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Settlement Ends Approximately $1M in Payouts and Legal Fees

BLYTHEWOOD – The last of two lawsuits filed by Ashley Hunter, CEO of MPA Strategies LLC, against the Town of Blythewood has been settled, all but closing the door on the Town’s almost four-year soap opera that one columnist described as the Town “making a mountain of public debt out of a molehill of personal spite.”

Another lawsuit filed by Hunter and a countersuit filed by the Town against Hunter had already been settled.

How It All Started

The most protracted and expensive legal battle in the Town’s history set sail on Feb. 22, 2021, after town council voted 3-2 to contract with MPA Strategies LLC instead of the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce to provide marketing services and grant writing for the Town.

Mayor Bryan Franklin, who cast one of the two losing votes, and the Chamber leadership, which lost the bid for the contract, sallied forth in an almost four-year effort to bring Hunter, and those they accused of conspiring with her, to their knees.

During those years, Councilman Donald Brock, The Voice publisher Barbara Ball, and to some extent, then-Councilman Sloan Griffin – Hunter’s alleged co-conspirators – suffered a steady barrage of unsubstantiated accusations, withering public tirades, and myriad other attempts by some members of the Town and Chamber leadership to intimidate.

Defamation Settlement

According to the settlement agreement, signed Dec. 20, 2024, the South Carolina Municipal Insurance and Risk Financing Fund, on behalf of the Town of Blythewood, agreed to pay $122,000 to Hunter in exchange for releasing the Town, its elected officials and employees from all claims concerning a defamation lawsuit Hunter filed against Franklin in January, 2023.

The settlement included a further stipulation that the Town of Blythewood re-issue (to Hunter) a check in the amount of $6,400, which had been tendered to MPA Strategies, LLC in August of 2021, for work Hunter had performed for the Town. That check was never negotiated because the Town placed it into escrow after it abruptly terminated Hunter’s contract on Aug. 28, 2021, in violation of the contract’s stipulations, according to Hunter’s attorney Paul Porter with Cromer, Babb, and Porter law firm. After a year in escrow, the original check was no longer negotiable.

2023 Settlement

The Dec. 20, 2024 settlement came a year to the week after The Town paid out $36,000 on Dec. 28, 2023 for Hunter’s legal fees to settle a Freedom of Information lawsuit that she filed against the Town on June 28, 2021, seeking declaratory relief for Franklin’s alleged Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) violations. State Statute 30-4-110(E) states that a settlement or conviction awarded for the prevailing person or entity in an FOIA lawsuit is restricted to reasonable attorney’s fees or other costs of litigation.

In addition to the payout to Hunter in the 2023 settlement, the Town also agreed to drop 10 counterclaims it had filed July 20, 2021 against MPA and that it (the Town) had paid at least four attorneys to aggressively prosecute.

The counterclaims accused Hunter of, among other things, fraud, civil conspiracy, SC Unfair Trade Practices, Federal False Claims, and Gross Negligence. The counterclaims did not include any supporting evidence, but they did include numerous inuendoes and significant inferences that Brock, Griffin, and Ball were co-conspirators in Hunter’s alleged scheme. According to Porter, the counterclaims were highly unusual and had serious legal and factual problems from the outset.

Who Won? Who Lost?

In the end, the Town gained nothing.

It is estimated the Town and its insurance provider paid out approximately $1,000,000 over the MPA legal war, including total payouts of $164,400 to settle Hunter’s two lawsuits and the Town’s countersuit and at least $800,000 in legal fees. The total of the Town’s fees and costs associated with the lawsuits has never been released to the public by the Town.

At the forefront of Franklin’s 2023 re-election bid for mayor, was his promise to keep stoking the fire under the MPA lawsuits. He lost the election in a landslide defeat to then-Councilman Sloan Griffin who promised to fire the Town’s attorneys and settle the lawsuits.

The Town’s former lead attorney in MPA’s FOIA lawsuit and the Town’s countersuit, David Black, was ultimately fired by the new town government. Prior to Black’s firing, the two powerhouse law firms he was affiliated with, Nexsen Pruet that later became Maynard Nexsen, were paid approximately $500,000 by the Town with public money from the general fund.

Blythewood Attorney Shannon Burnett, who served on the Town’s legal team, was also fired by the new government and was paid $238,753 of the public’s money from the general fund, according to documents released by Town Hall.

Hunter Files for Sanctions Against Black

The last remaining remnant of this legal debacle is a motion that Hunter filed in January, 2024 – which is still pending – calling for the court to sanction Black.

Hunter’s call for sanctions stems from Black’s refusal to withdraw from the case even after he was fired on Dec. 11, 2023 by the Town’s newly elected Mayor Sloan Griffin. Black also refused to file the December, 2023 MPA/Town of Blythewood settlement agreement with the Court after it was agreed to and signed by both parties. Black’s delay caused Hunter to lose a high-level crisis communication certification that, she said, impacted her earnings significantly.

Black argued that the MPA lawsuits should continue – against the wishes of the current majority council – in order to protect the Town’s best interest.

Porter countered that [The Town’s] “best interest” is lawfully determined by council [town council], not their counsel [attorney] or a special referee.

“This is how democracy works,” Porter wrote in a motion in opposition to a motion filed by Black to Appoint a Special Master to oversee the lawsuits, a move that the current mayor and council said could effectively block them from making decisions for the Town concerning MPA.

“This case was heavily covered by the local media in Blythewood,” Porter wrote in his Jan. 2, 2024, Motion to Enforce Settlement.

“Constitutional provisions vest [the Town’s] citizens with the right to select their government and representatives. The Town’s citizens did so in November, 2023 when they elected a new mayor and town council,” Porter wrote. “In doing so, the Town’s citizens rejected elected officials who supported the continuation of this legal action in favor of candidates who opposed it.

“Maynard Counsel (Black) does not have any authority to disregard the will of the voters and their elected council,” Porter said.

“Defendant’s record counsel (Black) was not elected. Defendant’s town council was. Whether or not to settle a case is the choice of the client, not their lawyer,” Porter wrote. “The ethical rules of professional conduct make this clear,” he said, quoting: ‘A lawyer shall abide by a client’s decision whether to make or accept an offer of settlement of a matter.’”

“Maynard Counsel wants to disregard the instructions of its client’s democratically elected decision-makers in order to continue this costly and unnecessary litigation over the objection of the Defendant (Town), who presumably will continue to be billed [by Maynard Counsel] for time spent on continuing this litigation,” said Porter. “This is shocking.”

The Voice reached out to former Mayor Bryan Franklin, Councilmen Donald Brock and Rich McKenrick, and former Chairman of the Chamber Phil Frye for comment. Only Frye responded (after press time), but declined to comment.

Who is Ashley Hunter?

Ashley Hunter is the owner and CEO of MPA Strategies LLC, a full-service marketing and grant writing business that was named the 2024 Best Marketing Firm in South Carolina by the Guide to South Carolina.

Located in Cayce, MPA’s clients have included the cities of Rock Hill, Florence, Camden, Mullins, Westminster, Batesburg-Leesburg, and Lake City, as well as the Cayce-West Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the SC Bar, and a number of law firms, political candidates, associations, businesses and individuals.

Prior to starting MPA Strategies in 2011, Hunter, a South Carolina native, spent six years working for the largest association management and lobbying firm in the state. She was selected for The State Newspapers “Top 20 Under 40ʺ in 2012 and named one of the 2018 Women of Influence by the Columbia Regional Business Report. In 2021, Hunter was named an SC Phenom by the Columbia Regional Business Journal.

Hunter is the former Chairman of the Board for the Healing Families Foundation, and a volunteer Guardian ad Litem for Richland County. She served as a lobbyist for the Municipal Association of SC, and is certified by FBI-LEEDA in Media and Public Relations (MPR).

Hunter, a single mom, resides in the City of Cayce with her two daughters.