By Mike McCombs
The Island News
The Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce host a candidate forum at the USC Beaufort Center For The Arts on Monday night, Oct. 21.
There were three separate forums for County Council candidates, Beaufort City Council candidates and Mayor of Beaufort candidates. Each candidates answered 10 questions posed by a three-person panel:
Mark Cutler, Commercial Banker with Coastal States Bank, Vice Chair of the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and a member of the Black Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; Ashley Houck, President and CEO of the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association; and Josh Ward, a realtor and videographer, member of the Realtors Board, and member of the HELP of Beaufort Board, and a chamber ambassador.
Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce President Megan Morris was responsible for keeping the forum on track and on time with help from a timekeeper. Each candidate had two minutes for opening and closing statements. The order for those opening statements was determined by a random draw right before they came on stage.
The forums will be presented here in reverse order of how they actually occurred – Mayoral candidates first, City Council candidates second and County Council candidates third.
Mayor of Beaufort
Cromer served two terms on City Council before retiring, but in his opening statement, he said he was encouraged to run for Mayor last year to serve the remainder of Stephen Murray’s term after he resigned.
“I was a term limit person, so I stepped down after that second term. And then the special election was just out this past year for mayor,” Cromer said. “I was urged to run. I threw my name in the hat and I was fortunate to win that election as well. Here I am 11 months later running for re-election. And I’m running because there’s more to do. Eleven months is not enough to get the, to take care of the activities and the issues that are facing the city.”
Scallate cited his experience as a firefighter as a reason he’s suited to be Mayor in his opening statement.
“The skill set that I feel like I bring to council and that I will bring as mayor stems from my experience with the fire department,” Scallate said. “In the fire department we identify a need. We have a thorough understanding of the resources available and we work within a team to collaborate and appropriately utilize in the most efficient manner the resources that we have. And that’s been the experience that I’ve had for the last 11 years. And I feel like that carries over exactly what the role and responsibility is as mayor.
Scallate named civility in city government as his top priority, followed be better preparation to deal with capital improvements.
“We really need to bring civility back to council because I think that’s going to help us, he said. “It’s essential for moving the needle on anything that we do.”
Cromer put Affordable housing at the top of his list.
“I think the most challenging issue is going to be affordable housing. That is a very difficult thing. It’s a regional thing that we’re going to have to do with our friends in both Jasper and Beaufort County,” Cromer said. “And we’re part of the Beaufort County, Beaufort Jasper Housing Trust to work on that, and also the neighborhood revitalization, another new program we set up.”
Both candidates agreed that communication with neighboring municipalities was vital and an activity in which the city already engages.
When asked what the key issues dividing our community were and how to address them, Scallate said it comes back to communication.
“We need to bring everybody to the table,” he said. “I’m surprised that we actually haven’t met with HBF in the last year, but we do have a disconnect with the Historic Beaufort Foundation. I think that we need to bring them to the table, have a conversation, try to understand each other, try to understand where that disconnect is coming from, and then work together better with them.
“In addition, I think that we have a lot of poverty that collects our community that we don’t really pay attention to much, and maybe we’ll talk about it a little bit later in regards to how we can do better with our process. But that drives our crime rates up.
“We’ve neglected our youth in many ways, and I think that we can do a better job at not only providing things for our younger folks to do, but working with them to make sure that we have programs in place that instill a foundation of leadership. And I think all of those go a long way in regards to establishing not only a community that we can be proud of, but a future that’s sustainable, more civil, where people understand each other, where the kids understand the roles of public servants, whether it’s police or fire.”
Cromer agreed, somewhat.
“I agree that I think communication is a big problem, and there’s been a lot of talk back and forth in the newspaper trying to divide the community, and that’s not a good thing,” he said. “We do need to have civility. One of the things I ran on back in December was to try to bring some civility back to the city government. I thought we had a good start on that. Recently things have gotten kind of south, as you can tell by reading in the newspaper and these different blogs. But communications, I think we can improve that by sitting down and talking to one another.
When asked a question about funding repairs to Henry C. Chamber Waterfront Park, Cromer said Beaufort couldn’t do it alone.
“As far as the Waterfront Park is concerned, we’re going to have to get federal and state grants,” he said. “There’s no way that we can handle it on our own. We don’t have any idea what the cost of the replacement is going to be or the pay-up. So it will be mainly from grants coming from the state and federal government we hope.”
On addressing homelessness, Scallate wants to borrow an idea from Charleston.
“When I first got on council, I started partaking in the Point-In-Time count. I’ve done that for two years now. And it gave me a better understanding of what our need was. We did see about a 15% increase this year,” he said. “And I was working with Ana Ramirez, who was with the county at the time. My understanding is that she has recently left the county. But she put me in contact with Heather in Charleston, who runs 180 Place. What 180 Place does is it’s a model that could work here as well. But it would give us the ability to bring our resources together and provide a form of continuum of care that would reach the variety of needs that our homeless population has because it’s such a complex issue.
“And right now, if you talk to anybody in the United Way, they’ll tell you that the issue that we have is our resources are too scattered. So I think they call it the Beaufort Shuffle or something like that. But basically, if anybody is going to get help, they got to take off an entire day of work. They’ve got to go to different places throughout the community. And so for us working together to bring those resources into one place and having some kind of a shelter stood up is going to be the way that we take the next step forward. And I think Charleston has that model that works. And it’s just a matter of communicating properly.”
“I agree with Josh on the homelessness issue, but I will disagree on one thing. I think you can’t have one center and have them go there because there’s no transportation for a lot of these people,” Cromer said. “So it might be better to have a little satellite bed, bed places that they can get a shelter and also take a shower and all that. But I agree that they need to have services available to them so that they can take advantage of it.”
Scallate believes the City’s biggest “untapped or potential” opportunity is its young people.
“So when I first ran for council last time I talked about the importance of the Explorer programs for our youth, and I’m proud to say that this year we did stand up two Explorer programs, one through the fire department, one through the police department,” he said. “I think tapping into what our youth can provide to this community is our most untapped potential. I would like to, if given the opportunity, start a youth council. If we meet once a month, I would like to maybe have a youth council meet once a quarter with the oversight of the mayor or a council member and maybe have them tackle ideas for how we can better engage the community or maybe how we can better entertain the young people here. But it also gives them the opportunity to buy into local government, to be a part of the process. And we don’t even understand what that ripple effect could be.
“If somebody starts here in ninth or tenth grade and they start working on a youth council, and then in 10 or 15 years, they’re in the state house advocating for money to come back here for our priorities, that could be a way for us to have a sustainable future for the next generation to give them the opportunity to partake in the process.”
Cromer agreed.
“The problem is we’ve got to keep them here in Beaufort,” Cromer said. “We don’t have enough jobs or higher paid jobs to stay here. We have what we call the missing middle here … 25 to 55 year olds … they have to go away and make a living and then they end up coming back hopefully when they retire.
“But in order to do that we have to diversify our economy. We’re too heavily dependent on tourism and the military. … We’re working on that, trying to, through technology and innovation, we’ve stood up the view for digital corridor. We’ve done it at the South Coast Cyber Center. And hopefully by creating those jobs we can keep our youth here and get them engaged and involved in the community.”
I closing, Scallate said it was important to value positions that differ from your own.
“The lesson that I learned really quick is there is so much value, and you’re not going to be able to have a conversation with everybody, but prioritize the individuals who have an opposing perspective than you do,” he said. “So understand the matter. Learn as much as you can about it. But then speak with anybody in the community that’s willing to reach out and engage that has an opposing viewpoint. Because a lot of times they’re going to be able to provide that balance that you need to be a fair representative.”
Cromer believes he’s the most qualified for the job.
“I just want to say that I have the education background, the experience having been in public sector of government for quite a while,” he said. I’ve been served on council. I’ve served as mayor for the last 11 months. I’m retired. I have the time. I can vote full time for the job. And I think I have the demeanor. I can get along with people and try to get some things done. I just appreciate the opportunity to have served as your mayor for the last 11 months.”
City Council
The candidates for two open seats on the Beaufort City Council are incumbents Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell, as well as Julie Crenshaw and Josh Gibson.
Disagreements started among the City Council candidates with the opening remarks. Gibson accused the incumbents of raising taxes, while they used several rebuttals to counter those statements.
“Your taxes have gone up,” Gibson said. “And the people who voted for the budgets to make those taxes go up are Mitch and Neil. And there’s no denying that. They will argue with you and say that your taxes did not go up. That they did not vote to increase your taxes. But when you go to pay your tax bill, it will be more money than it was before. And that to me is a tax increase.”
“So I cannot sit here idly and be accused of having raised your taxes,” Mitchell countered. “We did not go on council and raise your taxes. There’s a reassessment. It’s a reassessment year. My taxes went up too. … Your taxes went up because your property is worth more. Don’t buy that argument. Don’t settle for that. It’s an untrue thing.”
“The value of my house went up 80%,” Lipsitz said. “If the city rolled back the millage rate, if you were to look at a house that was where my house was before the county went up on the values, if you could find a house the same price, you would see that my [taxes] actually went down 9%, if you do the math.”
On the topic of local businesses, Gibson suggested the City add an ombudsman-like position.
“I would really like to see a way where we create more of a pathway for the people who are coming and asking for help from the city, the people who are trying to do the right thing, the people who are trying to comply with all of the regulations that they have to, to get help when they come into the city hall,” Gibson said. “And there’s an advocate there for them to say, let’s do this together. And less of the, you can’t do this because you don’t have your paperwork filled out right. There needs to be more of a sense of an ombudsman attitude towards local businesses than there is a sense of, here’s what you cannot do towards local businesses.”
“Small businesses are really the backbone of America. We hear that from the national level to the state level. And now we’re hearing that from the local level,” Mithcell said. “Staff under the direction of Scott Marshall and Community Development Director Curt Frees are doing everything in our part to streamline the process for businesses when they’re trying to be permitted.”
Crenshaw pointed out that restaurants and bars are struggling to stay open because of higher insurance rates.
All the candidates agreed that we needed to continue to invest in tourism.
In his response, Lipsitz expanded on Crenshaw’s comment on restaurants and bars.
“They’re paying through the nose on insurance … it’s going to cost some of our best restaurants to close,” Lipsitz said. “Not just us, it’s all across the region, everywhere. If they don’t do something, … I think there’s maybe one, maybe two insurers in the whole state that will insure the restaurants that serve alcohol. And that’s definitely a problem.”
Crenshaw said, “The only concern I have is … the hospitality workers can’t afford to live here. They can’t live in the same town. I mean, they can’t live in Beaufort. They can’t afford it. That concerns me tremendously.”
Gibson was concerned about the hospitality taxes themselves.
“I understand the necessity of it. Of course, we’re going to have to tax people to fund the city government. We’re going to do that. I don’t get excited about it, though,” he said. “I will say this about the hospitality tax … you pay it every time you go out to go eat dinner, every time you go to Outback Steakhouse, or every time you go to McDonald’s. Every time you eat out, you pay the hospitality tax. So it’s not just a tax on the tourists, which is often sold that way.”
“… We are winning the tourism business. We have a lot of tourists,” he added. “If we’re going to collect a tax that is only to get more tourists here, it doesn’t seem like we don’t have enough tourists. It seems like that’s going pretty well already. If we’re going to collect a tax, there are things we could use it for, like the waterfront park, like fixing your roads, all the kind of things that the civic government is supposed to engage in. And I think that we should, I’m not opposed to the idea of the hospitality tax, but I think we need to rethink the way that we’re talking about spending it, and spending it more on some of the basic needs that the city has, because we’re definitely lacking budgeting in some areas for some of the important stuff we need to take care of.”
The candidates agreed more unites the citizens of Beaufort than divides them, though Gibson cited a lack of civility during this election. Lipsitz, whom Gibson accused of lying about him, agreed.
“Civility is definitely dividing us from outside sources,” he said. “I won’t say where, but anybody’s on the internet, they know where it’s coming from.”
“I sense some lack of civility right here now that we should address,” Mitchell added in a rebuttal. For one thing, no city councilman can fire anybody except themselves. And to fire the city manager, you need two other votes because it would take three to do that. So I would just keep in mind that we don’t have to do this back and forth attacks. We could just answer the question.”
Given the recent jump in property values in the city, the candidates were asked about how they’d have been fiscally responsible and managed tax revenues.
Crenshaw said she’d have sided with Mayor Phil Cromer.
“Well, first of all, I would reduce the millage,” she said. “I would have the last time if I had been part of that budget. I would have gone with Phil Cromer on it.”
She also cited cutting wasteful spending, though she had no specific examples of such when asked to elaborate by the panel.
Gibson had an example, though.
“The city just spent around $400,000 on a study to build a sidewalk that’s about two or three blocks long on Duke Street. At the 1600 to 1800 block of Duke Street in that area,” he said. “That was a sidewalk that was promised to those residents who lived in there, who bought houses there over a decade ago. I cannot get my head around why it takes $400,000 to build a sidewalk two or three blocks long. I could get me and five of my friends and we could call the concrete company and we could build a sidewalk over a weekend for that amount of money. And that’s just to look at [it]. That’s not even to do the construction.”
Gibson agreed with Crenshaw that he’d have followed Cromer’s lead and lowered the millage rate.
Lipsitz argued the Council did, in fact, roll back the millage rate.
“We did roll it back a little bit so that [the reassessment] would be … revenue neutral is the term, so there is no windfall. The county … did the same thing. The school district did not, so they’re the ones that had, you know, a big windfall. If you check it you’ll see that the city did have a slight rollback in our millage rate. Also there’s a word called inflation.”
In an effort to make Beaufort an attractive, affordable place for young professionals and families, Gibson said there’s a lot that we can do.
“I feel like I’m really disappointed in how much the city fails to use our leverage that we have with developers to make our city the city we want it to be.
“I would propose what’s happening already is bringing in and developing industries such as our cyber security, the nursing, health care,” Lipsitz said. “That will bring some of the young people here. Hopefully they’ll stay here and be a part of the community and a viable part of the community.”
Mitchell again cited the issue of affordable housing.
“Until supply reaches a level where the demand is not such that it drives up prices, it’s going to be a challenging issue,” he said.
County Council
Adam Biery, a Republican candidate for Beaufort County Council District 1 was present. Incumbent Gerald Dawson, a Democrat. was not.
Bierry said his priorities were “smart growth, support for small business, equal distribution of funding countywide and making sure that our infrastructure grows along with our population.
Bierry said it was important to regain the trust of Beaufort County citizens, when it comes to budgeting and fiscal responsibility.
“I think we need to gain trust of the citizens across Beaufort County,” he said. “There’s a lot of distrust, I feel, with the current Beaufort County Council and I think regaining that trust is going to be a top priority. When it comes to funding, you know, there’s an issue on the ballot or this election for additional funding. I can’t say that I support that. We need to gain that trust and then maybe throw that on the ballot in a few more years.”
Biery cited ecotourism as a way to support the hospitality and tourism industry in his district, which is mostly rural.
“The idea of ecotourism, small family farming in these rural districts, I think is super important. A big thing is, you know, farm to table. It’s real hard to have a farm to table if you have to drive, you know, 40 minutes to an hour to the nearest farm. We have to retain these rural lands and, and promote these smaller businesses in order to have these unique opportunities.”
In regards to affordable housing, Biery wasn’t optimistic.
“I think the idea of low-income housing in Beaufort County particularly is not a reality, everything is expensive,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that. So how do we get to affordable housing. I think we need to look at unique public transportation options. So maybe it’s not necessarily in Beaufort County.
Maybe we’re partnering with our neighboring counties to develop not only the transportation sector, but the affordable workforce housing that we need to keep the engine going.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
