BRANCHVILLE – The question of whether the mayor of Branchville is a legal resident of the town and eligible for the post he’s held since 1995 is beginning to resemble the “Hokey Pokey.”

Is Mayor Tim Cooner’s residence in or out of the town limit? That’s the question the Branchville Town Council is moving to answer once and for all.

Branchville Mayor Tim Cooner’s residential status first became an issue during a highly-charged, three-hour town council meeting on Jan. 3, 2006.

It was then that newly-elected Branchville Town Councilwoman Georgianna Harmon questioned Cooner’s residency after stating that she had heard the mayor was not allowed to vote in the town’s Nov. 8 nonpartisan municipal election because he was “not a resident” after changing his legal residency on Nov. 8, 2004.

The six-member Branchville Town Council investigated exactly how far its town limits extended to determine if Cooner was a legal resident.

Local surveyor Kirk Nivens of Nivens & Nivens Survey Inc. conducted a survey which determined that Cooner’s address at 1405 Edward St. was indeed inside the town limits. Cooner presented each council member with a map and a letter from Nivens & Nivens Survey Inc. during that meeting.

The finding was based on the geographical center of town being located at the Charleston-Augusta Railroad track, which is on Main Street at the center of U.S. 21. Every residence within a one-mile radius of that center was considered within the town limit.

The council, with the exception of one of its members, accepted the findings during a special called meeting on Jan. 30, 2006, but that’s not the end of the story.

Branchville Town Councilwoman Georgianna Harmon said she, at the request of some town council members, contacted the South Carolina Geodetic Survey group to determine the original center-point of town, with everything within a one-mile radius of that being within the town limits.

Based on their historical research, which included the town’s original charter, South Carolina Geodetic Survey researchers Alan-Jon and Sid Miller found that the center-point was actually where an old “Eating House” restaurant stood between two railroads in town. Upon presenting their information during a Branchville Town Council meeting on June 4, Zupan said the mayor’s residence did not fall within one mile of this center.

n ’A lot of hard feelings’

Harmon said both Zupan and Miller were treated rudely at the meeting despite her having told the mayor that the findings were ready for presentation a week ahead of the June 4 meeting.

Harmon said Cooner did not add the survey group’s members’ appearance to the agenda. In addition, she said some of the council members who requested that she ask the survey group to look into where the town’s boundaries actually lied, saying they didn’t know anything about it.

“Timmy decided not to put it on the agenda; therefore, when everyone came in that night, they were blind-sided. They thought I was bringing up a dead subject because a couple of council members failed to remember that they asked me to do that,” Harmon said. “They just assumed I was causing problems.”

“They were horribly disrespectful to the gentleman. I wrote him (Zupan) an apology letter. It was just a handful of angry citizens, but had they been notified and understood, then it would not have taken place,” she added. “Mr. Cooner tries to keep the council unified, but ... I’m ashamed of what happened in the meeting.”

Harmon said while she works with Cooner “quite a bit” and wants him to continue to stay mayor, she is also a “stickler for the rules” and making sure they’re all followed.

“I think he’s good at what he does. He’s been there 11 to 12 years. We have a lot of large projects going on, a lot of grants. He tends to be the leader, and I would like him to be that person,” Harmon said, noting that she doesn’t, however, like being painted as a troublemaker who’s always bringing up the mayor’s residential status.

“I’m not well-liked at council because I have a lot dissenting views. There’s a lot of hard feelings in this town, but I don’t keep bringing it up. Council asked me to (contact the Geodetic Survey Group) on numerous occasions. Some remembered; some didn’t open their mouths. But we don’t have a unified council, needless to say. I’m not sure if many towns and municipalities do,” she said.

“According to county maps, ... his (Cooner’s) house sits right outside the city limit. When Nivens came in and gave a new center, his house was inside the town limit. But the Geodetic Survey found him out,” Harmon said.

She said the council approved an ordinance immediately following the June 4 meeting to accept Niven’s findings.

“I didn’t know whether the ... ordinance was legal or not. But I should not undermine what he (Cooner) said. I trust him in what he did. He did the best he could do,” she said, referring to the ordinance that Cooner said was legal and passed in title only on June 4.

“We are going to pass an ordinance on the center-point of town. We’ll be preparing an ordinance that basically says, ’Based on the research and opinion of the town council now, we believe that the center of town will basically be the old Charleston/Augusta Railroad track, which is Main Street at the center of Highway 21.’ That’s gonna be the center of town,” Cooner said, noting that the radius on the center will be determined at the council’s next meeting.

“I’m in the town limits,” Cooner said. “We voted on it back in January of ’06. We went and found the original charter for the town of Branchville and determined what we believed to be the center of town back in 1858, when it was incorporated.

“Then we had one council person wondering (if) city limits on some other highways coming into town were not in the proper place,” he said, noting that the Geodetic Survey group was then brought in to “come up with something different.” Cooner said council has already handled the issue.

“It’s a done deal,” he said.

n ’He doesn’t cite any sources’

Zupan said the findings of Nivens, the town engineer, are not historically accurate.

“We tried to determine the location of the center of town. This is based on when Branchville was incorporated in 1858. At that time, the town center was the ’Eating House’ between the two railroads. My job is to come up with the Rosetta Stone,” Zupan said.

“Mr. Nivens is an engineer and a surveyor, and I don’t know what kind of historical research he did in order to come up with what he concluded. It’s not a point that would be, in my opinion, the center of Branchville. It would not have been on where a railroad track crosses the highway. It’s like putting a restaurant in the middle of an intersection,” he added.

Zupan continued, “In his letter, ... he (Nivens) made statements that he does not have any support for. He doesn’t cite any sources. He said he did not find the true center of Branchville. We came up with the most probable location of the Eating House at charter, based on historical information we could find.”

He said the town has obstacles in coming up with its town center, including the fact that Orangeburg County’s pre-1865 records were destroyed by fire and that most of the city’s history is anecdotal stories.

“A lot of the city’s history is anecdotal stories from generation to generation, and things don’t quite jive when you start looking at what’s available in records themselves. The history of Branchville is not necessarily what’s written. Just as a point of reference, the point we did come up with is only about 20 feet from north of where Orangeburg County has the center of Branchville” Zupan said.

Orangeburg County Administrator Bill Clark said the matter is strictly a municipal one.

“The authority for establishing the town limits is a municipal matter. They’re responsible for determining where the town boundaries are. I believe the town has already made the effort to determine that. So, to my knowledge, that issue is resolved. Whatever direction we receive from the town council is what we would recognize at the county level,” Clark said.

Pam McArthur, an assistant in the Orangeburg County Office of Voter Registration and Elections, said the mayor and three council members are up for re-election on Nov. 6. She said the mayor’s residential status would have to be determined by the town.

“It depends on what their town ordinance reads as qualifications as mayor. And, they’d have to check their town records to make sure that he does reside in the town limits,” McArthur said.

Orangeburg County Tax Assessor Jim McClain said the question of Cooner’s residency has come up before.

n ’We can’t get nothing done’

“He is being taxed inside city taxes. I have heard in the past couple of years from both sides of the issue, and I’ve gotten different people saying they’re gonna bring me stuff showing me one thing or the other. As it stands right now, he is paying city taxes. But, our stuff is for tax purposes only. I don’t know who has the final say-so for election purposes,” McClain said.

S.C. Municipal Association Executive Director Howard Duvall said there are two ways to handle the issue of whether the mayor is a resident or not.

“It’s up to the municipal election commission and the council. Now, if any citizen challenges that, they can bring a suit and take it to court,” Duvall said.

“You have to be a resident elector (to run for mayor), live inside the city limits. Owning a business is not enough. The council is the judge of the qualification of its members. If there is a question as to the residency, the council has a procedure for inquiring, finding out and taking a vote on the issue,” Duvall said. “They’ll have to work that out themselves.”

Duvall said the municipal election commission should, however, be involved at the time a candidate signs up for office.

“So, they will be involved if the mayor runs for re-election. They would be the first group to have the responsibility because they’d be attesting to the fact that he’s a resident elector of Branchville,” he said. Duvall agrees that determining a final center of town will involve “a little digging into history.”

Branchville Town Councilman Chris Ott said he’d like to see the entire issue of the mayor’s residency put to rest.

“We voted on that a year and a half ago, and it was an issue that should have been laid to rest and shouldn’t have been brought back up. For the last year and a half, we can’t get nothing done because one particular councilwoman wants to bring up issues like this all the time,” Ott said.

“I don’t think the Geodetic Survey people should have been called in in the first place because the council didn’t approve of them coming and doing it. I figured it was just a waste of their time. I figured we already voted on a center-point of town. It needs to be put to bed,” Ott said.

“He lives in town, but I don’t care if he lived in Tennessee. He’s a good mayor,” he added.

The Branchville Town Council’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, July 9 at the town hall.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories

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