Atkins v. Wilson

417 S.C. 3
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedMarch 9, 2016
DocketAppellate Case No. 2014-000829; Opinion No. 5388
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 417 S.C. 3 (Atkins v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atkins v. Wilson, 417 S.C. 3 (S.C. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

GEATHERS, J.:

In this declaratory judgment action, Appellants, Vivian Atkins, Robert Frick, and Kay Hollis, a majority of the members of Chapin Town Council, seek review of the circuit court’s order granting the motion of Respondents, Mayor James Wilson, Jr. and Councilman Gregg White, to invalidate actions taken by Appellants at two special Council meetings. Appellants also initially challenged the circuit court’s order denying [6]*6their motion for a preliminary injunction and dismissing their complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure (SCRCP). However, at oral arguments, Appellants advised the court they wished to waive their assignments of error as to this particular order. Therefore, we summarily affirm this order without further discussion. As to the circuit court’s order invalidating the actions taken by Appellants at the two special meetings, we reverse.

PACTS/PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In November 2013, the voters of the Town of Chapin elected a new mayor, Respondent Wilson, and a new Council member, Respondent White. The Mayor’s term of office began on January 7, 2014. According to Appellant Atkins, before the Mayor was sworn in, he announced that he had hired Karen Owens to serve as “Director of Communication and Economic Development” although Council had not voted to create the position or make it a part of the Town’s budget.1 The Mayor also (1) refused to honor a retainer agreement between the Town and an attorney for the Town’s utility department, (2) signed a contract to hire Nicole Howland as Town Attorney without first submitting the contract to Council for approval, (3) refused to place several items on the agendas for Council meetings despite requests from certain Council members, and (4) refused to schedule a special meeting at Atkins’ request.

Accordingly, on February 26, 2014, Appellants filed a complaint invoking the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, S.C. Code Ann. § 15-53-10 to -140 (2005), seeking a judgment declaring section 2.206(b) of the Chapin Town Code unenforceable to the extent it grants the Mayor control over the agendas for Council meetings. Section 2.206 appears in the Town Code with the catchword “Agenda” as follows:

2.206. AGENDA.
a. Matters to be considered by the Mayor and Council at a regular meeting shall be placed on a written agenda and publicly posted at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the meeting. Matters not on the agenda may be considered [7]*7upon request of a member unless a majority of Council objects.
b. The agenda shall be approved by the Mayor, prior to distribution. It shall be prepared under the supervision of the Clerk/Treasurer.

The complaint also sought a preliminary injunction requiring the Mayor to “place on the agenda of the next Council meeting ... any item requested by any member of Council.” Appellants filed a separate motion for a preliminary injunction seeking an order requiring the Mayor “to place any item requested by any member of Council on the agenda of the next occurring Council meeting after the request, without any delay.” At the motions hearing, Appellants explained that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) prohibited them from exercising their power under section 2.206(a) to amend the agenda during the meeting. See Lambries v. Saluda Cty. Council (Lambries I), 398 S.C. 501, 506, 728 S.E.2d 488, 491 (Ct. App. 2012) (“[T]he purpose of FOIA is best served by prohibiting public bodies governed by FOIA from amending their agendas during meetings.”), rev’d (Lambries II), 409 S.C. 1, 760 S.E.2d 785 (2014), superseded in part by 2015 Act No. 70.2

On March 18, 2014, the circuit court issued an order denying Appellants’ request for a preliminary injunction and granting Respondents’ motion to dismiss. In addressing the motion for a preliminary injunction, the circuit court stated, “the Mayor must sign off on the agenda prior to its distribution to Council, and there is no requirement that the Mayor place [8]*8items on the agenda that he believes do not merit Council’s consideration.” In addressing Respondents’ motion to dismiss, the circuit court stated, “Ordinance § 2.206(b) grants Mayor Wilson the authority and discretion to approve and, inherently, to deny any item requested to be on the agenda for a Council meeting.”

The circuit court addressed the complaint’s assertion that if section 2.206 grants the Mayor complete control over the agenda, this provision violates the state and federal constitutions. Despite Appellants’ FOIA argument, the circuit court stated that section 2.206(a) allows matters not on the agenda to be considered upon request of a member unless a majority of members object. The circuit court also stated that Council’s ability to amend the agenda during the meeting acted “as a safeguard against autocratic mayoral action that may otherwise rise to a constitutional depravation [sic] of basic rights.” On April 8, 2014, the circuit court denied Appellants’ motion to reconsider pursuant to Rule 59(e), SCRCP. Appellants filed and served a Notice of Appeal of the circuit court’s orders on April 22, 2014.

In the meantime, on April 5, 2014, Atkins carried to Appellant Robert Frick’s home a prepared notice calling for a special meeting of Council on April 10, 2014, to amend section 2.206(b) of the Chapin Town Code to require the Mayor to place on a meeting agenda any item requested by a member of Council.3 Atkins discussed the notice with Frick, who agreed to call for a special meeting and signed the notice. On April 6, 2014, Atkins took the notice to Appellant Kay Hollis’s home and discussed the notice with her. Hollis also agreed to calling a special meeting and signed the notice.

On April 7, 2014, Atkins took the notice to the Town Clerk and asked her to post the notice at Town Hall and on the Town’s website and to notify the news media.4 On this same [9]*9day, Respondents filed a “Motion to Enforce Order and to Enjoin Contrary Conduct” with the circuit court. In this motion, Respondents complained that Appellants noticed the special meeting with an agenda that was never presented to the Mayor for his approval and alleged that Appellants were “disregarding the [circuit court’s] March 18th Order with respect to the Mayor’s authority to approve or reject agenda items under Ordinance § 2.206(b).” Respondents sought “an order enforcing the [circuit court’s] prior ruling and enjoining [Appellants] from taking any action contrary to that ruling, including going forward with the improperly-noticed [special] meeting.” On April 8, 2014, the circuit court’s presiding judge sent a letter to the parties advising them of his availability for a hearing and stating his opinion that any actions taken by Appellants “in contravention of the [circuit court’s] March 18, 2014 Order ... could be illegal and of no force and effect.”

Neither the Mayor nor White attended the April 10 and 17, 2014 special meetings. Therefore, Atkins presided over these meetings in her capacity as Mayor pro tempore. At the April 10 meeting, a first reading was given to the proposed amendment to section 2.206(b).5

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Bluebook (online)
417 S.C. 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atkins-v-wilson-scctapp-2016.