Cayce City Attorney: No Evidence of Racist Attitudes on Museum Commission, But Other Issues

Posted 1/11/22

Cayce City Attorney Danny Crowe reports he found “no evidence of any broader overt negative racial attitudes or culture” among the city’s Historical Museum Commission after an investigation …

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Cayce City Attorney: No Evidence of Racist Attitudes on Museum Commission, But Other Issues

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Cayce City Attorney Danny Crowe reports he found “no evidence of any broader overt negative racial attitudes or culture” among the city’s Historical Museum Commission after an investigation triggered by allegations of racist comments made by a now-former member of the commission.

But his report, a copy of which was acquired by the Chronicle, does list other issues with the Museum Commission. And the City Council meeting where he announced his results didn’t resolve all the issues that council has debated during the contentious meetings that have followed since the first accusation against Marion Hutson, a former volunteer appointed to the Museum Commission, was revealed in early November.

Council ordered the investigation during a meeting on Nov. 17.

After conducting interviews with city staff and Museum Commission members, Crowe concluded that while recent council appointments of two African-American women to the commission reflect a “commendable effort” to address racial diversity, the museum was described by some as “failing to depict, in a meaningful fashion, the history of African Americans in the City.”

“To address this, the City may wish to consider affirmative efforts to achieve an appropriate reflection of the City’s racial and cultural diversity and history in Museum exhibits and programming.”

Crowe’s report also concluded that “a small control group of the Museum Commision is resistant and antagonistic toward City Administration, and has a view of the Commission’s current role that is contrary to the City’s view as expressed through the City Code and as enforced by City Administration.”

“This is manifested in (1) resistance to change to exhibitions and rooms within the museum,” the report states, “(2) insistence on a right to ‘vet’ and recommend applicants for ‘Commissioner,’ (3) antagonism to purported ‘interference’ by City Administration, and (4) an inappropriate view that the Commision should be ‘independent’ of the City (despite City creation of the Commission and City ownership, staffing, and financing of the Museum).”

Crowe suggested it may be prudent for council to consider new ordinances to clarify that the city manager is responsible for operation and management of the museum. 

“The Museum Commision is purely advisory in nature,” the report notes, suggesting that ordinances enforcing this could also be useful.
Council reactions to the report varied.

Mayor Pro Tem James “Skip” Jenkins noted that forming a more informal advisory board could provide more diverse input into museum operation moving forward.

“We need to just just just do away with the commission,” he said. “Dissolve it ... do away with it and start from scratch.”

Councilman Hunter Sox, who pushed council to hold off on future appointments to commissions until a staff examination of the appointment process could be completed, saw the report as supporting that position.

“I do think that a positive we can take away from the investigation is that it illustrates problems with our appointment processes,” he said.

Mayor Elise Partin focused on areas where the city can improve. She also, as she has done frequently in recent months, scolded the members of council (Sox, Tim James and Phil Carter) who voted against dismissing Hutson in November.

“[Commision] antagonism towards staff stood out to me,” she said. “A lack of African-American representation of their role in the history of our city stood out to me. It stood out to me that there was support for the city employee’s statement.”

The initial accusation that Hutson said Columbia did not need another “colored” mayor was reported by council, and again by Crowe, to have come from a trusted and long-tenured city employee.

“All of council said they supported, they believed — they looked this person in the eyes, told them they believed them and then went on to gaslight them,” Partin said.

Lingering still is the issue of how to handle appointments moving forward. 

City Manager Tracy Hegler presented the results of the research into nearby municipalities’ appointment processes that Sox requested. She said there were many commonalities with Cayce’s procedures, that no municipality she talked with had a complex process, and that all the municipalities she talked with allow council to dismiss appointees at any time with or without cause.

Carter commented after the report that he believes background checks should be inserted into Cayce’s appointment process to weed out anyone with a problematic history. Sox said council interviews with candidates should be a formal part of the process. Partin, on the other hand, expressed a desire to keep the process simple, stating that council’s ability to dismiss appointees at any time makes it unnecessary to do more extensive vetting of candidates.

Council then voted unanimously to appoint four people to commissions who had been on hold since the body, at Sox’s urging, voted 3-2 to wait before certifying them. The contentious Nov. 17 decision included postponing the appointment of Marcy Link Hayden, a member of the Pee

Dee Indian Tribe, to the seat Hutson vacated on the Museum Commission, and the appointment of Kelly Wuest, Sox’s opponent in his November council race, to the Beautification Foundation.

“I would like it to be known that I had the opportunity to reach out to the majority of these [appointees],” Sox said during discussion before the vote to certify them. “I want to be known that I did go through the proper process that I believe should be in place by counsel to reach out and interview each applicant before making a vote which is why I feel comfortable seating these appointees tonight without this process being in place.”

cayce city council, Mayor Elise Partin, councilman hunter sox, commission appointments, racist comments

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