Audio recordings of Aiken County Council’s April 16th meetings regarding the House of Raeford chicken slaughterhouse and processing plant, the County’s wastewater/sewer plant capacity issue, and other County business.
by Don Moniak
April 30, 2024
On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, before a standing room only audience, Aiken County Council opted to not proceed on a tax incentive Ordinance, known as a Fee in Lieu of Taxes (FILOT), for the proposed House of Raeford (HOR) chicken slaughterhouse and processing plant. As a result of the non-decision, Chairman Gary Bunker declared the FILOT Ordinance “as dead as Marley’s ghost.”
As reported in Sewage Capacity Makes the News, the pivotal issue for the failure of the Ordinance was, and remains, wastewater management; as the HOR chicken plant could demand upwards of 1.7 million gallons of wastewater capacity per day (MGD) from a system that is only permitted to process 20 MGD, and which has less than 0.5 MGD of “unsold capacity.”
Despite the vast territory that is Aiken County, the County Council is still only considering live streaming of its meetings. Officials also refuse to even post audio tapes of Council meetings on the County website.
Although County Code (Figure 1) mandates that archives of audio recordings of Council meetings be kept for five years, and verbatim transcripts must be requested by a Council member (which rarely happens and did not on this occasion); the County requires that individual citizens must request copies of any audiotapes through a hybrid Freedom of Information Act request process. Costs of tapes can range as high as $3.86.
Because of the importance of the April 16th meeting, the audio recordings of Council’s Work Session and the Regular Meeting are being made available by the Aiken Chronicles. Following are timelines and summaries of both, with various speakers identified.
The Audio Recording of the Work Session Discussion on Wastewater System Capacity
The Work Session audio contains a nearly ten minute discussion regarding the Horse Creek Wastewater Plant, of which six minutes pertain to the critical issue of wastewater processing capacity. The critical information conveyed during the Work Session was not relayed to the hundreds of people who attended the Regular Meeting.
The discussion began at the 4:03 minute mark and occurred within the confines of the Work Session Agenda Item titled: “ Finance & ARPA Update Reports- February 2024.” The information that was discussed can be found in the Work Session Finance/Audit Reports.
8:45: A short discussion on the FILOT revenue information ensued after Councilman Mike Kellems asked if there is a report that could make accounting of FILOT revenues more clear. Council was told these figures will not show up until June.
10:20: The ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) discussion began.
13:15 to 18:13. Councilman Kelly Mobley questioned County Administrator Brian Sanders about a Professional Engineering Report and a separate Wastewater Capacity Study.
18:13 to 19:10 . Council Chairman Gary Bunker took over the questioning and better defined the terms of the capacity issue—that there is only 300,000 to 500,000 gallons per day of “unsold capacity;” meaning that all nearly all sewer processing capacity is currently sold to various Sewer and Water Districts.
21:31. Council voted to enter Executive Session, without specifying which projects will be discussed during the closed-door meeting.
County Council Regular Meeting Audio Tape.
The Public Hearing portion of the Regular meeting began at the 8:00 minute mark of the audio recording.
00:15:00: Questions were posed about a confusing Ordinance that authorizes Rezoning of a property from Residential Conservation (RC) to Residential Multi-Family (RD). The change was requested because RC requires lot size of 0.98 acres, and the proposed Beazley Homes subdivision involves lot sizes of 0.95 acres.
00:17:40; Questions were posed about another Ordinance that authorizes Rezoning of a property from a combination of RD and RUD (Rural Development) to only RUD. A comment was made that County Council should seek public involvement before drafting the new County Comprehensive Plan. This comment drew applause.
(Both of these Readings exposed hundreds of people to the County Zoning Ordinance and planning process.)
00:21:50. Old Business Number One, The Second Reading of the House of Raeford FILOT Ordinance was introduced. (A video with low-quality audio of the Second Reading can also be viewed here).
00:22:31: A Motion to Table was made by Councilman Mike Kellems and Seconded by Councilman Kelly Mobley, that would have deferred the Reading to a later meeting. Because a Motion to Table is undebatable, there was no discussion as to why it was made.
00;23:40: A vote on the Motion to Table was held. The Motion failed by a vote of 7-2, with Councilmen Mobley and Kellems casting the affirmative votes. The vote drew applause.
00:24:00: Chairman Bunker asked: “Is there a motion on this matter.”
00:24:15; After the lack of a Motion to proceed, Chairman Bunker announced that, “The Second Reading of this Ordinance fails due to the lack of a motion.”
00:24:23: An audience member asked: “Could you tell us what this means?”
00: 24:25 Chairman Bunker responded: “This means that this is as dead as Marley’s Ghost.”
00:24:28. There were twenty seconds of applause.
00:24:50 Councilman Phil Napier asked for all of his District 6 constituents to raise their hands.
00:25:15 Councilman Mobley stated: “ I want everyone to know and understand that we have a great deal of concern about this project…all of this is top of mind. But do please understand we only took up the FILOT issue, and by right this company can build on this property…”
00:26:25: County Attorney Brad Farrar explained what the issue voted upon involved.
00:27:00: Councilwoman P.K. Hightower stated that if the County cannot support HOR from a sewer standpoint then they can build but not operate; followed by five seconds of applause.
00:27:45: Chairman Bunker announces a five-minute Recess and states that “My guess is that 90 percent of the room were in here for this.”
00:35:00. The meeting resumed, with a full room of County residents remaining.
00:41:25 The “Informal Meeting of the Whole,” began; the portion where pubic comment is taken. Chairman Bunker stated that speakers should address “any topic not previously discussed this evening.” Nine County residents then spoke at the podium before Council, and one spoke from the audience.
00:42:25 to 46:30. Vicki Simons spoke about Council’s December 2020 decision to extend the City of Aiken’s Sewer and Water District boundaries north of Interstate 20. Chairman Bunker interrupted two minutes into her speech after she mentioned the HOR plant.
00:46:40 to 00:48:05 : Nilda Burke talked about rezoning needs across the County and advocated for a better comprehensive plan. (The County’s new Ten-Year Comprehensive Plan will be developed this year).
00:48:20: Carson Sublett offered the suggestion of employing the knowledge and expertise of County residents before pursuing major projects. After he began to discuss HOR’s record, Chairman Bunker again interjected with a warning to “not rehash” agenda issues.
00:50:40 Debbie Lybrand, who played a key organizational role in bringing people to the meeting, thanked Council for its actions.
00:52:00. Chris Miller addressed a separate issue, one of code enforcement compliance. This discussion lasted for nearly twenty minutes. At the 00:55:30 mark, County Attorney Brad Farrar offered fa four-minute summary of the various options and “limited tools” available to the County for code enforcement. At one point he stated:
“It is a pretty big thing to get sued by your own government,”in reference to the option of a request for a court injunction.
01:12:00 Natasha Person spoke from the audience, and stated her comments were “not about the FILOT,” before discussing House of Raeford’s record.
01:14:28: Chairman Bunker issued a final warning about addressing agenda items during the public comment period on nonagenda items.
01:17:40: Jody Madden discussed the economic impact of the equestrian community and addressed the “ public health problem” posed by avian flu; before ending with the statement “there is no chicken statue” in Aiken.
01:20:00. Michael Frazier discussed the Prayer and Repentance Parade/March that was held in Aiken earlier in April.
01:22:45: State House of Representatives District 81 candidate MacKenzie “Mack” Morris again addressed the HOR record.
The “informal meeting of the whole” was then adjourned, and Council voted to enter into its second closed-door Executive Session of the day, with Chairman Bunker informing the audience that House of Raeford would not be a part of any Executive Session discussion.
The April 16th meeting comments are likely to be reduced in County Council’s meeting minutes to a few sentences at most. This reductionism is routine in our County government.
For example, one person expressed support for, and eight people expressed concerns and/or opposition to, the HOR chicken plant during the “Informal Meeting of the Whole” at Council’s March 19, 2024, meeting.
The fact that someone spoke in favor did not make the Meeting Minutes. The concerns expressed by eight county residents were reduced to:
“Several citizens spoke in opposition to the chicken plant coming to Aiken County.”
Council approved the March 19th Meeting Minutes on April 16th without question.
