This is the letter former Mayor of Beaufort Stephen Murray sent to friends, co-workers and the City of Beaufort early Friday morning, Sept. 15. He also posted it to his Mayor Stephen Murray Facebook page.
Dear Friends,
I never aspired to politics as a kid or even as a young man trying to find my way in the world. I mostly chased my own idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But moving back to Beaufort in 2009 and attending the Leadership Beaufort program set my life on a totally different course trajectory. I became passionate about community development and threw myself into the world of non-profit boards, hoping to make a positive difference in my hometown. This led me to City Hall. I first ran for Council in 2014 and won a seat, ran unopposed for a second term in 2018, and then for mayor in 2020. Serving the last nine years as a member of Team Beaufort and the long list of other partners and associates has been the most challenging and rewarding “job” that I’ve ever held.
I first ran for office because I saw several areas of local government where I thought we could do things differently. Candidly, I felt that leadership prioritized one demographic of our population over others. Census and economic data support my feelings, and you only need to speak to a young working person to verify that we’ve woefully neglected them. Jobs, housing, recreation, educational opportunity, and just a general feeling that Beaufort is not a place for young folks to live. We’ve been working hard to change this.
In the past nine years, I’ve had an active leadership role in creating the Beaufort Digital Corridor, the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, and the South Coast Cyber Center. In conjunction with our educational partners to whom I’m extremely grateful, we’ve expanded access and are providing training and jobs for our people in 21st Century careers that pay a living wage. These efforts are just getting started and will continue to produce opportunity thanks to their respective staff and boards, folks who are some of the most remarkable people in the Lowcountry. These efforts will take time to transform a regional economy, but they are on a strong foundation if the course is kept.
We’ve also transformed the city into a transparent and easily accessible local government. Online business licenses, livestreamed meetings that allow virtual public comment (pre-covid), all finances are online, a robust and clear strategic plan, and a public information effort that consistently provides information to local media outlets and our own social media channels across multiple departments. We’ve made investments in police, fire, and public works to ensure public safety and a clean well-manicured city remains a top priority. We navigated out of the Covid pandemic, balancing public health with keeping our community running and came back stronger than ever.
We’ve supported several hundred units of affordable housing and have been working with our partners to dramatically increase the number of affordable housing units across all income brackets. We’ve completed significant stormwater projects in Mossy Oaks and are about to embark on a tremendous effort downtown to fix existing stormwater problems while also creating resiliency for climate change. We’ve replaced the Waterfront Park playground and with a little council courage we’ll break ground on the long overdue Southside Park while also making significant improvements in Washington St. park, so our residents have safe and quality places to play. We’ve created strong regional partnerships with our neighboring municipalities, many non-profits, our military installations, and most of our utility providers. We raised almost $700,000 in food and funds for frontline troops in Ukraine and our adopted city of Ostroh. These are the highlights of the work from the past nine years that I’m most proud of. We’ve proved that local government can be responsive, that it can work with a robust list of partners to achieve shared goals, and ultimately provide high-quality daily services, while also investing in our preferred future.
This progress within city government has not come easy. Change is hard for a lot of people. Especially people who’ve had their hands on political levers for a long time. People who have advocated for their interests at the expense of many others. People who are not duly elected or operate in a transparent way. I’ve been actively fighting against some of these folks and the status quo for almost nine years. And while I’m proud of the work and I know there is still much to be done, I’m tired. I’m tired of the daily barrage of uncivil and rude people accusing me of impropriety without a shred of proof. I’m tired of the “he said, she said” drama that is present among many of the folks that I’m required to work with outside of Team Beaufort. I’m also tired of prioritizing my civic job at the expense of my health, my family, my friends, my businesses, and my reputation.
The City of Beaufort deserves a mayor that has their heart and energy fully committed to the job. A mayor who is fully committed to fighting the last bastions of the “good ole boys”, fully committed to responding to even the nastiest email with kindness, and fully committed to actively and consistently communicating their thoughts to the people they represent. I’d like to think at one time, not too distant ago, I was this mayor. But I do not feel like I am currently up to the task of the mayor I want to be, nor the one Beaufort deserves.
I will forever be grateful for the relationships, the support, the kind words, the lessons imparted from so many of you. Local government and some of our partners are full of talented, caring, hardworking people that I have learned so much from. But I believe it’s time for me to focus more on my family, my friends, my businesses, and my health. Effective immediately, I hereby resign as the Mayor of the City of Beaufort and from all my affiliated board seats. The City is in capable hands with an amazing staff and dedicated council, and I am excited to watch our continued progress… as a private citizen.
Be well,
Stephen D. Murray III
