“Riddled With Contradictions and Nearly Insurmountable Obstacles.” 

by Don Moniak

December 22, 2022

J. David Jameson submitted his resignation (1) from the Aiken Municipal Development Commission (AMDC) on December 14, 2022.   Jameson, who was was first appointed to the commission in September, 2020, remains in his position as President of the Aiken Chamber of Commerce. (2).

The resignation came five days after half of the remaining commissioners—Keith Wood, Chris Verenes, and Douglas Slaughter (2)—resigned; and two days after a previously unreported closed-door legal briefing “concerning the mechanics of the AMDC.” 

In his resignation letter, Jameson lambasted South Carolina’s Community Development Law, writing the “statute that governs the actions of the AMDC is riddled with contradictions and nearly insurmountable obstacles,” but did not provide any specific examples. 

According to former AMDC Chairman Keith Wood, the AMDC was not fully briefed on the governing statute until this past June. Neither Wood nor Verenes chose to criticize state law in their December 9th resignation letters or public statements of September 29, 2022; choosing instead to insist the law must be followed.  The September 29th statements came twenty days after Jameson forced an amendment to, and delay of, an AMDC motion to cancel Project Pascalis—-the first visible sign of a division on the commission.

Jameson also blamed the commission’s own bylaws for holding it “hostage,” claiming “with our current membership of three, we can meet but we cannot act.” But according to the AMDC’s governing statute, the SC Community Development Law, five members are required to hold a meeting and act, and no set of bylaws can override state law: 

“A commission may be governed by the members of the governing body of its parent municipality serving ex officio or by not less than five nor more than nine commissioners selected by the governing body of the municipality.” (SC 31-10-40). 

Jameson’s resignation letter also raises questions about the most recent Aiken City Council closed-door Executive Session, held on December 12, 2022. According to the public notice, the closed-door session was specifically to discuss: 

“1.Potential purchase of real property located in downtown Aiken.

2. A proposed contractual arrangement to lease property in downtown Aiken.”

The relationship of the “mechanics of the AMDC” and the proposed purchase of property is unknown. But considering the AMDC owns the seven downtown Pascalis project properties, and that these were packaged as a single property in its cancelled agreement with the Pascalis project developer,  it is possible the discussion involved not a purchase of property, but a transfer of the entire property from the AMDC to the City of Aiken. 

Upon questioning, City officials declined to name the property under secret discussion that evening. City Attorney Gary Smith stated “it is a downtown property, no information can be released if not all parties are ready to discuss it.” 

Not surprisingly, Jameson’s objections to state law come one year after he took the lead in organizing secret, invitation-only Pascalis project “influencer” meetings, in violation of the state’s Open Meeting statute prohibiting “circumvention of the spirit of (the law)” through a “chance meeting, social meeting, or electronic communication.”

Jameson was also instrumental in the decision to have the Chamber secretly take assignment of the Pascalis properties on behalf of the AMDC when the project’s first developer, Weldon Wyatt, exited the project in May, 2021.  The latter action set off a long domino effect of legally questionable behavior. Eventually, dozens of violations of state law were alleged in the July 5, 2022,  Blake et al vs City of Aiken et al lawsuit that brought the sputtering Pascalis project effort to a standstill.  

Footnotes

(1) The previously unannounced resignation letter was obtained via a Freedom of Information Request by Aiken resident Kelly Cornelius. The full text of all five resignation letters obtained provided below. 

As reported in Chairman Keith Wood and Vice-Chair Chris Verenes Resign, Slaughter’s resignation was unnecessary and duplicative: 

“Since he is in violation of city attendance rules for appointed officials, having missed four of six regular meetings this year, Reverend Slaughter will be automatically removed as a commissioner on January 1, 2023.”

(2) Jameson is one of two AMDC members who publicly commented on Project Pascalis during public meetings, but declined to identify their affiliation with the commission.

On April 20, 2022, Jameson spoke on behalf of the Chamber without disclosing his AMDC membership or the joint role the Chamber played in pursuing the project in 2021.

On May 9, 2022, Commissioner Philip Merry spoke as a private individual in favor of privatizing Newberry Street, but failed to disclose his AMDC membership.