Five months after a polarized Chapin Town Council expanded Mayor Bill Mitchell’s power over town employees, council members on Tuesday unanimously declared they’ve lost confidence in Mitchell’s leadership and that he should consider resigning.

The town council’s resolution of no confidence in the mayor — which carries no legal consequences — came after a heated discussion between Mitchell and council members, punctuated by Mitchell’s repeated banging of the gavel.

The four-page resolution outlined council members’ complaints against Mitchell: lack of transparency with them and the public; treating council members in a domineering manner; creating instability within municipal personnel because of his management style; and a pattern of decision-making that has been bad for Chapin.

For instance, according to council members, town department heads no longer provide updates and answer questions at council meetings. Instead, they said, Mitchell has been presenting reports on their behalf and frowns upon council members’ making direct contact with town employees.

Council members also criticized the mayor for repeatedly not responding to their calls or requests for information. His remarks to them in both public and executive meetings have been “demeaning and disrespectful,” they said.

If Mitchell cannot restore the confidence of council members and the public, he should “give serious consideration to resigning from the office in the best interests of the town,” according to the resolution, which Councilman Warren Burritt read at the Tuesday night meeting.

An alliance is broken

The move was a sharp reversal for Burritt and Councilwoman Ainslee Bost, who helped Mitchell gain more power over town officials in February. The three voted to pass an ordinance that gave the mayor authority to hire and fire top municipal employees, including the finance director and police chief. 

“We regret that 100%, and I’ve said that to his face,” Bost told the Chronicle in an exclusive interview with council members after the meeting. Council members Mike Clonts and Vicky Shealy had opposed the ordinance.

“Yeah, we made mistakes,” Burritt said, adding they’d known Mitchell as a different person while the three of them campaigned in November.

One of the main reasons council members brought the resolution, according to Bost, was Mitchell’s handling of the town’s opposition to the Lexington County Council on a proposed residential project just outside Chapin.

Chapin officials and many town residents oppose the real estate project, which the county council is the brink of approving. Bost said Mitchell does not want to consider other approaches the problem, besides his own.

Mitchell, who appeared taken aback by the no-confidence resolution’s last-minute addition to the meeting agenda, dismissed the allegations against him and the call to step down from office.

“These claims are unfounded,” he told the Chronicle, “and I don't intend to relinquish any of the job descriptions given to me by the citizens under the form of government they picked.”

The mayor said he was willing to work things out with council members. But, Mitchell said, their relationship was like a rocky marriage where council members weren’t putting in the effort to succeed.

While the council was discussing the resolution — after Mitchell initially blocked members from taking a vote — the mayor said he’d taken over various aspects of the town’s daily operations in an effort to fix problems left by the past administration.

Chapin’s previous mayor, Al Koon, died days before the November election. His family had asked town voters to write in the name of then-councilman Gregg White, without success.

Mitchell also said municipal employees were overworked and his 50-hour weeks at the town hall were meant to help, as opposed to his serving as a part-time mayor.

The Chapin Town Council’s resolution of no confidence has no legal consequences, said Eric Shytle, general counsel with the Municipal Association of South Carolina.  

Under state law, Shytle said, the governor can remove an elected municipal official if the person has been convicted of certain crimes. The governor can also suspend an elected official if the person has been criminally charged with certain crimes.

A municipal council, he said, can remove a member only for specific violations of law or lack of qualifications for office, such as residency requirements.

Mitchell’s continual disputes with town hall personnel started on his first day in office, when he asked to be sworn soon after the November election because Koon had died.

The town clerk of court at that time accused Mitchell of physically assaulting her just before his impromptu oath-taking ceremony. Mitchell has denied the accusation, which the S.C. Law Enforcement Division investigated. SLED decided not to bring a criminal charge.

This story has been updated since its original publication for clarity.