Fired police chief reinstated in Simpsonville

Simpsonville’s Police Department was shaken up again as a new majority of city leaders on Tuesday voted to rescind former Police Chief Keith Grounsell’s firing more than a year earlier and make the current chief his second in command.

The decision came amid a packed chambers as the council wrangled over whether to give Grounsell 14 months back pay. In the end the council voted 4-3 in favor of back pay. The amount wasn’t immediately known.

“Hell no,” Councilman Matthew Gooch said when it was his turn to vote on the back pay.

“Heavens yes,” Councilwoman Geneva Lawrence said when it was her turn to vote.

“Your tax dollars just went flying out the window,” Gooch said when voting concluded.

Voting to rescind Grounsell’s firing were Lawrence, Elizabeth Braswell, Taylor Graham, and Sylvia Lockaby. Voting no were Gooch, George Lee Curtis and Mayor Perry Eichor.

Graham said both Moore and Grounsell have strengths and weaknesses that complement each another and that if the city gives the move a chance, “You won’t be disappointed.”

Steve Moore, the former police chief who was bumped from his position by the council decision, said he was sacrificing himself for the good of the city. He said he was happy to be chief but wouldn’t argue against being moved to deputy chief.

A former majority of the council ousted Grounsell in 2012 after three months on the job and appointed then-interim Moore as permanent chief.

That majority was defeated in November elections that coalesced around Grounsell’s firing and accusations of corrupt government.

Grounsell had threatened to sue to get his job back after he says he was wrongly fired for bringing government misdeeds to light.

In January, the new majority on its first night voted to part ways with City Administrator Russ Hawes, who had held the position for 10 years and oversaw the development of the $15 million Heritage Park sports and entertainment complex.

Grounsell had fallen out of favor with Hawes, who declined to give Grounsell a public hearing on the grounds that the chief had been a probationary employee.

At the time the council decided to part ways with Hawes, some council members said the new majority had intended to move Moore to the position of interim city administrator.

Two weeks later, the city’s planning director was appointed to the interim position.