Lake City City Council appoints associate municipal judges

LAKE CITY — Lake City City Council members approved the appointments of two new associate municipal judges during the council’s most recent meeting.

Belinda Timmons and Dr. Kenneth L. Burgess Sr. were appointed Tuesday to one-year terms as associate municipal judges.

Christopher R. Nowlin is the municipal judge.

According to Timmons’ resume, she received a bachelor’s in social work and counseling from Limestone College and a master’s in social work from the University of South Carolina. Since March 2006, Timmons has been Florence County’s summary court judge. Prior to that, she served as a delinquent tax analyst in the Florence County treasurer's office.

Burgess received a bachelor’s in agricultural education from North Carolina A&T University and a master’s in secondary education from Cambridge College, according to his resume. He was awarded an educational specialist degree in K-12 educational leadership and a doctor of education degree in K-12 educational leadership from University of Sarasota.

Burgess serves as an assistant principal at Kingstree Junior High School, and before that he was an assistant principal at North Charleston High School. He also has served as an assistant principal at Darlington High School.

In other business, council entered executive session to discuss a legal matter regarding the city’s judicial department. After executive session, Mayor Lovith Anderson Jr. said council made no decisions during the session.

Council on Tuesday approved a resolution on Lake City’s grievance procedures.

The resolution states that, when filing a grievance procedure, citizens must provide detailed information including the date, location and description of a problem in order to allow an investigation.

A grievance will have to be in writing and include the name, address and telephone number of the complainant. Complaints must be signed and sent to Lake City Human Resources Director Vernon A. Williams.

Council also approved a resolution that limits Lake City’s retiree health plan only to employees hired prior to the amendment’s passage.

During a July 28 workshop, insurance consultant Rick Woodard suggested developing one-page agreements between the city and each of about 12 employees who are eligible for the retiree health benefit, according to News & Post staff reports.

Woodard said the caveat is that the city must eliminate its current plan, which has provided retiree health benefits through age 65. To be eligible, an employee must have worked 25 consecutive years, Anderson said July 28.

The city has been determining how best to meet the obligations of Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) 45, a recent standard to account for retiree benefits other than pensions, such as health insurance.

Council, with all seven members present, voted unanimously July 28 to direct the city’s finance department to work with Woodard and develop an ordinance as well as the contracts.

The contracts would be for an amount of money based on what the city is currently paying.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, council members approved the appointment of John Wallace to the city’s grievance committee and Trey Miles was introduced as a new officer with the Lake City Police Department.

Council members approved the following bills:

• Fuel 24 to fuel all departments: $14,970.85
  
• Allied Waste Services for sludge disposal special handling: $3,877.40
  
• Waste Management for solid waste disposal: $9, 494.17
  
• K.G. Smith for equipment replacement: $2,978.58
  
• B.P. Barber for wastewater engineering: $4,483.50
  
• Florence School District 3 for technology center reimbursement: $31,250
  
• Floyd & Epps for legal fees: $3,000
  
• Heritage Digital for computer expenses: $5,168.40
  
• S.C. Municipal Insurance Trust for workers compensation: $59,064
  
• Laser Print Plus for water bill postage: $3,606