E.W. Cromartie After 27 years in office, District #2 city council member E. W. Cromartie II resigned under pressure Tuesday afternoon, March 9. In a plea agreement Cromartie admitted to federal authorities he failed to pay $25,316 in federal income taxes in 2004. That was the same year he was summoned four times for building code violations, as reported in The Columbia Star.

Cromartie is expected to spend a year and a day in federal prison.

Also on Tuesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court suspended Cromartie’s law license.

The next day on Wednesday as The Columbia Star was being sent to press, Columbia’s remaining six members of city council voted for an election to replace Cromartie on April 6, same day as the mayoral election, depending on a decision from S. C. Attorney General Henry Dargan McMaster.