Judge Mildred McDuffie

Columbia is facing a budget deficit of as much as $10 million, mostly because of spending problems. Maybe city officials wouldn’t have this problem if they put former Richland County magistrate judge Mildred McDuffie in charge.

McDuffie, known simply as “judge,” enjoys a rare power over council members. She leads the city’s Community Promotions funding committee. Each year, the committee has $300,000 to hand out to local projects that do not qualify for hospitality taxes or accommodations taxes.

Every month, the judge comes before council with her recommendations, and council members approve them faster than the judge can give them. Today, McDuffie recommended rejecting

• $13,850 for the City Center Partnership
• $12,847 for the Greenview Dolphins Swim Team
• $5,000 a month for SCALE Inc.

Councilman Sam Davis balked at rejecting the Greenview Dolphins team request. They have won a lot of awards, he said, isn’t their some way to fund them?

“We don’t have that kind of money,” McDuffie said. “If we fund one swim team, we’d have 50 plus schools we’d have to fund.”

And that was that.