Council members clash over amending agenda without notice

SUMMERVILLE — Dorchester County Council disregarded the state's open government laws Monday by voting on a controversial issue that was not on the printed agenda, the chairman says.

The issue was a rezoning request to keep condos from being built in Ashborough, a neighborhood off Dorchester Road where Councilman Jamie Feltner lives. It's been a highly controversial proposal, with attorneys involved on both sides.

Council gave the request initial approval in April and sent it to the planning committee for further study. The County Planning Commission, another body, recommended against rezoning, since the buyer had already gotten permits and invested thousands of dollars in plans.

A number of Ashborough residents and their attorney showed up at Monday's council meeting to urge council to rezone the property. They said condos would make their flooding problems worse, questioned the validity of the permits, and urged council to rezone the parcel for single-family homes.

Feltner got enough votes to amend the agenda, pull the item out of the planning committee and give the rezoning second-reading approval. Council Chairman Larry Hargett and Committee Chairman Chris Murphy objected.

"I was very upset." Hargett said. "He had the votes all counted before he got there. It's not a good way to do business."

Feltner said he assumed Murphy was going to put the item on the agenda and moved to include it Monday because so many people showed up to talk about it.

A county ordinance says council members can amend the agenda with a majority vote. Feltner riled up Hargett and Murphy in September when he amended the agenda to pull another issue out of Murphy's committee for a vote. Council tasked its Governmental Affairs Committee to study the issue, but the committee has not discussed it since then.

Jay Bender, an attorney who represents the S.C. Press Association, has previously said such actions violate the state's open government laws. State law requires public bodies to publicize their agendas at least 24 hours in advance, and amending the agenda during the meeting to bring up controversial issues not previously advertised contradicts the law, he said. He could not be reached Tuesday.

Read more in tomorrow's eidtions of The Post and Courier.