Hilton Head council rescinds vote in unusual move. ‘It’s a power grab,’ one member says
The Hilton Head Island Town Council took the highly unusual step this week of backtracking on a vote, and the maneuver has now led to allegations of racism and a “power grab.”
The council on Tuesday voted 5-2 to rescind its prior 6-0-1 approval of a new strategic plan for the town’s Office of Cultural Affairs, which promotes and supports arts organizations on Hilton Head.
Bill Harkins, of Ward 2, made the motion to walk back the council’s original Sept. 21 vote regarding the broad plan.
The document is a general planning guide for the town’s relationship with arts and cultural organizations and includes goals such as expanding in-school artist-in-residency programs and the possible creation of a cultural field trip initiative for island students, among other things. The plan also says the Office of Cultural Affairs will offer to host equity, diversity and inclusion training for arts and cultural organizations.
In a Thursday interview, Harkins explained that Ward 4 representative Tamara Becker previously said she did not have enough information to vote on the plan, so Harkins thought “enough’s enough” and decided to take action.
Two council members said in interviews that they expect the Town Council to reconsider the plan at some point in the future. It remains unclear, though, when that will happen.
Becker at a July committee meeting said she had questions about an “educational component” of the plan, along with the “education, diversity and inclusion policy, and training materials” referenced in the plan.
“My request,” Becker said at the time, “is that we have an outline and we see ... what that educational program and those workshops entail, who’s presenting them and such, before they’re implemented.”
Before Tuesday’s vote, Becker still was not satisfied with the plan’s level of detail on “curriculum” and workshops.
“I want to know what it is that I’m approving,” Becker said.
But Alex Brown, of Ward 1, after the meeting argued that the 5-2 vote clearly was centered on some council members’ discomfort regarding topics of inclusion.
Brown noted in a Wednesday interview that the plan’s marketing goals, for example, also lacked specific details. Yet no one questioned that section of the wide-ranging plan at Tuesday’s meeting.
“When you start to talk about being inclusive and being diverse, first of all, if you’re not already that, that’s going to be uncomfortable,” Brown said, “and even if you are that, trying to get better at it is going to be uncomfortable.”
“What I heard from ... the council last night is, ‘We don’t want to go anywhere because it’s uncomfortable. Not because we want to see the curriculum,’” Brown said.
“It’s a power grab,” Brown added. “It’s not borderline racism. It is racism.”
He continued: “We all ... got our different biases. We all should be trying on a daily basis to understand one another and treat each other equally. And none of us succeed in that. We all fall short on that. ... When it comes to us that are elected, though, we cannot get in our own way on stuff like this. There’s too much at stake when it comes to the world. This is why we get into wars, right? Because we don’t have the opportunity to have discussions about our biases. And here we are at the local level, trying to control that.”
Becker in a Thursday interview said she was “flabbergasted” by Brown’s statement on racism.
“I think that’s an outrageous comment to make with no basis,” Becker said. “I am lost for words.”
The Ward 4 representative added that she supports the island’s arts and cultural organizations 100%.
Becker said she simply has been doing her due diligence to completely understand what she’s voting on.
“I have an obligation — if someone were asking ‘what’s going on?’ in any department — to be able to answer them,” Becker said.
“I asked for information. I don’t understand how that’s somehow controversial.”
What are other council members saying?
David Ames, of Ward 3, voted with Brown to maintain the plan’s approval.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ames said he was “comfortable moving forward on the basis of what was presented previously.”
Glenn Stanford, of Ward 6; Tom Lennox, of Ward 5; and Mayor John McCann, meanwhile, joined Becker and Harkins in voting to rescind the prior 6-0-1 approval of the plan until its “educational curriculum” is fully identified and reviewed by the Town Council. (Becker abstained from the original Sept. 21 vote. “I don’t want to approve something that may contain educational items that I’m not comfortable suggesting that the town as a whole supports or would support … without further discussion,” she said at the time.)
Stanford in a Wednesday interview said, “I didn’t feel like I knew what I had approved (in September), and several of us didn’t, so that’s why I voted that way” on Tuesday.
“I don’t see racism in it at all,” Stanford said.
Lennox, meanwhile, said he did not have specific concerns about the plan itself. “I think the plan is pretty much at 30,000 feet,” Lennox said.
He said Becker had previously requested additional information about the plan and had not received it, “so we thought the best way to deal with it would be (to) bring the plan back to council, get the information, review it, discuss it and then reconsider the plan.”
Lennox had no comment on Brown’s remarks about racism.
Harkins said in a Thursday interview that he had spoken with Brown late Wednesday.
“I said, ‘I was upset to hear that you were upset,’” Harkins said.
The Ward 2 representative continued: “Let’s move forward as a group. Let’s learn together what the whole package looks like and either accept, reject or modify.”
McCann did not respond to phone messages seeking comment for this story.
What’s next?
Lennox said he expects that Becker “will get the information that she’s requested and the council will review it and reconsider the plan quickly.”
And Brown, a native island leader, in a Thursday interview said he hopes the debate will spur Hilton Head to continue to have needed conversations about equity and inclusion.
It’s important for the town to move forward with those discussions, Brown said — not backward.
