Latest news with #Partin
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
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.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Yahoo
Tiverton woman admits role in $25K bank fraud scheme
TIVERTON, R.I. (WPRI) — A Tiverton woman pleaded guilty in federal court to her role in a scheme to defraud a Rhode Island bank out of nearly $25,000, according to acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom. Brenda Partin, 54, admitted to attempted bank fraud on Tuesday. In May 2022, a compromised email account from a Tennessee-based construction company was used to deceive a global snack food company into altering its vendor payment information to a Rhode Island bank. Miron Bloom said it was later revealed that the payment was misdirected to Partin's account. Between Aug.15 and Sept.19 of that year, the Tennessee company sent four $225,000 payments to Partin's account for a transaction involving the snack food company. Miron Bloom said Partin began withdrawing money almost immediately. She reportedly wired over $26,000 from the account to buy a car registered in her name. Partin also instructed an associate to open a second account at a local bank, transferring $30,000 into it, according to Miron Bloom. Miron Bloom said over the following months, several withdrawals and purchases were made from the accounts. In December 2022, the bank closed the second account with a remaining balance of approximately $108,000. For the next nine months, Miron Bloom said Partin attempted to convince bank employees to release the funds. Partin falsely claimed the money was a settlement from a car accident, that it came from her fiancé, that the co-holder of the account had earned it working in Turkey and had leukemia, and that the money was needed to address his affairs if he passed away. Miron Bloom said in August 2023, Partin told a bank employee that her associate had died and she needed the money to pay for funeral expenses. Partin's sentencing is scheduled for June 10. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hopewell council's marathon closed session fails to oust city manager from her position
HOPEWELL – A move to fire City Manager Concetta Manker failed on a tie vote Wednesday night after one City Councilor, apparently tired from the marathon closed session that preceded the action, walked out of the city council chambers without voting. The 3-3 vote fell strictly along racial lines. Councilors Michael Harris, Yolanda Wyche Stokes and Dominic Holloway – all Black members – supported keeping Manker, who is Black. Mayor Johnny Partin, Vice Mayor Rita Joyner and Councilor Susan Daye voted in favor of termination. Ward 4 Councilor Ronnie Ellis, a battalion chief with the Hopewell Fire Department, left the chambers without voting. Had he cast a ballot, his vote could have been considered a conflict-of-interest because of his city employment. More: Hopewell council asks for clarity from city attorney on treasurer's office duties Tensions hung heavy over the council chambers almost from the start of the meeting and only intensified as the night wore on. Raised voices could be heard coming from the off-chambers meeting room, and after more than two and a half hours behind the door, councilors emerged to cast a quick and terse unanimous vote to go back into closed session until the issue was resolved. Shortly before the meeting was to hit its four-hour mark, councilors returned to the dais. Ellis gathered his belongings and walked out of the chamber under the glowering stare of Partin. Once Ellis was gone, Partin asked for a motion to terminate Manker 'without cause' and offer her a six-month severance package plus benefits instead of the 12-month clause that was in her original contract. Before the vote was taken, Holloway indicated he was ready to vote but not before insinuating that some of his colleagues had already made up their minds to get rid of Manker before the meeting. 'Even in deciding personally for myself, I still feel there were certain decisions made and brought up in discussion before coming to this council meeting,' he said. Following the meeting, Partin refused to comment on the decision. Asked if there were any specific issues that led to the motion or if council would consider revisiting the matter at a later date, he replied to both questions, 'I can't comment on that because it's a personnel matter.' Other councilors left the meeting without commenting, either. Harris and Stokes took part in the meeting remotely. Manker, who did not attend the meeting due to illness, told The Progress-Index she 'was not provided the courtesy to be told' in advance that her contract and possible termination were the reasons for the special meeting. More: Pharrell Williams musical 'Golden' about his life canceled, filmed partly in Hopewell Manker, Hopewell's former information technology director, has been city manager in Hopewell since 2022, the first 11 months as interim after March Altman left to take the Petersburg city manager's job. She faced criticism from some on council for the way she managed the yearlong $3 million contract with the Robert Bobb Group to reboot Hopewell's flailing fiscal-management system and the back-and-forth with city treasurer Shannon Foskey over a plan to transfer accounting duties from Foskey's office to the Hopewell finance department. That led to a standoff between Foskey and the city where Foskey blocked Hopewell's access to its bank accounts and only reinstated it after council and administration forced her hand. Foskey wound up being arrested on an embezzlement charge for blocking the access, but some on council claimed Manker overstepped her authority and sought the criminal charge without council signing off on it. Manker also has faced criticism from Joyner, the vice mayor and one of three votes in 2023 to not give Manker the job full-time. Joyner publicly questioned Manker's ability to perform as city manager without any prior municipal administration experience, and she also sent an email – a copy of which was obtained by The Progress-Index through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act – telling a constituent she hoped to garner enough support from the three people elected to council last November to push for Manker's ouster. Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI. This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell City Council fails to fire city manager Concetta Manker
