Midlands town dumps top administrator, attorney on day lawyer buried his father

Eight days after voting to remove its top administrator at a meeting that was subsequently deemed illegal, Batesburg-Leesville’s Town Council again voted to dismiss the man who has managed the town since 2014, despite the mayor praising his performance.

There was also an item on the Friday night agenda addressing the employment of the town attorney, and the body likely would have voted to dismiss him, too, had he not resigned earlier in the week. It was the attorney who judged that the previous meeting was held illegally. He resigned from the post earlier in the week, upset that council decided to hold the second special-called meeting on the day he buried his recently deceased father.

Town manager Ted Luckadoo and attorney Christian Spradley were formally let go Friday at a meeting called for by council members Steve Cain, David Bouknight, Bob Hall, Shirley Mitchell and Betty Hartley.

The moves were befuddling to Lancer Shull, mayor of the town of about 5,300 that straddles the western border of Lexington County, who praised the strides Luckadoo made while leading the town over the past decade.

“Just this week, we got a $1 million grant from the rural infrastructure authority, which is a direct result of the relationship and work of Mr. Luckadoo and his staff,” Shull said, praising Luckadoo for the work he did for the town. “We have a water project fully funded with the RIA for $14 million, I believe. We have millions of dollars for sewer treatment, water treatment plant that Mr. Luckadoo has brought in, with him and his staff and the relationships that he has.”

Luckadoo didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shull was similarly positive about the job Spradley did as town attorney.

“He’s considered one of the best municipal attorneys in the state of South Carolina by the Municipal Association,” the mayor said.

The move to terminate the town manager came by a vote of 5-2, with Shull and Councilman Jason Prouse voting against the motion. Council Members Barbara Brown and Paul Wise were absent.

The decision leaves the town in a lurch, coming just three days before council is set to sit down for a budget workshop to prepare the town’s financial plan for the next fiscal year, due July 1. Assistant Town Manager Jason Hendrix, elevated to the top manager position in an interim capacity with a 20% pay bump while the town seeks a permanent replacement, will now lead the budget process.

“It’s challenging from the town standpoint, because we have a budget due at the end of June like all other municipalities according to state law,” the mayor said. “We do have an assistant town manager, and either we’ll turn one in on time or we’ll revert to the prior year’s budget.”

Despite the challenges with the timing and the esteem with which Luckadoo was held by some, Bouknight and Hall said the town manager had to go.

“I don’t think the town’s headed in the right direction,” Bouknight said. “I checked with my constituents. I asked the people that I know in my district. And the consensus there was the same.”

“I feel that for the betterment of the community and future we need a more aggressive town manager who is looking at long-range plans and acts more aggressively on the needs of the council and our community,” Hall said. “There are a lot of details. Actually, it is a personnel matter and I’m not at liberty to comment on specific policy.”

Bouknight’s son, Dave Bouknight, a major and second in command at the town’s police department, was passed over for chief two years ago when Luckadoo brought in Darren Amick to fill that role. The councilman said that had nothing to do with his judgment that a change at town manager was needed.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I think the best thing for my son is working for Darren. He’s a good man. I think it’s been good for him. I think my son would tell you the same thing. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. Nothing.”

Spradley, the now-former town attorney and a managing partner at West Columbia firm Moore Bradley Myers, is Hall’s nephew by marriage as well as his godson.

Both Hall and Bouknight levied blame on Spradley for the meeting the meeting last Thursday being deemed illegal. Five members were in attendance, and Bouknight, who chaired the meeting in Shull’s absence, chose to abstain. That left the body without a sufficient quorum, and the agenda item about Luckadoo’s dismissal was deemed not to be specific enough to clear public disclosure requirements.

“I was upset that it was declared illegal by somebody,” Bouknight said. “My opinion is a court needs to decide that it’s illegal and not the attorney. They have opinions, just like I have opinions.”

“It was deemed illegal without anybody going to court to prove that it was illegal,” he added. “I have been accused of doing something illegal, and I don’t like that. All I did was show up to a meeting.”

Hall seemed more concerned about council having possibly entered illegal territory in the first place.

“We had some procedural issues that, in my personal opinion, could have been avoided,” he said.

Shull said he was surprised by the request for last week’s meeting, and he urged the members calling it to postpone, explaining he had a conflict: His son graduated high school the day after the meeting, and he had family in town for the occasion. The mayor said he was first approached about the meeting the Monday before.

“I said, ‘I have a conflict. I would respectfully request that you move this to the next week,’” Shull said.

Spradley resigned as town attorney Wednesday when he learned the meeting would be held on the day of the funeral for his father, who died Monday.

“The five council members’ choice to have the meeting tonight knowing the personal events I was dealing with led me to decide that my family was more important,” he said via email. “I have been honored to represent the town for a number of years and I think at this point I need to spend time with my family. I would hope that there is something pressing issue that could not wait until next week but then I always try to think the best about others and their motivations.”

Hall emphasized there was no ill will intended by the decision to move forward with the agenda item addressing his nephew’s employment on Friday.

“I have trouble comprehending that situation,” he said. “This meeting was scheduled. Has been sought, scheduled, and I’ll have to look at the timing of his father’s demise.”

“We don’t see eye to eye at times, but whatever,” Hall added. “There was no offense intended, per se.”