A lawsuit was filed Dec. 1, 2005, by the Town of Burnettown against the Horse Creek Merchants Association and their chairman and representative, Mel Minitor.

The lawsuit asserts that the petition is facially defective, isn't valid under state law, and doesn't necessitate a referendum election. The Horse Creek Merchants Association sought to have a referendum to overturn the Business License Ordinance placed on the November ballot.

The town sought a pre-election judicial review of any purported initiated ordinance submitted by the petition by issuing a declaratory judgment, said the lawsuit.

"The lawsuit is to verify whether or not the petition was legal, and to see if a referendum could be legally placed on the ballot," said Mayor Wayne Benson.

The Business License Ordinance was passed by a 4-1 vote on Dec. 13, 2004, with Councilman Kenneth Ferguson as the lone dissenting vote. The ordinance was to provide for a business license tax for the municipality, and was to become effective July 1, 2005.

The names on the petition were brought before the Aiken County Election Commission, which also serves as the municipal election commission. The petition contains 272 valid signatures of registered voters living in the Town of Burnettown.

In the November election, Mayor Wayne Benson, Councilman Wayne New, who ran against Benson, and Councilman James McIntosh failed to win re-election or election to the council seats, and the three candidates endorsed by the Horsecreek Merchants Association, C.H. Williams in the mayoral race and Earl Couch and Chuck Mason in the town council races, were elected to fill their seats.

The challenge to the validity of the petition has created an atmosphere of contention on both sides.

"This is the current administration's last chance to waste the tax payers money, knowing that the lawsuit will be overturned," said Minitor.

A judgment to initiate legal action for a declaratory judgment as to determine whether or not the petition was legal was made at the August Town Council meeting by Councilman James McIntosh.

"We wanted to know whether or not the petition is a legal document and if it's valid after we had already passed the Business License Ordinance," said McIntosh.

Also mentioned in the lawsuit was the petition brought by the Horse Creek Merchants Association to reduce the corporate limits.

"We haven't turned in the petition to reduce the corporate limits of the Town of Burnettown," said Minitor.