The real threat
Probably like many citizens, I have been observing the crazy House and Senate comments on Dr. Fauci, President Biden, Trump, anyone they can denigrate, etc. Mostly pro-Trump and anti-establishment, anti-Ukraine funding, anti-vaccine, how the elections were rigged, how Trump was mistreated in court, etc. The list of the outrageous is long.
One of the more interesting topics I have read recently is about how it is recognized that conservative news outlets and a good chunk of the GOP base is infected with Russian propaganda (including Congress). This has been stated by Mike McCaul R-Texas, and Mike Turner R-Ohio. Both McCaul and Turner are on the House Intelligence Committee. I am sure there is similar in the Senate.
Our extremists are pushing propaganda of Putin, China, North Korea, Iran. Clearly Putin wants no aid to go to Ukraine. Our far-right news media and politicians helped his cause by delaying aid. Its not just Ukraine, its disinformation directed at the U.S., with the intent to destabilize our country. If you simply study the intelligence community reports its clear it is coming from the bad guys, and Trump is busy spinning it as well.
I find it extremely concerning that so many people are falling for propaganda from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. I spent a considerable amount of my career working in facilities that required security. We were trained to recognize the disinformation and the threat. Many people are falling for it, when they should be thinking about the source.
– Gerald Blount, St. Helena Island
Beaufort City Council’s lack of transparency
In an egregious disregard for the rule of law and need for public transparency, the Beaufort City Council voted on appointments to the Historic Review Board by secret ballot during its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 11. In so doing, City Council violated the letter and spirit of South Carolina’s Open Meetings Law, otherwise known as the Freedom of Information Act, that requires with few exceptions — none present here — that votes be conducted in public so that the public can glean the results of how each member voted.
During the meeting — after approving several appointments and reappointments to other boards, commissions, and committees in the ordinary course by voting in public — City Council then took the unusual and illegal step of announcing that appointments to the Historic Review Board “shall be chosen by secret ballot.” The clerk then distributed ballots for voting, collected those ballots, and allowed one absent member to text his secret vote to her on her cell phone.
The vote was then announced without any indication of how City Council Members voted, other than a lone “no” vote by Mayor Phil Cromer who unfortunately was the only member present who understood the need for Historic Review Board members to have experience in historic preservation. All of this would be hard to believe if it weren’t captured on video.
In addition to continuing its recent practice of not reappointing supremely well-qualified women, City Council set a dangerous precedent by allowing appointment votes to the Historic Review Board by secret ballot, violating our state’s well established Open Meetings Law, flouting state supreme court precedent requiring public voting so that each member’s vote is recorded, and ignoring civil and criminal penalties.
City Council now has two options: wait and see whether a concerned citizen files a complaint in the Beaufort County Circuit Court and face the certain prospect of (1) civil and or criminal penalties plus attorney’s fees and (2) having the court set these the illegal appointments aside, or do the right thing and set aside its vote on its own and debate and vote publicly at its next meeting so that the votes of every council member are known.
Elected officials are supposed to adhere to the laws designed to keep government open and honest. Public trust in local government hinges on City Council’s willingness to correct its recent Open Meetings Law violation and ensure that all future votes are conducted openly, as required by law.
– Will Cook, Okatie
