by Don Moniak

January 13, 2023

Yesterday afternoon, eight hours after announcing a Special Meeting for January 17th to reconsider a amended ordinance to governing the Aiken Municipal Development Commission (AMDC), Aiken City Council released a revised version of the ordinance.

As of Monday, January 9th, Council had proposed an AMDC composed of three city council members as ex-officio voting members alongside and six appointed voting commissioners. The revised, proposed ordinance abolishes the appointed commission structure and has Council assume the responsibilities of the AMDC, with all seven council members acting as ex-officio voting members.

This proposal could enable Council to more easily facilitate the transfer properties whose titles are officially held by the AMDC—but were purchased with city funds— to City of Aiken ownership and control (2). It also removes the remaining two commissioners involved with the Pascalis Project. There is no indication as to whether the AMDC would be abolished entirely if AMDC properties are transferred to city ownership and control.

The proposed ordinance is not without complications. First, as reported yesterday in Aiken City Council Stumbles on AMDC, three members of Aiken City Council have potential conflict of interests that warrant recusal from this vote and from serving as AMDC members:

• Since the AMDC is the landlord for existing businesses remaining Pascalis properties, Mayor Rick Osbon would be a voting member of a commission whose tenants include Warneke’s Cleaners. Mayor Osbon did recuse himself from an Executive Session involving downtown property on December 12, 2022, but has yet to indicate he will recuse himself from serving as an ex-officio member. 
• Councilman Ed Woltz owns properties on Willliamsburg Street adjacent to AMDC-owned properties, where he operates Sutton Marine. He has routinely, and appropriately, recused himself from Council matters in that vicinity in the past.
• Councilman Ed Girardeau’s real estate firm represented the Williamsburg Street property owners and profited from its sale to the AMDC. (1)
  
  The second complicating factor is the role of Aiken City Attorney Gary Smith, who prepared both the January 9th ordinance and the revised ordinance, and has been advising Council on the matter. In his supporting memorandum for the revised ordinance, City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh wrote:
  
  “After consultation with the City Attorney, it was determined that City Council has the discretion and authority to abolish the office of commissioners for the AMDC and assume governance of the AMDC. This discretion and authority is granted pursuant to S.C. Code 1976 Section 31-10-40, et seq.
  This amended ordinance will reconstitute the AMDC membership to consist of the seven members of Council as ex-officio voting members. The city manager would no longer. serve as an ex-officio non-voting member.”
  
  As reported in The Pascalis Attorneys, at least two of Mr. Smith’s law partners, particularly Attorney Ray Massey, were instrumental in acquiring the seven Pascalis properties on behalf of the first Pascalis developer, Weldon Wyatt. His partner Ray Massey also represented Wyatt’s WTC Investments, LLC when the properties were assigned to the Aiken Chamber of Commerce in May, 2021–with an option for the AMDC to purchase. 

A third complicating factor is the unfinished business of the AMDC. Former commissioners Keith Wood and Chris Verenes issued statements of protest on September 29th after voting to terminate key Project Pascalis documents. They further identified unresolved issues regarding “indefensible” and “inexcusable” actions by city staff in their December 9, 2022 resignation letters. To date, the City of Aiken still has not answered some basic questions posed by Wood and Verenes:

• Who approved delaying publication of a Request for Proposals until ten days after the selection of a developer and the signing of the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the Pascalis project properties? 
• What was the official reason for the delay? 
• Why are most Aiken City Council members refusing to meet with the former commissioners to discuss these matters? 
  
  After at least three hours of closed-door sessions in the past month, Aiken City Council continues to alter its course on the future of properties owned by its municipal development commission. Are they moving forward, backwards, or sideways?

Footnotes:

(1) The purchase of 102, 112, and 114 Williamsburg Street, SE, kown as the “Jackson Petroleum Property,” using Community Development Block Grant funds obtained from the City of Aiken was approved by the AMDC on November 17, 2020. The AMDC’s

Closing documents pertaining to that transaction were obtained by Aiken resident Kelly Cornelius via Freedom of Information Act requests.

According to the Settlement Statement, RE/MAX Tattersall Group earned a $14,000 commission from the sale of the Jackson Petroleum property on Williamsburg Street to the AMDC.

Councilman Ed Girardeau served on the AMDC as an ex-officio member through August, 2020, before being replaced by City Council appointees after the AMDC membership rules were amended to provide governance by a nine-person appointed commission. While he was not a member when the commission voted to authorize purchase of the property, he was a member when redevelopment of the property was first discussed on June 2, 2020.

The law firm of Smith, Massey, Brodie, Guynn, and Mayes was the settlement agent in the transaction. When the Purchase and Sale Agreement was signed in November, 2020, Gary Smith was the official city counsel to the AMDC.

2. Below is the deed for 106 Laurens St, SW, in which the owner, the AMDC, is defined as a body politic and corporate and political subdivision of the State of South Carolina. So even though it is wholly funded by the City of Aiken (minus rental income), the AMDC is technically a distinct, separate entity from the City of Aiken.