By Bill Rauch
There’s more to it than just showing up and voting right. The voters (a.k.a. the taxpayers) who sent you there expect you to do something.
They are looking for “effective.” For public officials, being effective is right up there with being honest and hard-working. Maybe better.
Campaign promises speak to what the candidate will do. But a record of effectiveness speaks to what a candidate has done. And what a candidate has done is the best indicator of all of what he/she will do when they get the job.
Let me be very clear about this. You don’t have to be an elected official to have a record of effectiveness. Neighborhood activists who mobilize their neighbors, and who use the press to affect change are effective. Appointed committee-members who lead their committees to study a problem and then bring back to the decision-makers a workable solution are effective. Members of non-profit boards who get out front and successfully lobby the government to affect change are effective.
Why should effectiveness be a litmus test? Because the skills needed to affect change from the outside are exactly the same skills that are needed to affect change from the inside: seeing clearly the steps to the goal, a relentless tunnel vision to the goal, the ability to convince others to come along with you which may involve making compromises, and the ability to speak clearly to reporters, elected officials and to the public in ways that advance your cause.
I went to the candidates’ forum at USCB last week. Here’s what I saw. Mitch Mitchell, who has over the past four years ably given a voice to those who have historically been unheard, commended Neil Lipsitz on taking the lead on the improvements to Southside Park. This hadn’t been easy. The City Council had to choose between the interests of the Mossy Oaks moms who wanted a playground where their kids could play and those of a consortium of real estate developers who wanted the playground money to be used instead to enhance their development projects.
Lipsitz convinced Council to disregard the pressure group’s threats, and to instead go for the moms. Today the Southside Park playground is looking good, and it’s almost ready for the kids.
Neither Josh Gibson nor the newcomer Julie Crenshaw happened to mention anything they had done, no matter how small, that has made Beaufort a better place to live, and that might make us think they’d be an effective council member.
Similarly, Josh Scallate, who is running for mayor, wasn’t able to mention anything he has accomplished for the city, even though he has now been on the City Council for two years. Meanwhile Phil Cromer, the incumbent, has lowered the temperature around and brought professionalism to the various issues the city faces, and he has managed to make peace with Beaufort’s historic preservation community, two important things neither of his two predecessors were able to accomplish.
On balance, this year I suggest we keep the group we’ve got.
Bill Rauch was the Mayor of Beaufort from 1999 to 2008 and has twice won awards from the S.C. Press Association for his Island News columns. He can be reached at TheRauchReport@gmail.com.
