By Betsy Finklea
The Latta Town Council held a special meeting on Tuesday at The Ellis Performing Arts Center with approximately 75 people in attendance.
The meeting was led by Mayor Pro-Tem Brian Mason. He said Mayor Earl Bullard was not present because he had a prior engagement.
The item on the agenda was the vote of confidence on the performance of Crystal Moore, the recently terminated Latta Police Chief. The motion was made by Councilman Jarett Taylor to give Moore’s performance a vote of confidence with a second by council member Lutherine Williams. The vote was 6-0 in favor of the motion with an aye vote by Taylor, Williams, Mason, Abbott Shelley, Trudy Drawhorn, and James Reaves.
Councilman Taylor then made a motion to call for an emergency ordinance to limit the mayor from hiring a police chief for 60 days. This is based on Section 5-7-250 of the S.C. Code of Laws on emergency ordinances.
This would allow the voters to vote on their choice of government and could allow the council to hire back Moore if the strong council form of government was selected.
The motion was seconded by Williams. All present voted in favor of the motion.
The members of the audience who had signed up to speak were then allowed to make comments.
After all comments by the audience and council were made, a letter from Crystal Moore was read. The meeting was then adjourned.