Cayce mayor claims funds for employee bonuses came from grant. Staff disagrees
Last year, amid a tense budget season for the city of Cayce, the city council axed a proposed pay bump for staff and instead adopted a one-time retention bonus. Last year's decision became a point of contention during this year's budget season, with the city's mayor and its staff disagreeing on where the money came from.
At the city's last council meeting in June, Mayor Elise Partin called out Councilman Hunter Sox for comments he made at a May meeting about last year's budget process and how he found money in the budget for staff retention bonuses. Sox also posited there had been enough money for the cost-of-living adjustments, which were ultimately cut from the budget in favor of the one-time bonuses.
'I also understand [that money] was recurring and we could've used that for a cost-of-living adjustment then,' Sox said at the May meeting.
At the next meeting, in June, Partin encouraged Sox to set up a meeting with the finance director to make sure he understood the numbers.
'What [the finance director] told me about that money was vastly different from what you shared in the last meeting. It actually included using some money that was a gift from the Boyd Foundation and another grant so I know you want to get that right,' Partin said, during the June 3 council meeting.
But the money for staff bonuses didn't come from the Boyd Foundation, a Columbia-based nonprofit that funds a number of projects throughout the Midlands, or from other grants, a city staff member clarified after the meeting. The bonuses were directly funded by excess operating revenues at the end of the year, city spokesperson Ashley Hunter confirmed in a statement to The State.
'The public accusation that our Cayce financial staff utilized charitable donations from the Boyd Foundation or another grant to fund staff retention bonuses is something we take very seriously,' Hunter said.
'If the allegation were true, this would be a misappropriation of funds, a breach of the public's trust and could have caused a revocation of our Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting ... our city staff and leaders worked tirelessly to make sure this was a fiscally responsible budget.'
The $2.1 million grant from the Boyd Foundation was allocated to be used for a visitor's center building at the city's 12,000 Year History Park.
Sox said he believed Partin targeted the comment at him during the council meeting in an attempt to discredit his work on the previous year's budget and that it was disrespectful to the city's finance staff.
'She knows it'll be a campaign talking point for me and wants to find a way to not get me re-elected and not let me have any sort of win,' said Sox, who will be up for re-election alongside Mayor Pro-Tem Tim James in the fall. 'I don't need to win. The win is for the taxpayer and for staff, not for me.'
Partin said she wasn't immediately available to answer questions, but said in a statement that she had a meeting with the finance director and 'took notes and understood that there was not money left over' during the last budget process.
'At the time, I was sharing information that I had gotten directly from the city's finance director, and I was not aware that it was incorrect. If it is I still need information that would explain my notes and what was said,' Partin told The State over text.
The spat is another in a long line of disagreements and tense conversations that've happened within the walls of Cayce's city hall in the last few years, as Partin and other council members have sparred over everything from seats on various government boards to disagreements over whether to take something into executive session.
'It's simply the mayor trying to continue to be divisive and build up ill will in the community. It's sad, but that seems to be the climate right now,' Councilman Phil Carter told The State.
At the May meeting, things were tense between Partin and Mayor Pro-Tem Tim James as the council voted to go into executive session to discuss the search for a new city manager. Partin advocated for discussing the matter in open session. Council members pushed back. After consulting the town's attorney, who explained the matter was something that can be discussed during executive session, James and Carter argued for taking the matter into executive session, which council ultimately did.
'If council doesn't want to take a vote on it, doesn't want to be transparent, that's fine,' Partin said.
'We're very transparent,' James responded.
The friction comes as a number of top administrators in the city have either left or announced plans to leave. Within the last year, Cayce has cycled through two police chiefs and two city managers. At a May council meeting, outgoing City Manager Jim Crosland announced that the city's finance director was also set to leave.
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