WINNSBORO – In a third attempt in three weeks to hire an interim county administrator, Council Chairman Moses Bell has called a special meeting of council Thursday, May 20, at 6 p.m. to put forth Gerald Seals’ name for the position.
Seals served as county administrator for Richland County, making headlines when the county fired him in May, 2018 in a close 6-5 vote. He walked away with a $1 million settlement and resumed teaching at Newberry College where he had taught previously.
Seals served as county administrator in Greenville County prior to coming to Richland.
Seals is also pastor at the Living Word Church and Fellowship in Northeast Richland County.
He is the third candidate the majority four on county council has considered for the interim job. Three weeks ago, Bell called an executive session to discuss hiring a former City of Columbia official who, it was learned, left the City after he was accused of sexual harassment. When that information was revealed to council, the majority four declined to move forward with a vote.
Earlier this week, the majority four voted 4-3 to offer the job to former State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. However, Rex turned down the offer on Tuesday, saying the deeply divided vote as well as the current turmoil in the county government made the job ‘not a good fit for me.’
Council is expected to vote on Seals tomorrow (Thursday) night, though his name was not mentioned in the executive session agenda item that was sent out Wednesday afternoon. Bell announced his choice of Seals in an email he sent to county officials about 4 p.m., Wednesday, May 19.