Letter to the Editor: Roger Goodman

I am Roger W. Goodman, Candidate for County Council #6. I decided some time ago to attempt to make a difference in our local Government with the blessings of my wife. I and my wife have run this campaign with some help from friends. I believe hard work and honesty is the key to success in your country and that why I do not have a campaign staff. My principles tell me if you believe in something and want it do not ask others to do the work for you. I brought up both of my step children with the same principles I have; hard work, integrity, honesty and character is how you earn respect. I have been working with the help of my wife to spread my message of Leadership, Honesty, Integrity and Accountability and a new real voice for Dorchester County District #6. I have not taken any personal shots at my opponent's character, honesty or integrity as I believe the questions and issues should be about the job being done on council. Yes, I believe my opponent has not done a good job representing your district #6. We have traffic issues, sewer and drainage issues, school issues and budget issues. I also believe council does too much business behind closed doors. And third, the budget in 2002 was $34,648,272 and $73,399,827 in 2012 even without Mr. Hearn taking a pay raise.

After reading the Summerville Patch and Post and Courier over the past few weeks with both questioning my character I have decided it’s time to respond to the attacks with the facts, not fabricated information by my opponent and the press in an attempt to destroy my character.

1) The Post and Courier said I fault Councilman Hearn for not following up on my complaints.That's why I have a pending federal lawsuit against the Chief Magistrate. The reason I have a federal lawsuit against the Chief Magistrate is he violated the law, and unless Mr. Hearn helped him violate the law, I would assume he would not be at fault for the Chief Magistrate’s actions.But if he did help the Chief Magistrate, I hope he does the right thing and notifies the Court.

2) Mr. Hearn said in the Post and Courier “Council called for an audit of the magistrates court office and found nothing wrong" The truth of the matter is council called for a financial audit ofthe Magistrates office which had nothing to do with my complaint or case with the Magistrates office (CA no 2:11-cv 2191CWH) on record at the United States District Court for the District ofSouth Carolina Charleston Division. Mr. Hearn is a councilman and a representative of the court as an attorney and clearly attempted to mislead the newspaper and readers or did not disclose the audits to the court.

3) Mr. Hearn stated in the Post and Courier "Goodman has a history of making complaints that turn out to have no substance." First, pending Federal case (2:11-cv -02191-CWH) (Magistrate court case) the state in their response to my complaint said "Defendants admit that constables were terminated based in part on issues as described in the Plaintiffs Complaint. " I would guess at this point Mr. Hearn believes the State of South Carolina is wrong and my complaint has nosubstance, or is he misleading and fabricating information again? In the second case, Goodman v. SCDC, I also filed a complaint against the State. I filed the Complaint against the state after discovering employees of the state were stealing supplies fromthe United Methodist Church and senior citizens in Mt Pleasant. At the time Pat Goss was the Director of the Program and I bet she would be able to substantiate my complaint along with SCDC Internal Investigations which also substantiated my complaint. Mr. Hearn's statement ofno substance is appalling, misleading and a clear distortion of the truth based on real records.

4) On April 2, 2012, I personally appeared before County Council to express my concerns about county take home vehicles. I brought to the attention of Council with Mr. Hearn present, thenumbers of take home vehicles the County Administrators office supplied me did not matchthe actual numbers of take home vehicles. I asked for more information from the county administrator and was told the cost to me would be very high, and got the run around. I then
supplied the Council Chairman with information on a vehicle which has been a take homevehicle for years (Dodge Intrepid tag CG 58084), but not on the books as required by policy. The Chairman E-mailed me back “In reference to the vehicle in question, this vehicle was under the Sheriff's control and had beenidentified as a surplus vehicle to be sold on gov.net. However, the Sheriff requested that the saleof this vehicle be posted for sale at a later date because he needed the vehicle temporarily, for a purpose which Jason Ward and the County Staff did not know about. The vehicle has now been pulled from the Sheriff's Office and posted for sale on gov.net. I have further asked how many other vehicles are still in service against policy and off the books which should have been sold at auction years ago. And also how many years is considered temporary? No answer yet from Council, just too busy to answer because they are working on budgets. Mr. Hearn, clearly this complaint has substance. You, Council Chairman and the County Administrator have clearly not addressed the issue and have even done damage control by again misleading the taxpayers by telling them the county is saving gas and notaddressing the real issue of mismanagement of the county vehicle fleet. Mr. Hearn, based on this mismanagement and attempt at covering it up you and the Council Chairman should resign for misconduct in office at the next council meeting and the State Attorney General should properly investigate and file formal charges against both of you as warranted. I would ask the Sheriff tolook into it but clearly he’s involved in the mismanagement of county vehicles as the County Council Chairman pointed out in his e-mail (putting a car on auction after getting caught is like robbing the bank and giving the money back if you get caught - it’s still a crime).

5) The Summerville Patch’s Lindsay Street asked me a question insinuating I committed acrime of impersonating a police officer and posted it on her web site. I asked Ms. Street where she got this unbelievably false, appalling information and she said in an e-mail it was from someone she would not disclose. First, I was a police officer and I am darn proud to have served with my brothers and sisters in uniform and find this insinuation of me disgracing them by the Summerville Patch, based on a nameless e-mail, at best gutless. Please, if you want to slander and libel me and the people in uniform at least show your face.

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6) I will continue to campaign using my message of Honesty and Accountability not bullying, threatening or outright misleading voters through the press to influence votes as some of theIncumbents feel is politics as usual. Maybe the press should focus on stopping or reporting these constitutional violations of voter rights or even just print the truth. I want to set the record straight: I am the only person in the council race for District #6 who has Leadership, Honesty, Integrity and Accountability with a Strong Character. This becomes veryclear when you check the facts. Mr. Hearn has clearly been misleading and distorting the truth.

I would like to ask the voters to decide if they want continued deceit and cover ups, “Lead byExample” Mr. Hearn's Campaign pledge, OR a Republican conservative councilman with a spinewho will stand up for the taxpayers and clearly knows right from wrong.

Roger W. Goodman

Republican Candidate for County Council District #6

Editor's note: Coffee with the Candidates solicits emailed questions from citizens who cannot attend. Summerville Patch does allow citizens to send questions anonymously for this event. During the event, the question ("Have you ever impersonated a police officer?") was asked, and Goodman answered no. His answer is printed in the follow-up Q&A posted on Patch. The question was not posed by Goodman's opponent, Bill Hearn. A question — based in rumor — was asked and Goodman was allowed to respond. Since Editor Lindsay believes rumors are unhealthy for political discourse, she chose to print Goodman's refutation of the rumor.