State wants courts to sell land to save Atlantic Beach

By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: September 29, 2008

Interim Atlantic Beach town manager, Charles Williams has devised a plan to sell two plots of land in the town in order to allow the municipality to pay off $120,000 in court settlements and to continue to pay town employees.

Williams said the Municipal Association of South Carolina has no plans to pull out of Atlantic Beach until the financial crisis there is fixed and a new town manager is seated.

The plan, which Williams said would go into effect this week, would appoint a conservator who would ask a state court to sell two lots the town owns.

One lot is located at 31st Avenue and the other at 29th Avenue in Atlantic Beach.

Williams said the lots must be sold in order to pay the debts a circuit court judge ordered town officials to pay off several months ago.

The 31st Avenue lot has an assessed value between $120,000 and $150,000 and the 29th Avenue lot has an estimated value of around $50,000 Williams said.

The town owes D.H. Griffin wrecking company $50,000 and the Duff, White, and Boykin law firm another $70,000, according to Williams.

“This means if the courts will agree to do this, if this happens, a crisis is adverted,” Williams told News13.

Council members wrangled for weeks over whether to sell the land, and at each meeting, the issue became a source of tension and members could never reach an agreement.

Citizens there said selling the land would be like giving the four-block wide town away one piece at the time, but Williams said that was not why the state decided to make the move.

Residents said Williams’ plan to contract out police services to North Myrtle Beach, a city that flanks Atlantic Beach 16 avenues to the south and 89 avenues to the north, is an attempt by the state to weaken the town more.

Williams told council members that contracting the town’s police services out to a larger, well-funded department would afford the town police services Atlantic Beach would never be able to afford, like detective services, a fully-staffed crime scene service, and drug enforcement.

The contract issue was supported by council members Donnell Thompson and Retha Pierce early on, but now both members said they would not support contracting police services and want to keep the town’s four officers.

In a meeting late last week, Williams said he met with the State Budget and Control Board and worked out a deal where the board would allow the town to make payments to catch up employee retirement benefits; the town is currently more than $25,000 behind in payments to the state employee retirement fund.

In March a Horry County grand jury indicted former town manager Marcia Conner on charges that she withheld money that was to be paid to the state’s police officer retirement fund, then paid other expenses with the funds.

In the agreement, the board will allow the town to make installments to catch the back payments up and pay for the town to fuel and maintain its two police cars and service truck, which means state tax dollars, are going to fund the town during the rebuilding process, according to Williams.

If the two lots are not sold, the town has no choice but to raise property taxes in a town that “already has some of the highest taxes in the state,” Williams said.

Williams said none of the essential services in the town will change in the meantime and he’s gotten an agreement from business owners to pay the town fees several businesses have not paid.

With the back fees, Williams said that will allow the town to make payroll through the next two months.

Some in the town argue that Williams plan to sell the lots is illegal without the approval of town council.

Williams said the Municipal Association of South Carolina was brought in to run the town and its finances in March following the indictments against the mayor and then-town manager.

The Atlantic Beach town council asked the MASC to represent the town from March through December in order to help the town straighten out “some horrible financing decisions that have the town hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt,” Williams said.

The council contracted the MASC to work in the town form March through December.

Williams said because of that, the MASC can legally have the land sold through the courts if the association thinks that’s in the best interest of the town.

Town council will meet to discuss the land sale and other issues facing Atlantic Beach at a meeting set for sometime this week.

You can count on News13 to continue to follow the developments of the Atlantic Beach financial crisis.