Full meeting transcript - August 11, 2022

» Well, it's a great day in Kershaw County. We are called to order on this special meeting, a call meeting, as agreed by Council on Tuesday. We have a quorum. Mr. Gardner is on business and can't make it, sends his congratulations in advance. With that, would you all please stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance? And I'll lead the invocation. As it says in Psalms 33, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and we take that to heart. Be with us today in these councils. Give us wisdom and give us strength and courage to carry through on all these obligations we have and all to the honor and glory of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. We are called to order. Would you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance.

» We have a single item. We move now to the adoption of the agenda. Can we have such a motion? I so move. Mr. Jones, a second? Second. second from mr brazel uh although any discussion uh with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous mr gardner being absent with that we move to new business a call meeting to appoint the next administrator of kershaw county as placed on the agenda by county council and i turn to mr tucker to make the motion bring the microphone over to sammy i'm sorry i'm still asleep um that we move into uh discussion on naming our next administrator for kershaw county mr danny tibbler and then all right and the discussion or yeah i said so discussion so you get some things we need to work out all right so the motion is to appoint uh danny templer a

» s the next administrator correct correct all right uh can we have a second i'd like to amend the motion please i need a second first yeah i got a second i'll second it mr jones excuse me mr chairman let me finish i will uh second that please sir to allow mr browser to make an amendment to that motion thank you uh with that we're into discussion uh first of all you mr tucker i yield all right russell go right ahead mr chairman thank you i'd like to make a motion to appoint danny templar kershaw county administrator as provided in the home rule act mr templar shall be employed as county administrator at a salary of 145 000 per year and provided an automobile allowance of 800 per month to provide his own vehicle he will also be provided additional benefits uh as other employees are all right c

» an we have a second second all right uh over to you russell to lead the discussion point of order yeah is that in the form of an amendment of the pending motion i'm taking it as an amendment okay go ahead russell has an amendment go right ahead i think i'd like to move to a vote to to name danny templar administrator under those russell before we move to a vote i'd like to to make a motion to amend your motion um make a motion that russell brazel is named by council as council liaison and contract between the council and administrator as any proposed contract with administrator any contract proposed would be brought to council for consideration by mr brazel for the council's consideration and approval so the essential there is that there would be a contract to follow that would require cont

» ract approval is that correct can we have a second on that amendment to the amendment to the amendment i think what he said was that there's the potential for a contract that doesn't mean there will be a contract for the next four months the potential of a contract right but i heard into that is that a second from you jimmy yeah his motion is still on the floor no no he made a motion to amend and i've i recognize that so is there a second before we move forward is there a second i'll second i'll second good so now lead the discussion there please sir thanks mr jones well he he gave an explanation but he didn't discuss it you have authority to discuss since you made the motion yes sir it's just to point um russell as the liaison for any contract negotiations with danny i'm i'm happy to do it

» that's fine okay um we're addressing the last amendment is what we're doing now we're on the third amendment which uh the second amendment which we have and then we have to vote on the second amendment then we had to vote on yours i'm just trying to track here and i need numbers from from you russell what was your numbers again i'll restate them they were 145 and 800 a month okay mr chairman yeah since we're in discussion uh mr tomlinson so just for clarification your motion does not intend that it'd be exclusive as far as contract negotiations between mr brazil and i mean i'm going to call danny and talk to him about you know whatever issue that comes up with the contract and i think is relevant just ultimately at some point if we go into executive session in the future is your intent that

» mr brazel will present that to council instead of legal counsel or he would just be the liaison for the council during contract negotiation okay all mean all council will be able to talk I'm fine with it I don't think it changes mr. B work with the county chair I'll call him back okay you had the second Jimmy I believe I did absolutely I'd like to thank you Brent for making that recommendation in a form of emotion I support it wholeheartedly as I'm going to support Russell Brazel's motion thank you sir thank you other discussion yes okay Sammy well I don't want to discuss on the liaison part I want to go to the first amendment we had with the numbers when we get there okay we'll get back to the numbers why don't we address the first one the last amendment made and then we'll work our way ba

» ckwards how's that everybody that's how we normally do it so the idea is a contract and then Russell would be liaison I would I need to understand what that means Ken what does that mean to you well the liaison would mean that council designated him to negotiate or a proposed contract council would have to approve it and it wouldn't prevent council from being involved in discussing it with danny but um any proposed contract the council would designate russell as a point person right is that on your understanding there right yes sir that's all right uh and the contract would be brought back to council my understanding is it would be probably at the next meeting which would be in september is that sufficient that's not my understanding no you'd like to have it sooner no i don't even know that

» we need a contract i think that'll be something that will be worked out later but we got four months you got a new council coming on board in four months and they certainly will do a contract but where this council needs to do a contract i'm not so sure if we need or not but i will trust russell's and ken dubose's judgment on that what we have though is from mr thompson the motion to do a contract no let me ask let me get some legal advice on this mr well let me i'm talking right now all right go ahead brian is that what your uh emotion was not a motion to do a contract it's the motion whenever the content contract negotiations start that russell is just our point person in the negotiations between danny and council and so what would be the effective date of the contract mr the bows i'm ask

» ing him first because i want him to clarify his motion please yeah that i didn't clarify that there would be a contract um but it's just saying when there is a contract going forward um that russell will be the point person what would be the benefit of a contract mr bows well i mean honestly the benefit of a contract would be three months and it would take 60 days to terminate anybody anyway so a a contract entered into in september or october would really have very little legal value in my opinion because it would be so short term if you terminate a administrator you have to put on the agenda you have to give them the terms they have a right to ask for a public hearing all of which would take 30 or 45 days so if you entered into a contract and you'd be hypothetical in september and decided

» to terminate the administrator in october you wouldn't be terminated until december and the contract would end in January anyway, and you'd have to go through the same thing again. So your question to me is, how much advantage is there for a man to have a 60-day contract? Thank you. Yeah, and that's Mr. Jones' point. There's any further clarification on the issue of a contract? So to be completely and clear, we'll act as a body today to appoint or not appoint Mr. Templar, and a contract is unnecessary at this point. Well, I think you would discuss it with Mr. Templer. I think it has something to do with his attitude, too. I mean, the motion is for you. The way I understand it, the motion is for you to discuss these matters with the administrator. Okay, well, I'm happy to do that.

» So let's vote on that. Let's take that to a vote, unless there's other discussion. Well, no, we're going to have other discussion. Go ahead, please. Mr. Chair, I was just going to say, as a practical matter, if we appoint Mr. Templer based on these terms on the First Amendment, and he accepts the terms, then he's hired. You don't have to have a contract.

» he's hired the the contract would formalize any relationship after that once it gets signed but you know you could act as an operating uh administrator as of today assuming you know he accepts the appointment we can appoint him because they know um but if he accepts the appointment then he is the administrator i'm okay with that yeah so i don't see the practical value to a contract at this point if it's going to be a longer term relationship i mean it's just it's such a truncated uh time schedule here um but if it's going to be a year term you won't you might want to lay out relationships a little bit more formally um yeah so those are my comments mr chairman mr connell if no one objects i think maybe mr temp assuming he's appointed administrator but pro's motion is to discuss a contract wi

» th him i don't want to put him on the spot but i think he would recognize that the new council would have to enter into a more formal agreement i'm not going to ask him now but i think i think he would understand that the new council would be the one that he would be looking to for a more formal permanent contract i i think yeah is that not correct my point is also that even based on the second amendment i could call him tonight absolutely and say hey let's talk about a contract i mean you wouldn't have the formality of an appointed uh liaison i guess as a point person for council but any one of us could call and talk about a contract well theoretically you wouldn't want seven contracts brought back before council that's right yeah but that's only advantage that is any proposed contract und

» er the motions understanding would be brought back by mr russell and i guess mr um templar would be involved in it also if that happened now i don't know whether that would happen or not i'm happy to do it but i don't want to stand in the way of getting the work done at least as long as we understand on second amendment contract is not necessary y'all can figure out if hey 60 days we want to lock it in in writing in all various terms for how behavior between each party uh is required under the letter of the of the deal that's fine um but i don't think it's real material for today which is the the first amendment's the main thing i think i'm ready to go to a vote on brantley's um amendment and then walk our way backwards if everyone's ready uh all right you're good so restate your amendment

» and in the light of what we just heard and then we'll vote on it i make a motion to amend mr brazel's motion to add to the motion that russell brazel is named by council as council's liaison and contract between council and the administrator to any proposed contract with the administrator any proposed contract will be brought to council for consideration and presented by mr brasil's council's consideration and approval okay all those in favor signify by raising your hand i'm happy to do it and that's unanimous so we go to the second or the first amendment which was russell's russell i ask you to restate yours yeah of course mr chairman i'd like to make a motion to name danny templar kershaw county administrator as provided in the home rule act mr templar shall be employed as county administ

» rator at a salary of 145 000 per year it'll be paid periodically through payroll and provided also an automobile allowance of 800 per month so that he can provide his own vehicle he will also be provided additional fringe benefits as are other employees of the county perfect thank you all right with that we moved to a vote all those in favor i thought i was going to have some discussion on numbers we have we're going to have a second on it too yeah we need to say we had a second we had a second you seconded it oh yeah you did say that he wanted to talk about the numbers go ahead please yes in discussion so um a couple things is that um one uh want to make sure that this salary increase because it would be an increase for him falls where it's not a counting nightmare i think you know what i'

» m talking about mr mr temple when it comes down to payroll and the others is that um i just wanted because i see there's people with difference of um maybe what they want of 150 and i'm happy to amend their motion 150 on the salary to um a thousand on the car allowance so is that an amendment matter of fact i'll make it as an amendment i i make the amendment to russell's amendment that we pay mr templar 150 salary with allowance of one thousand dollars a month car allowance uh do we have a second is there a second to that there is no second so the motion fails and we can move back to any further discussion on mr brazel's amendment uh there is none we move to a vote uh that's 145 and 800 and with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous thank you russell for that

» and now we go and for the record i saw mr templar smile for the first time in a week that's more of a grin than a smile he brought an army in here today though and i do need to to clean up my housework here we now move to a vote on the motion originally made by mr tucker as amended uh with all those favorites signify he restate that motion it's what it's what was amended it's russell's motion oh yeah let's vote in favor or not signify vibration i'm sorry i'm confused i'm a long clear though he made the motion okay and we had a second and then you made a motion we had a second okay and then we went all through that so wait a minute guys help me clean this okay well my motion fails because he amended it your first motion was got it on the table no no no discussion yeah yeah yeah so we're just

» to solidify this contract that's that's exactly right yeah okay you you brought a motion on the table then he amended it and then he amended it and now now i got to do what mr mr dubose told me to do eight years ago yeah the two amendments now are merged okay that's right he approves his motion and that's right and so now we got to put the whole thing together in one package and uh but not mr tucker's motion no no it was his original motion thank you gentlemen so all those in favor uh what was his original motion to discuss this this is the final vote minister to name him minister you got to go back to one you got to go back to one which is one we had three motion for motion this is nuts this is how we do it no it is not how all those in favor signify by raising your hand and shenanigans we

» 're fine and can we have a motion now to adjourn by golly yes sir that's a by golly yes sir from Russell second can we have a by golly from uh yep got that all right any discussion seeing there is none can i can i make a comment yeah go ahead discussion tell danny that um we're thrilled to be able to hire you you've shown us um some of us longer than others but you've shown me for over a year and a half that you stay calm under fire you don't get excited um you deal with a lot of stress and and that that's what true leaders do and i am certainly thrilled to have you named as as our administrator today thank you danny mr chairman we should ask him do you accept the appointment we proposed well that's for mr russell i do and um i'm just absolutely humbled to be able to step into this role per

» manently um officially and get down to business and just lead this organization um we have a great group of employees i've said that time and time again i believe that um good morning mike sir um so it's no no surprise that uh we have as many as we could in in the uh council chambers here but um but i thank y'all for your work that you've done i know there was a lot of deliberating back and forth to what's best for the county and what's best for me. And I feel like we came to a junction where it's best for everybody here. So thank you all for your work. - Kershaw County just won. Thank you, Danny. - Well, I got something I want to say. First off, congratulations, Danny. And I'm going to tell you something. Who was it that said he stays calm? Let me tell you something.

» And nobody knows this. He has fired into me in his office. I can promise you that. And he stands his ground when he thinks he's right. I don't care who it is. And I'll be honest with you. I had never had anybody stand up. What did I tell you? Man, you just moved up in my book because you stood your ground. You didn't care about who we were or what we were. You said, look, this is how I feel. I'm going to stand on it. And I had earned more respect for you when I walked out of your office that day, even though you did say you were glad I called you back. I was. Because it wasn't personal. But you know what, Danny? You stood up. And you were standing up for one of your employees. I respect that. And I won't go any further into it.

» these employees i think that speaks for why they're here today and uh you're gonna provide great leadership thank you so much thank you i'm honored i'm honored to be here with you other comments ditto and with that we move to a vote all those