Council takes 3-2 votes

Votes of three in favor, two against proved to be the norm during last night’s Oconee County Council meeting. Division showed in the ranks of the councilmen in a handful of major issues. By one-vote margins, the council gave the second of three required readings to an ordinance to cover all county employees who are sued while in official duties; and it agreed to make a formal request of the state General Assembly for full funding of the Local Government Fund. The votes divided the threesome of Thrift, Dexter, and Corbeil from the duo of McCall and Cain.  First-year councilman, Paul Cain, back from his honeymoon, got to weigh in for the first time on the controversial issue of whether to extend the legal coverage, as described by the county attorney, to fill a gap in coverage that already exists. In this, Cain joined McCall in voting in the minority. However, the full council sided with Cain in his request to ask the South Carolina Attorney General for an opinion on the legality of the ordinance in view of the state law, the South Carolina Tort Liability Act, which already limits the liability of government employees acting within the scope of their job. Cain also requested that an opinion be sought from the state insurance reserve fund on the effect of indemnifying employees before a proceeding determines they were acting within the boundaries of their office.