City Council Calls Special Friday Night Session

The Simpsonville City Council will hold a special executive session tonight, though the reason why remains unclear.

Notice of the "special call" meeting, to be held at City Hall at 7:30 p.m., was disseminated to the media and other parties late Thursday afternoon. According to the notice, the Council will discuss a legal matter along with  a "personnel matter" involving the city's police department, which recently has been in turmoil.

It was unclear Thursday if the executive session was called in response to the recent unrest within the police department, or for some other unrelated reason. Neither Mayor Perry Eichor or city administrator Russ Hawes returned messages Thursday.

As Patch and other local media outlets reported recently, the Council in October was threatened with possible legal action and mass resignations from more than 25 officers and dispatchers. In a letter to Council, officers laid out their grievances to the city administration, stating their dissatisfaction with assistant police chief Colleen O'Neil, who was passed over for the chief's position by Keith Grounsell in August. 

In addition to the low morale allegedly caused by O'Neil, they also chided the Council and the city administrator for allowing the problems to fester by letting O'Neil stay in her job. The letter also alleged that the problems made it difficult for Grounsell, who is popular among the police force, to do his job.

"…we do not feel that Chief Grounsell can be successful with taking this department into the future with her as his second in command," the officers stated in their letter.

Stay tuned to Patch for more details, and any action taken at tonight's meeting. For more background, and to read the full letter from the officers, CLICK HERE.