WINNSBORO – Fairfield leaders backed off approving final reading of the 2024-2025 budget in the face of push back from the community and one council member over concerns about adequate pay for Sheriff’s deputies.
Fairfield residents peppered council members with complaints over the budget, saying it failed to adequately compensate sheriff deputies.
Chief Deputy Brad Douglas told council members the sheriff’s office traditionally suffers from staffing shortages due to low pay.
Douglas further said the Town of Winnsboro recently raised starting pay to $50,000 for public safety personnel, making it even harder for Fairfield to compete.
“We go to career fairs and get little if any interest because other agencies would be setting up right beside us and offering so much more than we could,” he said. “We’ve even minimized our uniform costs. We’ve done away with dress uniforms because we can’t afford them.”
Despite the council failing to adopt a budget, council chairman Doug Pauley said all county employees have council member support.
“We appreciate every single employee that we have,” Pauley said. “We want to make sure all of our employees are compensated well and that we take care of them.”
In its current form, the budget includes a 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all county employees.
Councilman Clarence Gilbert made an amended motion to offer 3% COLA and increase starting salaries for deputies to $45,000. The current range for deputies is $43,445 to $46,225, according to county staff.
Councilwoman Peggy Swearingen made a substitute motion to increase starting pay to $47,500 for deputies, but without including COLAs.
“Do you think $45,000 is [enough]? You all are happy with that?” Swearingen asked council members. “Here’s one [proposal] for $47,500. What’s wrong with that one?”
After a few moments of silence, Swearingen continued. She said starting pay for deputies in surrounding counties overshadows Fairfield starting pay.
“This is Economics 101. They’re all playing Major League baseball, and we’re back here playing t-ball,” she said. “We need to get in the ball game. I cannot agree to $45,000.”
Swearingen’s substitute motion failed 6-1, with Pauley, and council members Shirley Green, Clarence Gilbert, Tim Roseboro, Dan Ruff, and Neil Robinson voting against.
Councilman Dan Ruff motioned to raise starting pay to $46,000 and keep the 3% increases for all county employees. Ruff reasoned new deputy hires would start off making essentially $47,500 with the COLA factored in.
Pauley explained that the COLA was only for current employees, not new hires.
Swearingen pointed out that Ruff’s compromise could create a scenario where entry level deputies would earn more than existing employees.
Councilman Gilbert offered to further amend the motion to ensure all deputies see their pay increased to at least $46,000 plus receive the COLA, but Swearingen said that still raised equity issues.
“I think we’re going to have to table this and take it back to HR or somewhere and get this straightened out,” Swearingen said.
At that point, the budget went into procedural retreat.
County Attorney Tommy Morgan advised that tabling the budget vote required rescinding all previous budget motions made Monday night, which was done. Third reading is now tentatively scheduled for June 24.
Lack of Transparency
Several speakers addressed council’s lack of transparency concerning the budget. Randy Bright lamented that only one book of budget information had been made available to the 21,000 Fairfield citizens, and that it was secured in the lobby of the government building.
As Synthia Williams began reading proposed changes to the proposed budget to council Monday evening, no copies had been made available to the public. When asked from the audience for a copy of the document she was reading from, Williams motioned toward four copies lying on the podium, but it had not announced previously that they were available to the public.
Speaker Don Goldbach questioned the $4 million that the county claims it has underspent as of the end of May.
“If those numbers are accurate, then we have a $4 million surplus through 11 months of this fiscal year, and should be able to target that money for emergency services, the Sheriff’s office, fire service, EMS and the animal shelter,” Goldbach said. “If those numbers are not accurate, Mr. Chairman, then we need to understand why they aren’t.”
Comprehensive Plan Errors
In other business, council members voted to approve the amended Comprehensive Plan even though grammatical and factual errors and missing charts permeate the document.
The vote passed 6-1 with Councilwoman Swearingen opposing.
Addressing council, Fairfield Realtor Brenda Worthington said the planning blueprint is riddled with mistakes, ranging from “complete inaccuracies, faulty analysis and flawed conclusions” to common grammatical errors and charts missing altogether.
“Of this 189 page Comprehensive Plan, I’ve provided 504 questions and comments on its content,” Worthington said. “I’ve received no answers to the questions and concerns raised. You are accepting and approving a flawed document.”
Swearingen also voiced concerns over the errors, noting as an example that the document erroneously states Lake Wateree State Park features 70 acres of shorefront property.
The park actually has 238 acres of shoreline, according to the state parks website operated by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
Publishing glaring errors in a major planning document seriously hurts Fairfield’s credibility, Swearingen said.
“We’re trying to [lure industry] to Fairfield County. We need correct information. They’ll think we don’t know what we’re doing up here,” she said. Swearingen suggested that council table the document until it’s corrected.
County Attorney Morgan and Deputy Administrator Synithia Williams, pushed back, however, saying it’s impossible to predict how quickly the document could be corrected.
Morgan said tabling third reading only provides two weeks to fix the document, disregarding that Worthington had already sent the corrections to Williams, County Administrator Clay Killian, Council Chair Douglas Pauley and all the council members two months earlier on April 18, 2024. The Voice obtained a copy of that email from Worthington, and it is available on The Voice’s website.
Morgan said he didn’t think [two weeks] was enough time for various outside agencies involved in its creation to make corrections.
“I would find it unlikely in the months and months they took to prepare it they would fix any deficiencies within that two-week time period,” he said.
Voting against the plan would send it back to the planning commission for two votes, followed by three more council votes.
Councilman Dan Ruff suggested going ahead and passing the flawed document and correcting it later.
“We can revise the document at any time. We can work with COG (the Council of Governments) to address any grammatical errors,” deputy administrator Synithia Williams assured council. “It doesn’t have to come back for three readings if it’s coming back for grammatical errors.”
Fairfield last updated its comprehensive plan in 2010. State law requires comprehensive plan updates every 10 years, which makes the Fairfield document four years overdue.