By Gail Parsons/Effingham Herald
Rincon City Council members have voted to authorize staff to seek outside counsel to provide a legal opinion pertaining to the possible violation of the city charter by a council member.
The vote came during a special meeting Wednesday, Nov. 1 called by council members Kevin Exley and Michelle Taylor.
Three videos of interactions between Councilmember Levi Scott and local police have surfaced on the internet, the first of which occurred in 2018 when he told backup officers, at a traffic stop by an Effingham County deputy, that “The rest of you guys can go because this is just a conversation between me and him.”
Additional videos showed interaction at a traffic stop and one at the hospital where his son was being treated.
According to Section 2.31 of the city charter, “Except for the purpose of inquiries and investigations under Section 2.15, the mayor and council or its members shall deal with city officers and employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the manager solely through the manager, and neither the mayor and council nor its members shall give orders to any such officer or employee, either publicly or privately.
“I went and said something to one of our department heads about a pothole and the mayor called me outside and told me that I could not have that conversation,” Exley said. “I think this is a little more than a pothole.”
As to whether he violated the ordinance Scott said, “That’s an attorney question based on the time and what’s going on.”
There are extenuating circumstances, which council members acknowledged, such as when a waterline breaks after hours and the city manager is not available.
Scott, who stayed for the first part of the meeting, spoke in defense of his actions for each of the situations but also questioned why a fourth video was never made public saying it would not show the police in a “good light.” He also questioned how and why the videos became public to begin with.
He said he understands about the Freedom of Information Act; however, once police bodycam video is downloaded, if there is not a report about an incident how would someone know to even ask for it.
“No matter how that video came out, whether it be from an officer or anything, the fact is, it came out and it is factual,” Exley said. “I didn’t know anything about it until it did come out and showed up at the Georgia Virtue.”
After Scott left the meeting, the discussion shifted to what the council’s next steps should be.
“I think we should probably have something that gives us a little better direction, whether that be through the council guidelines and policies we have, I think the ordinance states what it should state but I do think there are (extenuating) circumstances,” Mayor Ken Lee said.
Breaking it down into two separate issues, City Manager Jonathan Lynn said on the staff side of the house they can look at the policies and procedures.
“But I think that what you would probably want to do in this case is find an objective third party to look into and provide you a status of, ‘Hey this is what we see and this is what we don’t see,” Lynn said. “That way it removes everybody in this room from that situation to make that determination. There are potential legal issues involved. So, you need legal advice first before you move forward. ”
At the same time, they can start working on tightening up the language of the policies and procedures.
City Attorney Raymond Dickey agreed it was in the city’s best interest to seek outside counsel for legal advice.
