Stephen Murray announces resignation as mayor of Beaufort, ‘effective immediately.’ What we know
After nearly a decade in the city’s political scene, Stephen Murray announced his resignation as mayor of Beaufort in a Facebook post Friday morning.
First elected to City Council in 2014, Murray was serving his second term when he was elected mayor in 2020, earning 64% of the vote over former council member Mike Sutton. He was sworn in as mayor Dec. 8, 2020, beginning his tenure meant to last through 2024.
Murray would not comment when asked about his resignation by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette on Friday morning.
Murray’s resignation comes just days after the website published by an organization that calls itself the Beautiful Beaufort Alliance alleged a confrontation between Murray and the Historic Beaufort Foundation’s Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins shortly after a council meeting they both attended. The website does not say how that information was obtained.
At the council meeting on Tuesday, the City Council voted to stop giving the not-for-profit Historic Beaufort Foundation a say in filling a seat on the city’s Historic District Review Board, which vets applications for renovations and demolitions in the historic district.
Longtime councilman and real estate broker Michael McFee will become the acting mayor until a special election scheduled for Dec. 12, according to a news release from the City of Beaufort. Details about the filing period were not immediately announced.
McFee said he found out about Murray’s resignation when everyone else did on Friday morning. He was on a walk when he got the email informing him of his new responsibilities.
“I think it caught us all by surprise,” McFee said.
“We were fortunate to have Steven as a mayor for the time that we did have him,” McFee said. “So he will be missed. There’s no question there will be large shoes to fill.”
McFee said it was too early to say if he was interested in running for mayor in the city’s upcoming special election.
Other area officials also were caught off guard by the news.
“It came as a surprise, a shock actually, when I read it. He sent us an email this morning giving us a heads up,” Town of Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry said of the announcement. “He did a great job for Beaufort, and you gotta do what you gotta do for your life, so I wish him the best.”
Mayor Lisa Sulka of Bluffton said she was surprised when she read Murray’s announcement.
“I don’t know what’s happened that caused him to do it so quickly,” she said, adding that Murray has “done a lot for Beaufort.”
County Council Chair Joe Passiment said Murray’s resignation was “a shocker.”
“We had a good working relationship; we accomplished several things together,” Passiment said. “There was kind of a collegial atmosphere that we had, so I’m kind of stunned about this.”
“It just blindsided me. I had no idea it was coming,” City Council Member Neil Lipsitz said of Murray’s resignation, calling the former mayor “a visionary.”
“I could see (Murray) going up into the state level or even the federal level,” Lipsitz said.
Councilman Josh Scallate responded to a reporter’s phone call by saying he had no comment on today’s action.
In July, Murray was elected president of the Association of South Carolina Mayors, putting him at the head of a group of 270 other mayors across the state. He was also chosen as an at-large board delegate for the Municipal Association of South Carolina.
Murray is the owner of Kazoobie Kazoos and New South Shirts.
Here is the statement Murray posted on his Facebook page. In the moments after the announcement, a dozen people posted words of appreciation and encouragement for his time in office.
Dear Friends,
I never aspired to politics as a kid or even as a young man trying to find my way in the world. I mostly chased my own idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But moving back to Beaufort in 2009 and attending the Leadership Beaufort program set my life on a totally different course trajectory. I became passionate about community development and threw myself into the world of non-profit boards, hoping to make a positive difference in my hometown. This led me to City Hall. I first ran for Council in 2014 and won a seat, ran unopposed for a second term in 2018, and then for mayor in 2020. Serving the last nine years as a member of Team Beaufort and the long list of other partners and associates has been the most challenging and rewarding “job” that I’ve ever held.
I first ran for office because I saw several areas of local government where I thought we could do things differently. Candidly, I felt that leadership prioritized one demographic of our population over others. Census and economic data support my feelings, and you only need to speak to a young working person to verify that we’ve woefully neglected them. Jobs, housing, recreation, educational opportunity, and just a general feeling that Beaufort is not a place for young folks to live. We’ve been working hard to change this.
In the past nine years, I’ve had an active leadership role in creating the Beaufort Digital Corridor, the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, and the South Coast Cyber Center. In conjunction with our educational partners to whom I’m extremely grateful, we’ve expanded access and are providing training and jobs for our people in 21st Century careers that pay a living wage. These efforts are just getting started and will continue to produce opportunity thanks to their respective staff and boards, folks who are some of the most remarkable people in the Lowcountry.
We’ve also transformed the city into a transparent and easily accessible local government. Online business licenses, livestreamed meetings that allow virtual public comment (pre-covid), all finances are online, a robust and clear strategic plan, and a public information effort that consistently provides information to local media outlets and our own social media channels across multiple departments. We’ve made investments in police, fire, and public works to ensure public safety and a clean well-manicured city remains a top priority.
We’ve supported several hundred units of affordable housing and have been working with our partners to dramatically increase the number of affordable housing units across all income brackets. We’ve completed significant stormwater projects in Mossy Oaks and are about to embark on a tremendous effort downtown to fix existing stormwater problems while also creating resiliency for climate change. We’ve replaced the Waterfront Park playground and with a little council courage we’ll break ground on the long overdue Southside Park while also making significant improvements in Washington St. park, so our residents have safe and quality places to play.
We’ve created strong regional partnerships with our neighboring municipalities, many non-profits, our military installations, and most of our utility providers. These are the highlights of the work from the past nine years that I’m most proud of. We’ve proved that local government can be responsive, that it can work with a robust list of partners to achieve shared goals, and ultimately provide high-quality daily services while also investing in our preferred future.
This progress within city government has not come easy. Change is hard for a lot of people. Especially people who’ve had their hands on political levers for a long time. People who have advocated for their interests at the expense of many others. People who are not duly elected or operate in a transparent way. I’ve been actively fighting against some of these folks and the status quo for almost nine years. And while I’m proud of the work and I know there is still much to be done, I’m tired. I’m tired of the daily barrage of uncivil and rude people accusing me of impropriety without a shred of proof. I’m tired of the “he said, she said” middle school drama that is present among many of the folks that I’m required to work with outside of Team Beaufort. I’m also tired of prioritizing my civic job at the expense of my health, my family, my friends, my businesses, and my reputation.
The City of Beaufort deserves a mayor that has their heart and energy fully committed to the job. A mayor who is fully committed to fighting the last bastions of the “good ole boys”, fully committed to responding to even the nastiest email with kindness, and fully committed to actively and consistently communicating their thoughts to the people they represent. I’d like to think at one time, not too distant ago, I was this mayor. But I do not feel like I am currently up to the task of the mayor I want to be, nor the one Beaufort deserves.
I will forever be grateful for the relationships, the support, the kind words, the lessons imparted from so many of you. Local government and some of our partners are full of talented, caring, hardworking people that I have learned so much from. But I believe it’s time for me to focus more on my family, my friends, my businesses, and my health. Effective immediately, I hereby resign as the Mayor of the City of Beaufort and from all my affiliated board seats. The City is in capable hands with an amazing staff and dedicated council, and I am excited to watch our continued progress… as a private citizen.
Be Well,
Stephen D. Murray III
This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
