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The rural South Carolina town of Swansea has seen plenty of bad headlines in recent years – including a former mayor who was indicted for embezzlement and a police chief who was recently accused of attacking a 78-year-old man with a prosthetic limb.
Gotta love small town drama, right?
But nothing tops ‘The Mayor who Stole Christmas,’ a Dr. Suess-style saga in which current Swansea mayor Viola McDaniel has cast herself in the role of the Grinch – with Swansea’s roughly 800 residents portraying the good people of Whoville.
According to our sources, the dust-up began when Whoville, err… Swansea residents noticed a sparsely-decorated Christmas tree near the town fountain, which is located in a park at the corner of South Church and West Second Streets.
Take a look…
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“I think we got to start doing a little better for Christmas,” one resident wrote. “Our lights are in rough shape.”
Several citizens attempted to spruce up the Tannenbaum, paying for decorations out of their own pocket and volunteering to hang them on the tree. Mayor McDaniel was reportedly not happy at this display of civic activism, though. After allegedly removing the decorations herself – she issued a warning to the town.
“Who ever (sic) is messing with the decorations on the Christmas Tree at the fountain, stop!” a message posted to the town’s Facebook page yesterday afternoon (December 10, 2024) warned. “If it continues, the tree will be removed!”
Curiously, the administrator of the town’s Facebook page blocked residents from posting comments in response to this warning.
“This is our town,” one resident wrote on a separate page. “We need to do something about it, not just complain about it. We need to come together.”
When one citizen, Savanna Reynolds, attempted to do just that, an interesting conversation with the mayor ensued…
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“So there’s a reason that the tree’s decorated only halfway?” Reynolds asked McDaniel in a conversation posted to social media.
“Yes ma’am, there is,” the mayor responded.
“And you’re not willing to tell me that reason?” Reynolds asked.
“No ma’am,” the mayor responded.
“Are we gonna fix it?” Reynolds asked.
“No ma’am, no ma’am,” the mayor said. “Not right now, no ma’am.”
Asked whether local businesses could get together to finish decorating the tree, McDaniel replied “not right now, no ma’am.”
“Christmas is in two weeks so if we’re not going to do it now are we just not planning on doing it?” Reynolds asked.
“I’ve already did what I’m gonna do to the tree, y’all can do it next year when somebody else come(s) in,” the mayor shot back. “We did the best we could for the tree.”
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The conversation only intensified from there, with McDaniel rebuking those who insisted the half-decorated tree made the town look trashy.
“It’s trashy anyway,” she said.
The mayor then put forward the curious argument that those attempting to decorate the tree were trespassing.
“You can’t go on town property,” McDaniel told Reynolds. “You cannot go to that fountain.”
“Is it not public property?” Reynolds responded.
“No it’s not, that’s town property,” the mayor insisted, apparently unaware of the definition of public property.
As ‘GrinchGate’ gathers momentum on social media, it’s worth pointing out McDaniel has been at the heart of multiple controversies in recent years. For starters, there is a pending lawsuit filed against her in 2022 by town councilman Michael Luongo over an audit which allegedly uncovered more than $3 million in unaccounted for assets.
“The town has a duty to get to the bottom of where the money went,” a letter accompanying the lawsuit noted. “The citizens… are at least entitled to an explanation as to the missing funds.”
Just last month, McDaniel was accused of violating a town ordinance regarding the conduct of its council meetings – and was actually issued a summons by the city’s new police chief. That charge was eventually dropped, however.
Swansea belatedly balanced its annual $2.3 million budget in October – nearly four months late – but McDaniel announced last month it would not be able to “meet its financial obligation in the month (of) December.”
“The town doesn’t have any money,” McDaniel said at a November 25 council meeting.
Where did it go?
“What has happened to the town where I grew up and created so many cherished memories,” Swansea native Charlie Stabler wrote on Facebook. “When did citizens become the enemy of the state, forced to tiptoe around in the very place we call home? And why this assault on the sense of community? Last I checked, it’s the people who build and sustain a community or a town.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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11 comments
Damn! She almost makes elder abuser Spires look like a good mayor.
Oh good, it’s The War On Christmas season again.
Maybe she just wants it to be a Charlie Brown Christmas.
The hardest thing to believe in this extremely important blahg post is that someone created cherished memories growing up in Swansea.
Why has no one called the Governor.
The Mayor called our town Nasty..Why isn’t she doing something about it then. ..quit being so stubborn n fix our tree plz ..
Only in South Carolina…
How about fix the typo in the article title? smh
She sounds like she got her PhD at Circle K.
Good grief!!
I don’t understand why some citizens are making a big issue about a tree. This is ridiculous, and recording this Mayor’s conversation seems illegal. I pass through Swansea every day going to work and yes I’ve seen the tree but why are you guys putting all this energy into a tree? Drive 10 minutes to North and we have 4 trees that are barely decorated, but do you think we care, no we don’t. The trees are there and it’s okay! There are much bigger issues Swansea citizens should be worried about like where is the money before she stepped in that position. She came in with a zero balance, but no one wants to talk about that.
Seems to me Larry you can’t see the big picture! First of all you DON’T live there and pay the taxes for that town. Your opinion therefore is irrelevant. The citizens of that town need to know WHERE their tax money goes and the Mayor has to answer for its dispersal. The citizens PAYED for a decent tree and it’s OWED to them.
Someone asked why hasn’t someone called the Governor’s office… that’s a great question! That is what they are there for and if they deem necessary they will appoint a team to come in and relieve any, if not ALL governing positions over that town to make it right. That means Mayor and the complete town council.