COLUMBIA, S.C. — Several residents attended a special meeting Friday night in the Town of Batesburg-Leesville to learn the fate of the Town Manager and the Town Attorney.
In a 5-2 vote, the council officially removed their Town Manager, Ted Luckadoo, and recognized the resignation of Town Attorney Christian Spradley.
The meeting follows a mishap at last week's meeting, when the council began working to vote out the now-former Town Manager.
"Our ordinance is out-of-date on what it takes to convene a special meeting," Mayor Lancer Shull said. "Our ordinance says four members, but the state ordinance says a majority, which is five for us. That trumps ours, of course. The other piece of this is the agenda itself; when I reviewed the agenda items, they were a clear FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] violation... too vague."
While the town looks to officially appoint a new town manager, Jay Hendrix, the assistant town manager, was voted interim manager.
"Day-to-day, the town manager manages all of the employees of the town," Hendrix said. "We have a police department, fire department, street fleet. We also have a water and sewer division as well. They have oversight of all of those positions, but they also have oversight of pursuing grants and different sources of funding and really assisting the council with their vision for the town."
"That's what excites me; it is the potential for making our community better and stronger," Hendrix added.
As the fiscal year ends in June, the Batesburg-Leesville Council and its new interim town manager will meet again on Monday to discuss funding the upcoming budget.