The residents of Isle of Palms deserve better than what this Council has to offer. The lack of leadership is frightening. At least 5 Council members have more interest in petty politics and vendettas than the interests of residents. At the June 27 meeting, I observed a chaotic decision making process, Council members Hahn and Ward talking down to and sometimes yelling at citizens they represent, Council members Hahn and Streetman seeking assurances that they can take property from private citizens in the process of maintaining a public beach in violation of the US constitution , Councilman Ward in a social media post after the meeting showing contempt for the approximately 1200 signatures that residents submitted in support of limitations on short term rentals, and more. Unfortunately, these are all symptoms of failed leadership. WE THE PEOPLE must rise up in November and vote these folks out so we can show them that they work for us and not the other way around. Our sincere appreciation to Council members Anderson, Bogosian, Miars and Pierce who do seem to recognize that they serve to represent the interests of the voters.
First, the Beach Re-nourishment circus. Almost $2m annually representing 1 percent of Accommodations tax is being diverted to a Beach re-nourishment fund in recognition of the fact that our public beaches must be maintained not just for islanders but also for visitors who drive the local economies. Of course, this Council is happy to collect the funds but has not bothered to develop any guidelines on how these funds should be spent and whether these funds can be leveraged with matching State and Federal funds. Therefore , a proposal to spend $232k out of approximately $ 8M in the fund to re-nourish the public beaches on the southern side of the island and restore coastal dunes going into the hurricane season, resulted in endless discussions, citizens from all over the island writing letters, speeches at the Council meeting, attorneys retained etc. for what should have been a straightforward 9- 0 vote. Advising the city is Coastal Science and Engineering, a defendant in a lawsuit on Pawleys Island on improper beach re-nourishment and clearly conflicted. Several residents spoke passionately and elicited applause from the audience to which Councilman Ward is on tape saying “ What’s wrong with these people?”. Well, you may get your answer in November, Councilman.
Councilman Hahn , prior to his vote, wanted to make sure that any dune placed by the City to protect a public coastline will result in private homeowners losing property . I quote attorney Hahn “ Each homeowner who currently owns to the high-water mark would now stop at the new built berm”. Councilman Streetman doubled down on this idea of taking private property and clarifies “ That also means any landscaping or other allowed structure like a pool or whatever would not be able to be restored or rebuilt ( by the homeowner) in that area once replenished”. This, of course, violates the fifth amendment of the US constitution that states “ Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation”. Apparently, the incorrect private property annexation assumption may have caused Streetman and Hahn to vote for the re-nourishment after arguing vehemently against it. Some of these comments are not on the city website as of this writing but can be found on the you tube videos of the June 27 City meeting.
As you may recall, this Council voted against any short-term rental limitations even though it made us the only community in the surrounding area with no STR restrictions. The residents acted. Through an amazing grass roots effort, Preserve IOP (thank you Brian Duffy and team) collected approximately 1200 signatures in support of very modest and reasonable STR limitations ( over twice that needed for a referendum, and more than the votes received by most Council members). Jimmy Ward’s reaction on social media “ I think the other 70 percent who did not sign should be able to vote on the issue via referendum”. Jimmy, that would mean a 100 percent voter turnout for the election. Is that your plan to overturn the will of more residents than vote in a typical election? How did this compare to the questionable 230 vote pretition that was used as a basis for your no caps vote on Council?
In a subsequent workshop, the same 5 Council members decided the 1173 residents signing the referendum were not worthy of consideration and once again voted 5-4 to reject it at first reading. Three of the 5 votes against the people’s referendum were Popson, Streetman and Ward all of whom come up for re-election in a few months. Alas, the other 2 negative votes were the 2 that ran on a platform of “ Residents First”—Mayor Phillip Pounds and Palm Republic Founder and IOP Councilman Blair Hahn. Keeping STR licenses around 40 percent is twisted to mean those supporting it are anti- business or anti STR. The opposite is true . Most of us love our island businesses and will always support our businesses . Island residents have also welcomed renters while wanting to maintain a reasonable balance with residents in keeping with a residential community . Every other surrounding community has acted accordingly to protect their neighborhoods. We are the exception not the rule as our corrupt leaders want us to believe.
My fellow residents, we deserve better. Please stay tuned and get involved with the November elections by electing those that understand they represent the voters not their own personal interests or vendettas.