Legal Opinion from the 1980s has Bearing in Present-Day Westminster

An opinion written over thirty years ago by then-South Carolina Assistant Attorney General Patricia Petway may apply to the heart of a legal dispute among Westminster city leaders as to whether or not a mayor or a council member may serve on a city council concurrently with his or her spouse being employed by the municipality.

Petway noted in the mid-1980s that her office by tradition would advise that the South Carolina Code of Laws 8-5-10 regarding nepotism applied to state departments only and not to political subdivisions such as cities or counties.

But she went on to say there are other considerations—and these are her words—“For example, if the spouse had been employed prior to the mayor or councilman taking office, the nepotism statute would not be applicable.”

That has been an argument by supporters of Westminster Councilman Reid Adams and his wife, Jennifer, the city clerk-treasurer. Adams had been in her job long before her husband won a 2017 election to a four-year council term.