Mount Pleasant secretive on vote

  • Prentiss Findlay
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  • Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Saturday, March 17, 2012 9:24 p.m.
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MOUNT PLEASANT — Town Council violated provisions of the state Freedom of Information Act on Tuesday when it voted after an executive session on a matter related to Shem Creek property without adequately stating what the vote was about, South Carolina Press Assocation attorney Jay Bender said.

Council voted to go into an executive session for "legal and contractual matters pertaining to properties near Shem Creek." Bender said the council description of the reason for the executive session is insufficient under the law.

After the executive session, council voted to direct Town Attorney Allen Young to proceed as discussed in executive session regarding the Shem Creek properties. "It's probably insufficient because they failed to adequately state it. You don't know what it is they are proceeding to do," Bender said.

Young declined to identify the properties near Shem Creek that were discussed in executive session, or the action that he was directed to take. "We believe that what we did was legal," he said.

Council voted recently to condemn 1.05 acres near Shem Creek known as the OK Tire property. Attorney Mark Mason, an owner of the land, attended the meeting. He said state and town codes require council to be open about what a vote is about after an executive session. "You've got to state the motion in a way that's understood by the persons present. I have no idea what they did. This is just a continued misuse of their legislative power," he said.

The town filed suit to condemn Mason's OK Tire property for a park, and Mason filed a countersuit after rejecting the town's final offer for the property of $2,285,000. Mason plans to build 24 condominiums there. He also plans a marina on Shem Creek.

The town wants to acquire the property as a first step toward public access to Shem Creek, a scenic landmark lined with restaurants, bars, inns and shrimp boat docks on the northern side of the creek on a frontage road just off Coleman Boulevard about 100 yards from the creekfront.

Hundreds of people signed a petition presented to council urging it to stop Mason's condo development.