Don' be messin' with Bubba Trout

Greenville county council member Tony Trout leaves the room after a council committee adjourned their meeting at County Square Monday, Aug. 18, 2008. (GEORGE GARDNER/Staff)

Lame-duck Greenville County Commissioner Tony Trout, under a variety of investigations for bugging the computer of the county administrator on grounds as a commissioner, Trout's the administrator's boss, may face new charges after inviting himself into a closed session of a council committee overseeing investigations of Trout. The Greenville News has the details:

...Trout pushed his way into an executive session Monday during a tense standoff that drew at least five sheriff’s deputies and left one councilman alleging Trout had threatened him.

The council committee, formed to monitor investigations of Trout, eventually adjourned without discussing business. Trout denied threatening Councilman Fred Payne.

Council Chairman Butch Kirven said he decided not to have Trout removed from the room because it wouldn’t have served "any useful purpose."

Payne said he filed an "informal" report with a deputy detailing an episode in which Councilman Bob Taylor began to close the conference room door as Payne and Trout were entering the room.

Payne told the committee he felt threatened, and said he wanted to call security. Gilstrap said of Trout, "I saw him, he pushed him."

Trout called them "liars," and said Taylor pushed the door in his face. Ultimately, the committee adjourned without going into closed session.

...The meeting closed, and council members filed into the staff area of County Square behind locked doors, with Trout going in last.

As he swiped his electronic key, Trout turned and said, "Exit, stage left."

Kirven later said the committee would pursue its business in informal, one-on-one conversations instead of in a publicly announced meeting.

Trout may be a nut, but, coming from the open meetings tradition of the Pacific Northwest, there's something about a public body having meetings closed to one of its own, about him, that rankles. When you can railroad nuts, you can railroad anybody.