of the same.
Now, the town has some – quote – old time charm but it also has people that are barely able to make ends meet, can’t pay their property taxes, can’t put food on the table, et cetera.  Times are very tough.
I have family that works at the local hosiery mill and between layoffs and cost-cuttings they almost lost their house.
In contrast, just about 45 miles or 45 minutes up the interstate is another town.  I remember when there was just one main link, the crossroad taking people to Essex Junction.  Mostly it was residential.  It was not a lot going on there yet.
There was one big difference, however; they were eager for change, eager for the opportunity and willing to work hard to see the residents have every possible chance to make it anything they wanted it to possibly be.  In 15 years the place had exploded — has exploded.  Economically, it is one of the best places to live in Vermont.  Property values are higher.  The schools are better, getting a 9 out of 10 on greatschools.com which rates schools based on the test results.  The little town I lived in rates 2 out of 10.
Just for reference, Cottageville Elementary rates a 3 out of 10.
In 2006 I decided to get involved in Cottageville politics.  From a Freedom of Information Act request the town provided me with a lot of information to review.  I found the past budgets and audits the most interesting.  This was before George, George White became mayor.
It seemed as if there was no vision whatsoever for the town.  It went like the town existed simply to exist.  I remember talking to someone and saying it was like someone driving a car with the windshield blacked out; they’re trying to move forward but they’re always steering by what they could see out of the rearview mirror.
In contrast, the current administration, the town staff and police department have a new vision of what Cottageville could be.  Last year’s budget was one of vision.  We did not meet projections but that’s okay, we tried.  We tightened our belts in that we could make ends meet while still catching up on old debts.
This year’s budget’s more conservative but still has vision to provide needed services, equipment and provision for the town.  The big difference is that looking — it is forward looking so that we can be a good — in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities that come our way and protect ourselves from untoward elements that may want to test our waters.
For some folks here in town it seems to be a matter of life and death to keep Cottageville as it always was.  Well, that is a choice for the voters Cottageville y’all can make but I can tell you from experience the outcome will be identical to what I saw up north.
There are major changes coming to Colleton County, especially the 17A corridor.  In less than 10 years Cottageville can either be a major player  with a vibrant local economy or just be more of the same.                  I know this, that you need people with vision and a willingness to work hard to reap the benefits of opportunity.  Very seldom does opportunity come – quote – knocking.  People with vision rather seek opportunity less look to the ground and then look to the next opportunity.
When I look at all this change in the town in less than four years it amazes me.  I feel honored to have the chance to be part of it.  If we as a community can put aside the desire to hang on to the past, some of which needs to be seriously put to rest, maybe we can finally put our collective energy into the future of Cottageville.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Dawn Boren, Clerk of Court.
MS. BOREN:     Good afternoon.
It was an average of phone calls and walk-ins for the month.  The caseload disposition for the ‘08-‘09 fiscal year was completed and submitted early.
I began my employment here with the Town of Cottageville in 2007 as the clerk of court.  Since then I have met some wonderful people, including the citizens of this wonderful and courteous town.  Now it is 2009.  We have made so many improvements.
During my ticket audit for the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles I sent out almost 15 affidavits for tickets that went back from 1995.  Last year there were 223 affidavits sent to the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles.
I’m gonna show y’all the difference between last year and this year.  This is last year.  Each one of these are an affidavit.
And this year.  And they all go back to approximately — I found one that went back to ‘93.
I am so proud of the new courtroom. I remember how disrespectful people would be to me when we were in the other courtroom.  They would yell and curse because they had no kind of respect for this town.  With the new courtroom I have not had one issue from anybody.  They walk in, sit quietly, say yes, sir and no, ma’am.  You can see the respect they have on their face.  They know that this is a courtroom and they honor that.
Also, I am safe here.  I measured the distance from the door to where I was sitting in the other courtroom.  It was 13 feet, compared to now in this courtroom where this is a 40-feet distance to the door.  That’s about three times as much.
There was also only two doors to run to compared to here.  If you look around you will notice that there are four doors in case of an emergency.
Now imagine. If some psycho came in the old courtroom during a council meeting shooting away how many of us do you think would have survived?
Every day there is a new problem within this town, complaints about fines or court and business licenses and the biggest thing of all that some citizens want the town to just go away.  The forefathers of this town thought enough of the citizens past, present and future to compile a forum to fight for their own town.  They thought that the citizens here were just that special, that they would fight for an independent voice.  Personally, I believe that that is an honor.
I’ve debated with lots of people about Cottageville, it’s a speed trap.  I don’t, I don’t think that Cottageville is a speed trap.  I always stand my ground to defend this town as if it were my own.  I know for a fact that now, at this time we are not a speed trap and I’m gonna show you why.
These were the tickets written in June.  These are the yellow copies.
These were the warnings written in June.  This is a lot.  A lot.  We are giving people chances.  We’re not going out there saying you don’t live here so we want your money.  That’s not the case.
I went back to review my cases.  Well, in this month I went back to review the cases.  We had simple possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, parties to a crime, weapons violations, not to mention the open container, driving under suspension and the DUI’s.
The most disturbing thing is the rise in minors in possession of alcohol.  One month I had over 10 cases of minors in possession of alcohol and guess what, citizens?  They were right here from this town.  They were your kids.
With all the fighting and bickering here maybe this negative attention could turn into positive action on how to educate these kids about drinking, especially at the river.  Pay attention to the death rate this year at the river.  We need to join together now and act before it is too late and you are burying one of your children from right here in this town.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you, Dawn.
Since I’m up here I think I have the right to embarrass somebody and I’m gonna embarrass Randy Price, one of our officers, and ask him to stand up.
Randy was involved in — instrumental in being involved in two meth labs this year.  One was bad but the last one that you were involved in, I’d like for you to explain the one individual, how bad that individual was, what we ended up dealing with.
OFFICER PRICE:        He’s referred to from Roundo, in the meth, little meth lab bust.  You’ll know it’s just a rap sheet.  He’d actually just gotten out of federal prison where he beat somebody to death (inaudible).
There was four individuals in the — in the vehicle.  One is already serving time on a probation violation.  The second one just got eight years.
The gentleman we’re talking about, he beat this guy, with the rap sheet, only got three years.  When he got three years federal narcotics picked him up for life.  You won’t see him again.
I hear the mayor saying, you know, and Dawn saying everybody believes that this is a speed trap out here and pretty much when I got — When I got here last year, I think I had more narcotic arrests than I had for speeding tickets.  Drugs out here are bad.  That causes a lot of people to speed and act up.
We’re trying; we’re trying our best to clean this area up.  We just — You know, (inaudible) Say what you want about a speed trap but it’s a bigger game out here.