With an election approaching, members of Irmo Town Council are clashing over an alleged conflict of interest in giving money to a local group.

During the body’s regularly scheduled Sept. 19 meeting, tensions mounted between council and Mayor Barry Walker regarding the role two council members occupy on the board for Irmo Future Growth. The nonprofit was started by the town but became a separate nonprofit this summer, still dedicated to helping small businesses in Irmo.

Walker’s point of contention is that Irmo Future Growth’s bylaws require two members of council or town staff to be present on the board, with Council Members Erik Sickinger and Bill Danielson fulfilling those roles while continuing to vote on allocating funding to the organization. 

At the meeting, the mayor questioned the council members’ roles on the committee, making a motion to amend accommodations tax recommendations by giving $10,000 recommended to Irmo Future Growth to the Okra Strut festival instead.

In explaining his motion he pointed to what he said is $37,000 missing from the roughly $250,000 the organization had received from the town previously.

“We have $37,000 unaccounted for,” Walker said. “That needs to be accounted for.”

The motion made by the mayor died, and the motion to approve the accommodations tax recommendations passed 3-1, with Walker casting the lone dissenting vote and Council Member Kelly Busch being absent.

Beach Loveland, chair of the Irmo Future Growth board, told the Chronicle that he received an email from the Irmo Town Administrator Courtney Dennis asking for the organization's account balance.

“Everything's accounted for,” Loveland said, adding that the Mayor already knew that information. 

Sickinger echoed this sentiment on Sept. 19, telling the Mayor, “You know, where it is, it’s in the bank account for Irmo Future Growth.”

Loveland also stated that Dennis asked the chair to provide a list of the board of directors and the current bylaws.

The Chronicle received copies of the bylaws from both Walker and Dennis, with Loveland certifying that the bylaws sent by Dennis would be correct.

The bylaws as they appear on those provided documents provide for two members of council or town staff serving “in an advisory role with no voting rights,” a change Loveland and Sickinger said was made in August.

They emphasized that the two council members are not members of the board. Walker said he thinks otherwise, highlighting the portion of the bylaws where it says the town representatives must be “on the board at all times.”

Dennis told the Chronicle that there are no town staff members associated with the board and confirmed that Irmo Future Growth is a separate nonprofit organization that operates independently from the town under its own set of bylaws.

Dennis stated that Danielson and Erik are advisors with the organization.

Loveland elaborated on this, telling the Chronicle that conversations about the organization separating from the town began during the Irmo Future Growth board’s June 13 meeting. The new bylaws were made official at the board’s Aug. 23 meeting.

According to Loveland, the conversation was brought on due to Sickinger and Danielson's position on the board causing political problems for the organization and its relationship with the mayor. Before conversations began about changing in bylaws, Sickinger was a voting member, while Danielson was the chair.

Loveland, who took over as the new chair in June, said there have been previous issues involving council member’s positions on the board.

“So to get ahead, knowing election season, we thought it'd be better to restructure and just kind of remove that piece out,” he explained. “So there was no question about that, not that there was a thing that we're doing that was wrong, but it just became abundantly clear as becoming harder for us to operate the way we wanted to without the distraction of those types of things coming up.” 

Sickinger said this is exactly why he and Danielson backed the decision to be removed as voting members.

“We knew that the mayor has attacked Irmo Growth before and rather than having a nonprofit, volunteer community organization, have their name get dragged through the mud, we decided it would be in the furtherance of the mission of the organization to remove ourselves,” Sickinger said.

“I didn't want to, I love helping businesses and improving our community. It’s why I sit on council in the first place,” he added, saying that the value he brings to the board isn’t worth the mayor trying to make them look bad. 

Loveland added that outside of having no voting rights, the two council members are unable to make presentations to the board and are solely there as a resource to help the board navigate issues such as working with municipalities.