By Betsy Finklea
The Latta Town Council held a special meeting tonight (Wednesday, December 8) to hear citizen comments and concerns about the election for mayor and council held on Tuesday.
At the heart of the issue was questions about the residency of one of the candidates for mayor. Many citizens made comments and asked questions of both the council and the town attorney, Janet Paschal.
One citizen commented that she felt that any residency questions should have been asked prior to the election while another expressed concerns about whether the town election commission did their due diligence in checking out the candidates. While filing opened and closed in September, state law does not require that a candidate establish residency until 30 days prior to the election long after the petitions to run are accepted.
Another citizen and candidate, Teresa Mason, who runs Helping Hands Food Pantry, said that she felt Latta should be represented by people who live here, work here, and do here. She said she was upset because she didn’t feel that people who live in Dillon should be representing Latta.
After discussion and questions, a motion was eventually made by Councilman Jarett Taylor that the Town of Latta hold a hearing to check the residency of the candidate who ran for mayor. The motion died due to lack of a second. Councilman Joe Williamson made some comments and said he was embarrassed as to how this council has acted and left the building with applause from the audience. Then the meeting was adjourned.

Watch the meeting:
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