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York County and its sheriff have filed a lawsuit against the cities of Rock Hill and Tega Cay over payment for housing inmates at the county jail.

The lawsuit, filed around 5 p.m. Wednesday, is the latest public dispute concerning money -- the Carolina Panthers practice facility apparently has ended because of a dispute over money -- involving York County and Rock Hill.

In the lawsuit, York County says the municipalities of York, Fort Mill and Clover have agreed to pay the county $73 per day to house inmates, but Rock Hill and Tega Cay have refused.

Rock Hill leaders acknowledged the lawsuit was filed, but claim the county has not said how it came up with the $73 per prisoner daily fee, a city written statement to The Herald said. Rock Hill residents already pay almost $8 million annually in taxes to support the sheriff’s office, the city statement said.

York County and the York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson are both plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The cities of Rock Hill and Tega Cay are both named as defendants.

The lawsuit states the sheriff’s office has a legal responsibility under South Carolina law to house inmates and operate a county jail. Countywide taxes are collected for this purpose, the lawsuit states.

The issue of conflict is whether the municipalities have to reimburse the county, and how much the municipalities should pay.

The sheriff’s office will continue to accept inmates from Rock Hill and Tega Cay until the issue is resolved by the court, according to the lawsuit. It remains unclear when a judge will order a hearing on the issue.

The full statement from York County reads;

“On Wednesday, due to actions by the Cities of Rock Hill and Tega Cay, York County and Sheriff Kevin Tolson took steps to protect their interests, and the interests of the taxpayers, through legal proceedings. The Cities inside York County have an obligation under the law to provide jail detention services for individuals that they detain. For many years those detention services have been provided by agreement with the County and Sheriff Tolson at the York County Detention Center. Under that agreement the Cities reimburse the County and Sheriff Tolson for the cost of detaining their municipal inmates. This arrangement results in reduction of overall cost for most municipalities when compared to the cost of constructing and operating detention facilities themselves.

“Last year, the Cities declined to pay the County and the Sheriff for these detention services and expected to continue to send their detainees without payment. More recently, the Cities have refused to enter into written agreements with the County and Sheriff Tolson, as required by law, that would govern this joint provision of services. The County and Sheriff Tolson have worked for more than six months to negotiate and obtain the required signatures from each of the County’s municipalities for such a written agreement. Clover, Fort Mill, and York all have signed such agreements; Rock Hill and Tega Cay refuse. This lawsuit seeks a court’s determination that, if Rock Hill and Tega Cay desire to have the County and Sheriff Tolson provide these detention services on their behalf, then they are required to enter written agreements governing the arrangement.”

York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson declined comment.

In a statement to The Herald, the city of Rock Hill said county leaders first tried to make the per day payment almost $100 per day before the amount was cut to $73. But the county still won’t say where the $73 per day cost comes from, and refuses to negotiate, the statement said.

Records obtained by the Herald show the previous amount for was around $43-$42.88 per day per inmate.

The city states that any payments are voluntary and not required under South Carolina law.

The city statement says:

“Today, York County took the unfortunate step of filing a lawsuit against municipalities in York County. The County is completely aware of the City of Rock Hill position that these fees have historically been paid voluntarily as they are not required under state law.

The City does not entirely object to voluntarily paying a fee; however, the City only plans to do so under a fairly negotiated agreement. Just over one year ago, York County unilaterally and arbitrarily announced it was raising the daily fees for boarding prisoners to almost $100 per prisoner per day, essentially doubling the fee. This was done with no provision of information or background on how the fee was calculated.

Many of the municipalities in York County announced they would not pay these fees. Several months later the County provided new information to the municipalities that reduced these arbitrary fees by approximately 20%. However, again no adequate justification was provided for how the fee was calculated.

In the spirit of cooperation and good faith, the City has paid all fees associated with the dispute. The fee has been voluntarily paid, even though there is no law requiring the City to do so. In fact, the state statute requires the County to board all municipal prisoners with no provision for fees....

Beyond paying these fees, City of Rock Hill taxpayers already fund operations related to the Sheriff’s Office through County property taxes paid to the tune of approximately $7.9 million a year. Surely, Rock Hill residents have paid their fair share to York County for these services.

The City has made several offers on how we would be comfortable moving forward under a fairly negotiated agreement; however, York County has refused to negotiate. We look forward to providing additional information before the court and vigorously defending the residents of Rock Hill all of whom are also residents of York County.”

Efforts to reach the city manager of Tega Cay by email were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit is a public record and can be viewed by the public here at sccourts.org.

This story was originally published April 22, 2022 10:43 AM.

Just south of the state line, plans for a new world class sports complex excited a city. A developer talked of elite athletes who would train there, apartments and businesses that would sprout up. The project promised to transform the city.

Then, it didn’t happen.

No, it wasn’t the Carolina Panthers headquarters in Rock Hill. It would have been Game On in Tega Cay.

As Rock Hill awaits what will come next after the Panthers stopped construction and terminated its contract, it’s neighbor across the Catawba River is completing a re-vision for a major development that never came. There now are new plans for the Tega Cay property, which officials can finalize Monday night.

The plans won’t include what would have been called Game On.

“Everything was kind of centered around that private recreational facility that was going to be Game On,” said Charlie Funderburk, city manager in Tega Cay. “For various reasons, the private facility kind of fell through.”

In 2016, Tega Cay annexed and rezoned property between Stonecrest Boulevard and Dam Road. Mooresville, N.C.-based Game On Development had plans for a two-level sports facility, 14-screen theater, 150-room hotel and four-level parking garage. Park, medical, office, retail and residential spaces were proposed. About half of the roughly 78 acres would need annexation into the city.

The $40-$50 million development would replace a salvage yard not far from the Walmart along S.C. 160. The sports part of Game On would have an Olympic size and resort-style pools and a 35,000-square-foot fitness center. Plus eight basketball courts, four multipurpose fields, bowling, and both indoor and outdoor tennis.

The developer envisioned apartments above commercial uses, where elite athletes could stay while training for Olympic swimming or other high-level competition. Any resident in Game On, or anywhere in the city, could buy memberships to access the sports facilities. The facility was projected to be ready by 2025.

The sports complex, and a hotel, would be part of the first-phase.

In mid-2018, property developers got city approval for 167 townhomes on 22 acres. It was the first residential piece of Game On, with grading set to start that August. All of the property at the time was either purchased by, or under contract with, the developer.

By November 2019 grading and stormwater work was underway, with new home construction eyed for spring 2020. Planning continued for the sports portion.

Yet signs emerged the sports piece may not happen. Final building plans for the sports piece were never submitted.

Work started on the Trinity townhomes. Then, a leadership shift within the development team for Game On led to less focus on the sports piece.

“(The Game On developer) came to us and said look, this isn’t going to happen,” Funderburk said. “We probably saw it coming in about 2019, but really 2020 — the tail end of 2020 — is when we started having those conversations with the primary (developer) as far as, what do you want to see?”

One member of the Game On developer leadership group declined to comment at length Friday on what led to the failure of the sports complex, other than to say the city, and Funderburk in particular, were excellent to work with and did what was in the city’s power to bring the project to life.

George Sheppard was mayor of Tega Cay when the idea of Game On was first mentioned.

“Ultimately, the money wasn’t there to make it happen,” Sheppard said. “There were promises made that couldn’t have been kept, financially.”

Sheppard had concerns, and voted those concerns, when his full council didn’t see full financing details related to the project. Sheppard voted against initial annexation and rezoning, and against putting townhomes in first, though both happened.

“Commercial is where the city would make its money,” Sheppard said.

David O’Neal became mayor after Sheppard, in 2018. There were negotiations between the city and developer in his time, but O’Neal said the city held its ground.

“The Game On developer wanted too many concessions,” he said. “We tried to formulate something that wouldn’t give away so much, but after the Panthers released the deal they struck with the state, city, county, school board — we knew we would never achieve the numbers they wanted, and we relayed it to them.”

A important as commercial growth for the city is, O’Neal said it shouldn’t come at all costs.

“My last words to the developer was, ‘I’d rather leave it be undeveloped land where the deer and the antelope can play’ than approve the 30 years of tax abatement they were looking for,” O’Neal said.

In Tega Cay, the Fort Mill School District is a much larger taxing entity than the city. There were efforts by the city to have the district help with a new tax increment financing district. It never materialized.

Such districts have been used for major redevelopment projects in Rock Hill and elsewhere. A taxing body, in this case the school district, would forego some future tax revenue in an area to pay for public infrastructure in that area. The vision is, as the area grows, it generates far more revenue -- through higher tax values and collections -- that ultimately serves the city and school district.

There were other interactions between Game On and the school board. Anticipated 2020 closure of the former Leroy Springs Recreation Complex in Fort Mill, and loss of pools there, prompted the school district to include $9.9 million for an aquatics center in a $226 million bond package in 2015. Two proposals came in for the project.

One was a partnership between Game On and SwimMAC Charlotte for the pools planned in Tega Cay. The other brought the Town of Fort Mill and Upper Palmetto YMCA together to add to the Leroy Springs site. Ultimately the school district, town, YMCA and Leroy Springs & Co. reached a deal that added new school district pools at the now town-owned Fort Mill YMCA at the Complex.

Apart from scale, there may appear to be similarities between Game On and the estimated $2 billion Panthers development in Rock Hill.

Tega Cay leaders downplay them.

“I don’t think so, no,” Funderburk said. “I think it’s completely, completely different.”

Game On was capped at 400,000 square feet of commercial space. The Panthers site was large enough to move state officials to fast track a new interchange off I-77.

“You’re not talking about an NFL training center and all the other things that are coming with it,” Funderburk said of Game On.

Sheppard sees Panthers owner David Tepper as a shrewd businessman who is methodical and strategic. Available funding was an issue for Game On, while a lack of money wouldn’t appear to be an issue for Tepper who ranks among the world’s wealthiest sports team owners at a net worth of almost $17 billion, per a Forbes list earlier this year.

The problem in Rock Hill is about the securing of bonds issued by the city for public infrastructure projects. The Panthers group stopped construction and ended its construction contract with the city claiming the city didn’t meet financial commitments. Rock Hill leaders insist they abided by the rules of the deal.

Sheppard, who for years took to calling the Tega Cay project “Game Off,” doesn’t compare the two.

“I don’t see the same things with Tega Cay,” he said.

Yet O’Neal said it was the Panthers public incentive agreement that at least in part led to requests by the Game On developer for tax incentives. At that point the difference in project scope became an issue.

“They wanted a deal similar to the Panthers, except they weren’t the Panthers,” O’Neal said.

What is similar between the Rock Hill property today and the Tega Cay site since Game On fizzled is uncertainty on what will now happen to the properties.

On Monday night, Tega Cay City Council likely will take a major step toward answering their city’s part of that question.

This story was originally published May 16, 2022 2:00 AM.

Tega Cay will be dropped from a York County legal case over jail inmates, while the sheriff takes aim at comments made by Rock Hill officials.

Late last month, York County and the sheriff filed suit against the cities of Rock Hill and Tega Cay. The suit states Fort Mill, Clover and York agreed to pay the county $73 per day per inmate to house municipal arrest inmates, but Rock Hill and Tega Cay didn’t.

On Monday night, after more than an hour in closed session to discuss the inmates and other legal issues, the York County Council voted to approve an intergovernmental agreement with Tega Cay and take steps to remove the city from litigation.

County attorney Michael Kendree said the agreement is between the county, Sheriff’s Office and City of Tega Cay. The city will pay money owed prior to being dropped from litigation, Kendree confirmd. Further details weren’t discussed publicly when council voted to approved the deal.

“This is an agreement specifying the per diem costs for municipal inmates that are housed with York County for municipal violations,” Kendree said.

Charlie Funderburk, city manager for Tega Cay, told The Rock Hill Herald Wednesday his council approved the agreement in a special meeting last week. Tega Cay received notice Tuesday the county approved its part of the deal.

“We’ve been working through an agreement with the sheriff and county really ever since they sent us the first one in December, on and off,” he said. “Just trying to see if we could find some middle ground that both sides agree with.”

Funderburk said work is underway to release Tega Cay from the lawsuit.

“We never got served with a lawsuit,” Funderburk said. “Obviously we know it was filed, but it never got served. So they’re amending that.”

Funderburk said his city is comfortable with the new deal and is ready to move forward.

“Glad to put that in our rear view mirror and get back to the business at hand,” he said.

On Tuesday, an attorney for the York County Sheriff’s Office sent a statement from Sheriff Kevin Tolson and background information on the litigation, to The Herald.

In it, Tolson took issue with the idea there isn’t justification for how fees were calculated. Here’s the statement:

Normally, I do not comment on matters in litigation; however, in this case, I feel that I need to address some of Rock Hill’s statements regarding municipal inmates that are housed at the York County Detention Center. The City and the County have a fundamental disagreement about which entity is responsible for the care of inmates with municipal charges and we are using the legal system to work through this disagreement. Our justice system is well equipped to resolve disagreements of this nature.

I have no issues with the City’s statement regarding their position, but I am baffled by the City stating that there was, “no adequate justification... for how the fee was calculated.” Over the past year, I have spent too many hours to count talking with City leaders about this issue, the fee calculation and why it was changed. I do not understand why the City stated that the fee was changed, “with no provision of information or background on how the fee was calculated,” because I sent an email to Mayor Gettys and City Manager David Vehaun on January 5, 2022 that clearly laid out how the new fee was calculated. I am attaching that email to this statement so that the people can see for themselves the information that was provided to the City.

I make this statement at this time to be clear to the citizens of York County that I did everything in my power to resolve the disagreement regarding the care of municipal inmates without resorting to the courts for resolution.

Tolison’s statement is in response to one offered by Rock Hill last month. It states:

Today, York County took the unfortunate step of filing a lawsuit against municipalities in York County. The County is completely aware of the City of Rock Hill position that these fees have historically been paid voluntarily as they are not required under state law.

The City does not entirely object to voluntarily paying a fee; however, the City only plans to do so under a fairly negotiated agreement. Just over one year ago, York County unilaterally and arbitrarily announced it was raising the daily fees for boarding prisoners to almost $100 per prisoner per day, essentially doubling the fee. This was done with no provision of information or background on how the fee was calculated.

Many of the municipalities in York County announced they would not pay these fees. Several months later the County provided new information to the municipalities that reduced these arbitrary fees by approximately 20%. However, again no adequate justification was provided for how the fee was calculated.

In the spirit of cooperation and good faith, the City has paid all fees associated with the dispute. The fee has been voluntarily paid, even though there is no law requiring the City to do so. In fact, the state statute requires the County to board all municipal prisoners with no provision for fees....

Beyond paying these fees, City of Rock Hill taxpayers already fund operations related to the Sheriff’s Office through County property taxes paid to the tune of approximately $7.9 million a year. Surely, Rock Hill residents have paid their fair share to York County for these services.

The City has made several offers on how we would be comfortable moving forward under a fairly negotiated agreement; however, York County has refused to negotiate. We look forward to providing additional information before the court and vigorously defending the residents of Rock Hill all of whom are also residents of York County.

A January email from Tolson to Rock Hill city officials provided by the sheriff’s office mentioned a proposed intergovernmental agreement with a $73-per-day, per-inmate rate effective Jan. 1.

That cost is up from almost $43 at the end of last year. A separate, same-day email from Tolson to city and county officials notes the new rate was calculated for inmates with municipal (city or town) charges only, not inmates with municipal and general sessions charges which is how municipalities were charged previously.

Something a global pandemic took away from so many people — togetherness — also is the best way out of it, local officials urge.

“I believe we’re persevering,” Fort Mill Mayor Guynn Savage said recently. “Together we have faced the worst of times, with the best of people.”

Each year the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce gathers Fort Mill, Tega Cay, York County and Fort Mill School District leaders for a breakfast event to address the state of the community. The gathering was last Thursday.

Most years are celebrations of new business, accolades and test scores. This year, as with much else during the COVID-19 pandemic, is different.

Chuck Epps, superintendent of the Fort Mill School District for a dozen years, said it feels like almost all he’s talked with groups about the past two years is the virus. Often at times “where it seems like everybody’s mad about something.” And always at times when the district still has to focus on education of now close to 18,000 students.

“It’s made us reinvent our whole world,” Epps said.

Yet, officials say, there is reason for optimism. Most of it centered on the idea of community. Savage points to the massive volunteer vaccination clinic effort staged in Rock Hill, where people from across York County came to administer and receive vaccinations.

“It was amazing to see all of us come shoulder to shoulder, all our communities providing services that all of us needed,” Savage said.

Town services in Fort Mill weren’t interrupted during COVID. A wastewater treatment plant upgrade that’s the largest project in her 17 years in town government, continues. The town just opened its new amphitheater. Other projects like the four ballfield Banks Athletic Park and rehab at the Fort Mill YMCA at the Complex tennis facility continue, aimed at bringing people together.

Similar projects move forward in York County. York County Councilman Tom Audette said the almost 1,400 new jobs and $141 million in new business investment from June 2020 to June 2021 comes as the county focuses on recreation and road improvement.

“Quality of life is important,” Audette said.

The county just came up with a final draft of a master plan for Riverbend Park, a 1,900-acre project on the Rock Hill side of the Catawba River. The county could approve it soon. It features an event center overlooking the Catawba River, more than five miles of biking or walking path, 26 miles of hiking area and launch areas for kayaks.

“It’s going to be a destination,” Audette said.

Ebenezer Park on the Rock Hill shores Lake Wylie relaunched with upgrades, and Field Day Park in Lake Wylie opened with ballfields and playgrounds. There’s work at Allison Creek, Nanny’s Mountain, York Veterans and Worth Mountain parks ongoing, too.

Mayor David O’Neal in Tega Cay said the major project happening in his city continues despite the pandemic. Catawba Park will open about this time next year with five ballfields, three multipurpose fields, an open meadow and river access for kayaking.

“We’ve been talking about this as long as I’ve lived here,” O’Neal said. “I moved here 20 years ago.”

Impact fees, a charge on new development communities like Fort Mill and Tega Cay use to generate money for needed services, created a revenue stream vital to Catawba Park. Something O’Neal sees a a benefit beyond his city limits.

“It’s not just for Tega Cay,” O’Neal said. “It’s a regional park.”

The city also did a $130,000 revamp of Windjammer Park, with docks and restrooms. The All Play Together inclusive playground opened a couple of weeks before COVID hit, at which point it had to close for a time. Now play is returning to something closer to normal.

“It’s for children of all abilities,” O’Neal said. “Disabled veterans — anybody can play there.”

Officials say what keeps forward momentum for their various public bodies are the people who constitute it. Like teachers and school nurses pushed to the limit right now, Epps said, but who keep showing up for students.

“The last two years have been an amazing challenge for us,” he said. “We’ve been able to pull off some miracles.”

Whether it’s different municipalities each focusing on recreation or other issues that impact communities, Savage said it’s key her town works with O’Neal’s city, the county, businesses, schools and others for the best area outcomes.

“We’re not really competitors,” Savage said. “We’re teammates.”

Despite new business openings and other successes, the past year or so has been hard for Fort Mill. Even beyond COVID there’s the loss of community pillars like long-time Mayor Charlie Powers and philanthropist Anne Springs Close, Savage said. Yet it’s the people, she said, who will continue to make the area thrive.

“We make so much more, so much better,” Savage said, “when we do it together.”

The Gold Hill Road bridge over Interstate 77 will close for a weekend to improve the tricky traffic spot between Fort Mill and Tega Cay.

The bridge will be closed Jan. 15-17, South Carolina Department of Transportation said. Interstate ramps will remain open. A more than 3-mile detour for the weekend closure will use S.C. 160 and Highway 21 Bypass.

Boggs Construction will work on the bridge that transitioned to a diverging diamond traffic pattern as part of ongoing congestion improvements.

The $14.5 million interchange construction project started two years ago and is mostly funded by Pennies for Progress, a York County voter-approved cent sales tax.

When the traffic alignment shifted this fall to its diverging diamond, which temporarily shifts to opposite sides of the road to cut out left turn waits, other problems emerged.

There were several wrecks and red light runs after the change, SCDOT officials, road experts and Fort Mill Mayor Guynn Savage said in November. Light timing and signage improvements were done.

Roads officials said it also would take drivers time to acclimate. The initial approval for the interchange upgrade had it as the first diverging diamond in South Carolina.

The work comes during an unprecedented stretch of other area I-77 interchange improvements.

▪ A new exit for the Carolina Panthers headquarters in Rock Hill is under construction. State transportation infrastructure bank money will be used for improvements at S.C. 160 in Fort Mill and Cherry/Celanese roads in Rock Hill.

▪ Several key design and planning phases have been approved for the S.C. 160 interchange between Baxter and Kingsley. Initial plans showed a diverging diamond but have since been updated to a larger configuration with flyover bridges. Construction should begin in 2023 and last two years.

▪ Work on the Rock Hill interchange where Cherry and Celanese meet I-77 is next. Two separate diverging diamonds have been discussed but other options are being considered. Construction would likely start in 2026 and last two years. A public meeting about the project is expected next year.