Council approves $13,835 project to examine city laws and improve public access to municipal records
By: Tracy Sanders, Publisher
tracy@thewoodrufftimes.com
SIMPSONVILLE — For the first time in approximately three decades, the City of Simpsonville is preparing to conduct a comprehensive review of the laws governing the city.
Simpsonville City Council voted unanimously Aug. 25 to authorize the city administrator to enter into a contract with CivicPlus/Municode for a complete recodification of the city’s Code of Ordinances.
The $13,835 project is expected to take approximately 18 months and will involve reviewing roughly 400 pages of city laws chapter by chapter and, in some cases, word by word.
The city’s last full recodification occurred approximately 30 to 31 years ago. Although the code was updated and republished in 2016, that work did not constitute a complete legal review.
Recodification is more extensive than the routine process of adding newly adopted ordinances to the city’s code. It includes a comprehensive legal review, revision, restructuring and republication of the entire document.
The work is intended to identify obsolete language, inconsistencies, internal conflicts and terminology that may have changed in meaning over time. It will also determine whether the city’s ordinances align with current South Carolina law.
The contractor will not have the authority to independently change Simpsonville’s laws. Any substantive changes identified during the review will still require action by City Council, which will retain its legislative authority throughout the process.
The review will begin with a Municode attorney examining the city’s code and preparing a legal manuscript identifying potential problems. City officials, the city attorney and department heads will then review the findings and respond before a proposed new version of the code is prepared.
Department heads are expected to play a significant role because they regularly work with the ordinances governing their areas of responsibility. Their participation will be important to ensuring the project is completed accurately and efficiently.
The city’s goal extends beyond correcting spelling and grammatical errors. The review is also intended to improve government operations and make Simpsonville’s laws easier for residents to locate and understand.
The project will include an effort to locate ordinances adopted during the past 30 years that should have been added to the code but may have been omitted.
During the council discussion, Mayor Paul Shewmaker raised the question of whether previously adopted ordinances would be reviewed to determine if any were missing. City staff confirmed that locating and incorporating any omitted ordinances would be part of the process.
Older records may be more difficult to locate, but the city’s goal is to produce the most complete and accurate code possible for council members and Simpsonville residents.
The review will not include Simpsonville’s zoning ordinance. City officials recommended keeping the zoning regulations separate from the general Code of Ordinances to create a simpler process and system.
Council members also discussed the difficulty residents face when attempting to locate city resolutions. Some resolutions can currently be found only in meeting packets, while others are maintained in physical files and are not accessible through the city’s website.
The city is considering adding Municode’s MuniDocs service for approximately $380 annually. The service would provide an online repository where residents could search for resolutions and other municipal documents.
Moving those records online would require city staff to scan and transfer existing documents, a process that is expected to take time.
The recodification contract is already covered in the city budget. City officials indicated that beginning the project by early October would allow work to get underway before the holiday season. Otherwise, the city may wait until January to begin.
Once the review is completed, the final recodified Code of Ordinances must return to City Council for adoption.
Council approved Resolution R-2026-19 by a 7-0 vote.
