Gilbert Says Two Councilmembers are Trying to Undermine Him
WINNSBORO – Fairfield Council Chairman Clarence Gilbert and Councilman Dan Ruff tried to put a pretty face on Gilbert’s selection last month of only certain councilmen to the council’s five standing committee, shutting out three council district representatives: Ruff (Dist. 1), Don Goldbach (Dist. 2), and Peggy Swearingen (Dist. 3) from appointments to any of the standing committees. Both Goldbach and Swearingen have expressed publicly their desire to serve on the standing committees.
During county council time at the end of the Feb. 24 council meeting, Ruff assured the public that he, Goldbach, and Swearingen had since been added to the committees and he publicly accused the newspaper of not reporting those changes. Gilbert, in a prepared speech, also made negative inferences about the newspaper’s reporting of the changes.
“After the initial committee appointments were made public [on Feb. 10], Chairman Gilbert reached out to me and asked me to serve on the finance committee,” Ruff said during the Feb. 24 county council meeting. “I told him ‘yes’. He also added Councilman Goldbach and Councilwoman Swearingen to committees, which none of these changes were reported in the newspaper.”
Gilbert, too, made negative inferences about the newspaper’s reporting in regard to changes he had made to the standing committees, but stopped short of an actual accusation.
“I made changes and the article came out in the paper – you can believe what you read – that’s between you and God,” Gilbert said. “I made the changes.”
Following Ruff’s comments, however, Swearingen said from the dais that she had not been appointed to a standing committee, and asked Chairman Gilbert why. Just prior to press time on Wednesday, March 5, she confirmed to The Voice, again, that Gilbert had not appointed her to a standing committee. She said no changes had been made regarding her appointment to a standing committee or any other committee since the initial standing committee appointments were made public following the Feb. 10 council meeting.
“I don’t know why Councilman Ruff would say something like that,” Swearingen said. “The only other county committee I am on is as an ex-officio member of the library committee – in which I have no vote – and which is not a standing committee, and no changes have been made to that library appointment since it was initially made.”
While information about the initial appointments to the standing committees were published in the Feb. 20 edition of The Voice, no information concerning changes to those committees was made public or provided to The Voice by Gilbert, Ruff, or any other source prior to Ruff’s complaint and Gilbert’s inference that the appointment changes were not reported in The Voice. Prior to the Feb. 24 meeting, The Voice emailed both Ruff and Gilbert, concerning the appointments but never received responses from either of them. The appointment changes were also not posted to the county website, released by the county’s public information officer, or made public in any way for the public or the media to know about them until after Ruff’s and Gilbert’s accusations against the newspaper.
In his council time comments on Feb. 24, Gilbert defended his thought process in making the standing committee appointments and assured the public and council that he had assessed the strengths and abilities of his appointees before making the appointments.
“My experience and longevity on council lends greatly to my ability to assess individual strengths and abilities to accomplish goals. My appointments to committees have been well thought out and given much consideration.”
Councilman Douglas Pauley also defended Gilbert’s selection process.
“These standing committee appointments were done after you were the chair for at least a month,” Pauley said, addressing Gilbert. “So I know you gave a lot of time to think about it.
“Stand tall and stand strong in your faith in the Lord,” Pauley told Gilbert.
However, Councilman Carl Bell, who Gilbert initially appointed to the administration and finance committee and three other committees, said during council time that he went to Gilbert after the initial appointments were announced, indicating that he may not have been aware of what committee(s) he had been appointed to.
“I told him what my strengths were and I asked him to remove me from the administration and finance committee,” Bell said. “That’s not where my strengths are. I’ve said over and over that my strengths are in public service and public policy.” Bell said Gilbert then changed him [Bell] to his desired committee. “He did exactly as I asked him to do,” Bell said.
The rules for Standing Committees are included in council’s bylaws, (Resolution number 2024-07 chapter 7c) and state: “Once appointed for the year, no member of a committee may be removed by the Chair of Council without the approval of Council.” Council was not asked to vote for Bell’s or any other council member’s removal from or appointment to another committee.
In his prepared speech, Gilbert accused “a couple” of council members of attempting to publicly shame council with their comments.
“I am not a foolish man,” Gilbert said. “Statements made here tonight by a couple of our members are an attempt to publicly shame this council and undermine the authority of the Chairman. This behavior has been displayed and in turn, validates my decision and assessment as to the professional abilities [of the appointees] to govern.”
However, besides Bell, Pauley, and Ruff, only two other members – Goldbach and Swearingen – addressed the issue of the appointments. Swearingen asked Gilbert to explain why she had not been appointed to a standing committee, and Goldbach made suggestions as to how the appointment process could be improved.
Goldbach noted that there are only two rules in the council bylaws concerning the appointment of council members to standing committees:
The Chair of County Council shall appoint members and the chairs to the standing committees no later than the first regular meeting in February each year
Once appointed for the year, no member of a committee may be removed by the chair of council without the approval of council.
“In the past, all seven members of council were appointed to the standing committees, which,” he said, “is likely to have been the common practice in the past. Based on our current situation, I believe we need to add a few additional rules to this chapter of our bylaws.”
He suggested including the subject ‘Standing Committees’ on the March 10 regular meeting agenda for discussion and possibly a vote.
“Draft a proposed revision to Resolution 2024-07 chapter 7c to include two new rules, and one correction,” Goldbach suggested.
He suggested that every member of council be appointed to two standing committees, and that the council chair and council vice chair not be appointed chair of any standing committee.
“There are 14 standing committee seats so the math works out conveniently with seven council members on two committees each,” Goldbach said. And since there are seven council members and five standing committees, Goldbach suggested that by not seating the council chair and vice chair in chairmanship positions, the representation of all districts on the standing committees would be more fairly distributed.
“It will also logically spread out the workload among all council members instead of concentrating it with just a few,” he said.
Goldbach’s motion also included adding the Presentation Committee to the list of Standing Committees already listed in the bylaws, and adding the Pledge of Allegiance to the regular meeting agenda in Chapter 13.
