Beaufort Co. council members must choose: Are they cowards? Or are they leaders? | Opinion
If Starbucks made a courage-infused Leadership Latte, I’d happily pay a moonlighting barista to crank out a bevy of hot drinks outside Monday night’s Beaufort County Council meeting.
Why?
Well, there are about 10 council members who are going to need the encouragement.
As for the 11th member — council chairperson Stu Rodman — I’m not really sure what he’s going to need yet.
The meeting is the first time all council members are convening since the public learned last week that Rodman might have broken state law in what appears to be an incurable habit of his to undercut the county administrator and bypass full council to get what he wants, when he wants it, and in whatever way he feels like getting it.
Typically he gets it by sending emails from his private accounts and giving lists of chess moves to whichever players he’s tapped for whichever game — whether it’s his simpatico colleagues on council or county staff members who by law report to the administrator and not to individual council members.
The emails are brazen, presumptive and are smartly worded so that any pressure being applied is merely insinuated, and Rodman’s desired outcome is one he simply expects his recipients will agree to and help make happen.
If these emails were ever printed and bound, Rodman would have himself a hot little title for the best-sellers list — something like, “How to Plow Your Way Through Expectations of Open Governance By Pretending It’s the Private Sector” or “I Trust You Will Do What I Want and Other Machiavellian Phrases that Guarantee You’ll Be King of Any County, Especially in South Carolina. ”
Since the Packet and the Gazette reported on Rodman’s private “let’s just keep this between ‘the two of us’” email to a county department head with instructions on the Jenkins Island road project — and in consideration of all the other ways Rodman has been subverting the public process — residents have called for Rodman to resign as chairperson or for council to finally stand up and speak out publicly about a problem they all seem to see but are too (pick a reason: scared, polite, uninformed, entrenched or implicated in Rodman’s antics themselves?) to do something about.
Whether Rodman actually steps down or gets voted down at Monday night’s meeting is anyone’s guess.
However, if I were basing my predictions on past council responses to Rodman’s maneuvering, my money would be on “Nothing significant is going to happen tonight. Everything will continue to operate as it has been. A council member or two will probably (cough cough) be sick so they can’t attend the meeting.”
I hope I’m wrong.
But bravery seems to be in short supply in this county.
In the past two years, we’ve seen increasing evidence that Beaufort County Council has contempt for open government and an extreme allegiance to a system that allows for a domineering, bullying few to impose their shadowy will behind the scenes, in ways that skirt the rules, duck from public oversight and lack meaningful or vocal rebuke from those council members who have integrity.
Rodman is known as someone who make deals happen quickly.
Well, it’s no wonder.
It’s rather easy to get things done when you’re not inconvenienced by process, rules or potential dissent.
But we need a chairperson who can make things happen legally, ethically and openly — someone who operates quickly while also conducting the public’s business in public.
Aspects of Rodman’s expediency might be justifiable if we weren’t seeing the deleterious effect his brand of leadership has had on county operations over the past few years.
And that’s why it’s time for council to untuck their tails, square their shoulders and stop the madness.
Perhaps I’m not being fair by putting this on the entire council — past or present — because for some council members, Rodman’s behavior has been suspected but not necessarily proven.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the truth when it’s masked by big smiles.
Well, now you see it, folks.
And now the spotlight is on you.
Will you do the right thing?
I trust you will.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 8:36 AM with the headline "Beaufort Co. council members must choose: Are they cowards? Or are they leaders? | Opinion."
