Murphy – Justin Hyde, who was one meeting away from taking office as a Cherokee County commissioner, resigned Monday to avoid a conflict of interest with his job as a county employee.
Hyde is chief of the Valleytown Fire and Rescue Department and is also a county-employed emergency medical technician.
State law prevents county employees from taking office as a county commissioner, but he could have asked for an exemption because there are no municipalities in the county with a population of over 20,000 residents and because he could arrange for his pay and benefits to fall below a $60,000-per-year limit.
Foregoing health insurance would have gotten him just below that $60,000 limit, but if his compensation crept above that amount, even a little, he and the rest of the board could be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor.
“I’ll make it easy for you,” Hyde told the board on Monday, and said he would resign his election to the board.
Hyde was set to replace Randy Phillips on the board. Hyde defeated Phillips in the Republican primary and ran unopposed in the General Election.
It will be up to the Cherokee County Republican Party to nominate Hyde’s replacement on the board.
There is lots more to this story. See the Nov. 20 edition of the Cherokee Scout for more details.