Westminster sends opinion request

Mayor Brian Ramey of Westminster says a request by his city for a legal opinion to help settle a controversy over nepotism policy has been sent to the state Attorney’s General Office in Columbia.  There is no timetable as to when the office of A-G Alan Wilson will weigh in on

on whether his office finds conflict of interest involving Councilman Reid Adams and his wife Jennifer, the clerk-treasurer, while simultaneously one serves in an elected position and the other in an appointed one. Debate has raged in council meetings as to how the city nepotism policy should apply to this question.  It’s an issue that has divided the city elected leaders.  Robert Kittle, spokesman for the Attorney General, described the typical path that such a request follows, “Once we get it, it’s assigned to one of the lawyers in our opinions division, and then they research all of the case files—past precedence, past opinions, and laws.  In many cases, we’ve done opinions in the past that may be similar, so they’ll look at those and the case law cited in those, then they’ll write an opinion and send it back….”  There’s no timetable for when the process will be completed.