Three Republicans are vying for this Beaufort Co. council seat. Here’s why they’re running
The race for the District 5 seat on Beaufort County Council is wide open, after longtime representative Joseph Passiment opted not to seek reelection.
Three Republicans will face off Tuesday, June 9 in the statewide primary election; whoever wins will run unopposed in the general this November.
District 5 includes areas east of South Carolina Highway 170 and Fording Island Road in Okatie, south of SC 170 from Hoggs Tavern to the Broad River and a sprinkling of streets north of the Broad.
The candidates are Joshua Hower of Okatie, Joe Maiorano of Beaufort County and Mary Jeans Otto of Heyward Point. Hower is a product owner for a national wholesale insurance brokerage, Maiorano is a retired New York police officer and business owner and Otto is the broker/owner of Jeans Otto Real Estate.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette sent them each a series of questions about what they would do if elected to the council, specifically regarding the growth, public safety and transparency within the government.
Here are some takeaways from their responses.
Why are they running?
Hower said he’s running because he believes the role of a council member is to serve the people who already live in Beaufort County, “not to manage growth for the benefit of those looking to profit from it.”
“I’ve watched this county grow at a pace that our infrastructure, our roads and our public services haven’t kept up with, and I’ve watched residents feel increasingly shut out of the decisions that shape their neighborhoods.” he said.
Maiorano, who said he has been in the area for more than 20 years, said he wants to be on the council so he can see what he can do to “try to have good input on how things are run here in Okatie and Beaufort County in general.”
“I feel that being here so long that I have this strong desire to get involved and engaged in helping and seeing what I can do for the good of the people in Beaufort County,” he said. “We all love it here that is why were all here, so being involved is important to me.”
Otto said she’s running because she has seen the county change over her time here because of “rapid overdevelopment,” which she said has strained the roads, increased traffic and accidents and put pressure on the county’s infrastructure and natural resources.
Over the past year, she has worked against the commercialization and increased density proposed on Callawassie Drive, which she said required her to develop a strong working knowledge of the county’s standards and ordinances, plus the planning and zoning process.
“I believe growth is moving too fast and threatening the quality of life that brought many of us here in the first place,” Otto said. “I want to help slow that down and make sure development does not come at the expense of the community we all value.”
Growth management and infrastructure solutions
All three candidates share the same view on growth and development — that Beaufort County is growing too fast and residents are bearing the brunt of it. But they had slightly different takes on what the county should do about it.
Hower said the county needs to stop approving development and then figuring out the infrastructure. “That order has to be reversed,” he said.
“Before any major project comes to a vote, there should be a clear accounting of whether our roads, emergency services, water and sewer systems, and schools can absorb it. If the answer is no, the project either gets redesigned or it waits,” he said. “That is not anti-growth, that is responsible governance.”
The county also needs to make “strategic infrastructure investments” to be proactive instead of reactive to waves of growth, including a new sheriff’s office law enforcement center, road capacity planning for the Okatie and Bluffton corridors and “honest conversations about impact fees that ensure developers, not existing taxpayers, are bearing the cost of the growth they are generating,” he said.
Growth can be good, Maiorano said, but it needs to happen at a “slower pace” for people and infrastructure to catch up.
“I would rather see houses go up then all these apartment buildings that they’re now building. It’s killing the aesthetics of the Lowcountry,” he said.
Otto said she supports a temporary pause on new building, so growth can be better managed and infrastructure can catch up to the needs of current residents.
“I am not pro or anti-development; I am pro-lifestyle, and I believe our quality of life is under increasing pressure,” she said.
Transparency and trust in government
Beaufort County has dealt with issues surrounding public trust for years, stemming from the tenure of former county administrator Eric Greenway. This year, county CFO Pinky Harriott left her job right in the middle of budget season with no explanation, and council members voted in June to hire a firm to conduct an investigation into whether departments are complying with “relevant laws and county ordinances.”
The CFO situation is exactly the kind of thing that erodes public confidence, Hower said. Residents deserve better than knowing a senior financial official left mid-budget cycle with no explanation, he said. If elected, he said he will be directly accessible and responsive to constituents and speak clearly to people via social media about key agenda items before votes. “When something goes wrong inside county government, I will say so publicly rather than letting silence fill the void,” he said.
Maiorano said he thinks council has to be more available to the citizens of Beaufort County and to include them in decision-making.
“I think we forget that the citizens are the ones that put them (me) there. So their voice counts,” he said. “[I would] just be more available to them let them know that we’re there and open to talk with them anytime and hear their concerns.”
Otto said she believes county employees should be able to do their jobs, raise concerns and report issues without fear of retaliation. Strong whistleblower protections, independent audits and clear oversight help ensure financial accountability and build public trust, she said.
The issues raised by the Greenway situation, she said, “show the need for stronger ethics rules, clear hiring standards and stricter anti-nepotism policies, so decisions are based on qualifications and merit, not personal relationships.
“I also support open, competitive bidding for county contracts to make sure taxpayer money is spent fairly and wisely,” she said.
Development vs. cultural preservation and Pine Island
The county has been going back and forth for years with the developer of a proposed golf course on St. Helena Island in a project called Pine Island. The site sits on historic Gullah-Geechee land protected by a Cultural Protection Overlay.
Most recently, the project’s developer sued the county, saying the CPO is “unconstitutional on its face” because it favors one race “at the inherent expense of others.” It asks for an order ending enforcement of the CPO.
But in areas without a CPO, like Hilton Head, Gullah-Geechee residents have expressed frustration that their land seems to be the first to go when there’s a new proposed development or road extension. This is the case with $122.8 million in proposed improvements to a stretch of William Hilton Parkway between the new U.S. 278 bridge and the intersection with Spanish Wells Road.
When asked how Beaufort County can continue to grow while also accounting for the needs of Gullah-Geechee people whose families have been here for generations, Hower said “the honest answer is that Beaufort County has not done enough.” “When infrastructure and development decisions consistently fall on the same communities, and when those communities are disproportionately Gullah-Geechee families whose land has been in their families for generations, that is not an accident,” he said. “It is the result of planning processes that do not adequately center the people most affected. The proposed changes to William Hilton Parkway are a current and visible example.” Gullah-Geechee community members and land heirs need a seat at the table before a corridor study is complete, before a development application is filed and before a vote is taken, not a comment period after everything has already been decided, Hower said.
“That means the county doing the harder work of direct outreach, not simply posting a legal notice and calling it community input,” he said. “Growth in Beaufort County should not come at the cost of erasing the people who have been here the longest.”
Maiorano said he is not privy to the details about Pine Island, but he does believe “if Pine Island is a protected area, then It should stay that way.”
As someone that has lived in the Lowcountry for over 20 years, Maiorano said he rarely sees builders having any problems doing what they want to do.
“I don’t see any slowdowns on building so far, so I’m on the side of the people that were here for generations at this point,” he said.
Otto said she opposes the Pine Island development. The purchasers paid “fair market value for property that already had these restrictions in place, not for unrestricted residential development,” she said.
She supports the Cultural Protection Overlay “as it relates to protecting the cultural, historic and environmental character of these areas.
“I believe it is important that the county continues to use planning tools like the CPO to ensure that longstanding communities are not unintentionally displaced by rapid growth,” she said.
Not defending the CPO could have dire consequences for development in the county, she said.
“If the county does not defend this ordinance, it could set a dangerous precedent and weaken the protection of overlays and conservation ordinances throughout Beaufort County,” Otto said.