The JI Messenger has broken the story--
Trent Kernodle.has filed a class action suit against the Town of James Island.
David Engelman, Sandi Engelman, and Rod Welch have signed onto the complaint. David Engelman is a former Chairman of the JIPSD and was a candidate for Town Council in 2010. Sandi Engelman was a candidate for JIPSD Commissioner in 2014 and Town Council in 2012. Rod Welch is a former JIPSD Commissioner. Trent Kernodle is the former general counsel for the JIPSD and candidate for Mayor of the Town of James Island in 2014.
The suit seeks to force the Town to adopt the plan Trent Kernodle advocated during his unsuccessful campaign for Mayor. As he said in the debate, "Mail the checks. Getting a check from the Town is just like Christmas."
The voters of the Town rejected his campaign by a two to one margin, but he and his political backers are trying to use a court to overrule the Town's voters.
Specifically, Kernodle is asking a judge to force the Town to provide payments to all property owners in the Town of James Island for each of the three years the Town has been in existence along with interest. The funds in question are those the Town received from the Local Option Sales Tax Property Tax Credit Fund. Through March, the Town has received $1,982,736.
They ask for pre-judgment interest on the funds, which is 8.5%. This is much higher than what anyone can actually earn and substantially more than what the Town has earned--.2%. (2 tenths of one percent.) They are trying to get approximately $250,000 more out of the taxpayers pocket as compared to the $700 the Town has actually earned in interest.
He is also asking the court to force the Town to pay him and two other lawyers. If Kernodle and his allies win in court, the taxpayers of the Town will be forced to bear heavy administrative costs to mail checks, be gouged by high interest rates, and pay a small fortune to Trent Kernodle and two lawyers from out of Town.
The taxpayers of the Town of James Island have already paid Trent Kernodle's law firm more than a half a million dollars. When will he be satisfied? How much more of the taxpayers money does he need?
I have always worked to provide tax relief to the people of the Town, but mailing checks is inefficient and costly. No other city or town in South Carolina mails property tax refund checks.
Unfortunately, the Town will be forced to mount a defense against Trent Kernodle's legal attack. What he forces us to spend on lawyers will inevitably result in fewer new sidewalks and less police protection and other Town services.
I am confident that the Town will prevail and that we will be able to use the Town's Local Option Sales Tax revenues to provide true tax relief to the people of the Town in an efficient and legally-sound manner.
It is sad that some James Island politicians refuse to accept the voters' verdict and instead seek to overrule the people with wasteful legal wrangling. We faced this same problem three times in the past. The voters' will was finally recognized in 2012 and we now have a Town.
Hopefully, Trent Kernodle and his political allies won't be able drag it out for twenty years.
No comments:
Post a Comment