Mayoral Candidates Answer Questions in West Ashley

CHARLESTON - While the candidates for City Council largely refrained from directly attacking one another during the League of Women Voters and Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce sponsored candidates forum held Thursday night in West Ashley, the mayoral candidates didn't pull any punches when going after incumbent Mayor Joe Riley. 

The battling themes of the forum were: after 36 years it's time for a change - echoed by the three challengers in attendance; and Riley's message - look at all the city has accomplished in the last 36 years, how about giving me another four?

A fifth mayoral candidate, Joshua Kennedy was unable to attend the forum because he was out of town, according to forum organizers.

Challengers David Farrow, Dudley Gregorie and Craig Jelks each took several shots at Riley over everything from fixing the drainage problems on the Crosstown, to the renovation of the Gilliard Auditorium, to compensation for city workers, to the way city business is handled. For his part, Riley largely spoke about the same issues in a positive light, talking up the benefits of the Crosstown drainage work, the Gilliard renovation and various deals the city has made under his watch to move those and other projects forward.

Farrow set the tone for the evening's forum with his opening statment.

"In 2007, Mayor Riley wrote and sponsored a statute called the Civil and Ethical Campaign Practices Ordinance, which says that a candidate will limit his or her attacks on an opponent to legitimate challenges to that person's record, etc.," Farrow began. "Now pay attention to who decides what is legitimate, the Civil and Ethical Campaign Practices Committee, appointed by...Wait for it...Mayor Riley, who would also sit on that committee."

"It didn't pass but the hubris and blindness behind it, to me, is just stunning," Farrow said.

He added that he thinks the city deserves better and said he is the only conservative in the race.

Gregory kept up the theme that it is time for Riley to go.

"I am running because it is time for a change, 36 years is just too long for one mayor," he said. "When a career politician leads a city often times the needs of the residents are ignored. Because of alliances, comittments and promises it is often hard for a career politician like Mayor Riley to make honest and responsible decisions on behalf of the residents."

"In the 21st Century we need an independent leader," he continued. "I will bring a fresh and independent perspective to the city of Charleston."

Jelks cast himself as a young and vibrant alternative to all the other candidates.

"I want to be your mayor," Jelks said. "Imagine that, someone young, someone who is energetic, and full of fresh ideas, wants to be your mayor. The complete opposite of the one that we have now."

As a fifth year South Carolina history teacher he said his appreciation for the city increases every year, and education continued to be a focus of his comments throughout the evening.

"You can't help but to love Charleston, but having the same mayor for 36 years fails to add to the greatness of our city," Jelks said. "There is nothing more important to the quality of life, to the long-term economic interests and to the strength of the social fabric of our community than a high quality public education for all of our children, so, one, I want to empower our teachers, two, I want to ensure that our firefighters are fairly compensated for the work that they do, and three, I want to create more opportunities for local entrepreneurs here in our community."

By contrast in seeking a 10th term in office Riley is asking voters to stick with what they know for another four years. He started by thanking voters for choosing him in the previous election, and spent the rest of the night essentially laying out a laundry list of the city's accomplishments under his watch.

"I humbly ask that you give me the chance to continue to serve you, and if you give me that, I will work as hard as I possibly can to make this city an even greater place, to live work and to raise our children. Charleston is a city that works, a safe city; our violent crime went down 53 percent in the last few years and down 17 percent this year; the first city in South Carolina's history to get a triple-A credit rating because we balanced our budget."

"The first priority is to keep our city safe, I will propose additional police officers to our police force, including here West of the Ashley, which is our largest team, 80 police officers serve this area, it is increasingly safe," he continued with rapid fire delivery. "Increase jobs for our community so kids West Ashley, James Island will have an opportunity to work in our community; create the Horizon District, make Charleston a biotech in our country; expand the digital corridor, which is a phenomenal success, and build business incubators in suburban parts of our city, we're working on that, the business incubator idea that we developed with Flagship 1 and 2 can be a national model, we keep working on them; add to the parks West of the Ashley, half of our parks in the city are West of the Ashley, we're going to build Northbridge Park, extend Higgins Pier to the West Ashley Bikeway; and lots more when I have more time to tell you about it. "

Gregorie took issue more with the way that Riley has conducted city business than with the decisions that were reached. When asked whether he supported the redevelopment of Union Pier and the construction of the cruise ship terminal, Gregorie answered yes, but added that he didn't want the city to "do business with a promise and a handshake," and said he wanted standards in place regulating the size and number of ships allowed at the terminal as well as controlling the frequency with which they could dock in Charleston.

"Right now we have a deal with no enforcement authority," he said. "It is the fabric of the historical district that brings tourism to our city, we need not, we need not, make our city become souvenir city, make our city become every other city, USA."

Jelks said he would support what the citizens affected by the pier support.

"They are the ones affected by those cruise ships," Jelks said. "So the true question is what do the citizens want?"

He also went after Riley on the issue.

"The current mayor seems to be confused," Jelks said, "Cause he think he is the mayor of tourists, and not our residents. Over the years he has developed the idea that he puts the tourists first over our residents. When tourists come here they eat, they sleep, and they leave, but what about those of us who stay here?"

Riley said he supports the work at the pier, and is working hard to make it happen.

"The cruise business creates jobs," Riley said. "That's very important, 400 jobs are created, $39 million economic impact, every time a cruise ship is here, go down there, there are 200 people that day working on the cruise ship, many of who are retirees, some of who are longshoremen, citizens in our community, it's a great job generator."

Answering Gregorie's "promise and a handshake" criticism Riley defended an agreement with the State Ports Authority saying: "What the Ports Authority has done is splendid, we asked them to restrict the number, they agreed to that, we can't regulate them any more than we can regulate the College of Charleston and how large there student body is. We have an agreement with the College of Charleston it's going to be around 10,000, we have an agreement with the Ports Authority, that's all we can do, but it's a great achievement, it will always be in scale, the City of Charleston will always demand that and it will be a wonderful new asset for the citizens of our community."

Farrow said he would absolutely not support the cruise terminal, but he did agree with Gergorie on the need for more unwritten agreements.

"I agree that we need a legal binding contract with Carnival," Farrow said. "I say put it up, not at Union Pier, because that's going to impact an area that's already doubly impacted by this thing. Ansonborough is, if you build the auditorium to boot, Ansonborough is going to be just completely overwhelmed by people, they don't want it anywhere near them. I say put it up at Columbus Street."

"Why Columbus Street?" he continued. "Well, there are a number of good reasons, there are a number of objections, but I would say the main reason is jobs, jobs, jobs, private industry jobs, develop that area."

When asked how the city should pay for the renovations at the Gillard Auditorium should the $71 million that is supposed to come from private sector donations fall through, the challengers again took shots at Riley over the issue, characterizing it as a personal vanity project, or as Riley building a monument to himself.

Saying the city needs to focus on priorities, Jelks turned to another high dollar project in the city, the work on the storm drains on the Crosstown.

"How is it we have the same mayor for 36 years and the Crosstown still isn't fixed?" he asked.

Jelks said any extra money the city had should go toward fixing the Crosstown before it goes to the Gillard. He also said it was not a coincidence that work on the road started in an election year, and questioned why it took Riley 36 years to figure out the flooding on the Crosstown is a threat to people's lives and property, as he said when he went to the State Infrastructure Bank seeking funds for the project.

However Riley defended the Gillard project as another job producer and economic engine for the city that will leave the city with a much improved facility. He said nearly 1,000 construction jobs will be created by the project and once finished would mean an additional 400 permanent jobs in the local economy.

"(It will) give the citizens of this region, Charleston and beyond the most beautiful performing arts facility," he said.

He also said the city's arrangement for the funding is such that if the private sector money, which is half of the $142 million needed, doesn't materialize, the project will not move forward, that all the private funds have to be in place before any work begins.

He said doing the renovation also allows the city to extend a special tax district that provides some of the funding being put towards the Crosstown project.

Farrow said the private sector money doesn't need to be made up. He contends that the project could be done for far less, and that the city shouldn't be involved in it anyway.

"I don't think the city should have a thing to do with it," he said. "You know for $40 million you can do a bang up exhibition hall, you can do a bang up auditorium, you really can, killer sound system in there. I'm just saying that there are better places to put an office building for the city, I suggest the Cigar Factory, which is about to fall down now from neglect. Wasn't the city involved with that years ago?"

"There's an economic tsunami heading this way, and we better start paying attention to where this money is going and I don't think we need to waste any more money on a monument to self-importance," Farrow continued.

Gregorie was also critical of Riley.

"Mayor Riley, there you go again," he said. "Everything is the best until something happens. We had the best fire department in the country and look what happened."

Gregorie said he didn't know where money would come from to make up a shortfall on the Gillard project.

"Here we go again, another deal that is not enforceable," he said. "It is very important that we protect the interests of the people of this city and make sure that when we strike a deal it is something that we can verify and make sure that it happens for the people of this city."

He said the residents are always on the hook when deals fall through in the city in the form of a tax increase and said that each of the three years he has been on City Council the city has increased taxes or fees.

Asked what the city should do to maintain the AAA credit rating it has received, Riley continued with his theme of - Charleston is on the right track, there is no reason to make major changes.

He said the rating is a result of balanced budgets and a substantial rainy day fund - $18,950,000 or 15.2 percent of the general operating fund - and was an acknowledgement by the bond rating agencies that the city is well managed and a good investment.

Farrow, however accused the current administration of using budgetary gimmicks and called for a forensic audit of the city's finances. He added the way to keep the AAA rating is to scrub the city's books and know where every dollar is spent.

Gregorie said he would continue doing most of what the city is currently doing, but he said he would also try to identify new revenue streams and ways to keep the city from having to continually raise taxes and look for ways to lower taxes.

Jelks said he would build on the credit rating by investing in the people of Charleston, by helping entrepreneurs with desire or strong business plans by financing their efforts.

"All a dream really needs is to catch a strong wind," Jelks said.

When asked about term limits Farrow, Gregorie and Jelks all supported instituting some kind of limit. Farrow proposed two six year terms, Gregorie said term limits ensure new ideas keep flowing into city offices, and said he would need at least two terms to accomplish what he wants as mayor. Jelks said he wasn't running because he though Riley was a bad mayor, he just thinks he can be a better mayor, but he didn't specify the number terms he would like to see as the limit.

Riley too said he supported term limits, but had a different take on the issue, saying that term limits already exist in that a mayor's term is limited to four years. His argument was that the number of limited terms a person serves should be up to the voters.

Jelks took issue with Riley's interpretation, and accused him of contradicting what the Founding Fathers put in the Constitution. Riley responded that term limits for the President of the United States were not included in the original text of the Constitution penned by the Founding Fathers they were not added until the 1940s after Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected four times.

Asked how to restore Charleston to a "shining city on a hill," Gregorie responded that he disagreed with the premise of the question which assumes Charleston is no longer a "shining city on a hill." He said while the city does have its share of problems it is still a model for others, but city officials do need to focus on being responsive to citizens needs rather than building "legacy projects."

Jelks again emphasized the importance of quality education to the success of the city. He noted that only 15 percent of Charleston County third graders are proficient in science, and said that is unacceptable.

Riley too said he disagreed with the premise of the question, and again pointed to myriad accolades the city has received recently and emphasized the increasing connectivity within the city for bicyclists and pedestrians, including construction going on now in West Ashley and additional bike and pedestrian paths planned in the near future along Glen McConnell Parkway.

Farrow, in a first for the evening, agreed with Riley and Gregorie that Charleston "is indeed a shining city on a hill." He said it was the people that made it so.

"Well I wish it was on a hill, maybe there'd be less flooding," he joked. Then he changed the metaphor likening Charleston to a beautiful bathtub with really pretty fixtures.

"But if the tub doesn't drain, it's broken," Farrow said, alluding the drainage problems in the peninsula and parts of West Ashley and James Island.

Riley and Farrow found some agreement again on the final question of the evening, whether the candidates supported the rights of city workers to organize to collectively bargain. Both said it was a moot point because South Carolina is a Right to Work state and state law bars government entities from contracting with labor unions.

Gregorie also noted that municipal workers are not allowed to organize under state law, but said as mayor he would always be willing to talk to any city employee on any issue and would work to ensure city workers are properly compensated for their work. He said right now there is an atmosphere of fear among city employees, afraid to speak up or even put campaign signs in their yards for fear of retaliation.

Jelks said he did support collective bargaining rights for city workers, and that if they could organize Charleston's firefighters wouldn't be making "crumbs" compared to their counterparts in other southern cities.

"As your mayor my decisions will be guided by one question," he said. "Does it help or harm the people of Charleston? Collective bargaining will help our firefighters and help all of us."