Beaufort City Council: City’s no longer ‘sleepy, southern town,’ candidate Josh Gibson says
Managing Beaufort’s growth is a top issue for Josh Gibson, one of five candidates for two seats on the Beaufort City Council in the Nov. 8 election.
Gibson, 52, served as chairman of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals from 2015 to 2022 and as president of the Old Commons Neighborhood Association in 2017-18.
Born in Anderson, S.C., Gibson was raised in Beaufort beginning in 1972. He graduated from Beaufort Academy in 1988 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri. He began his career as a staff photographer in Birmingham, Ala., at Southern Living Magazine before he started his freelance career and returned to Beaufort in 1999.
Candidates received questionnaires from The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette and their answers were limited to 150 words:
What’s the most-pressing issue facing the city?
The short answer is growth management. Beaufort is no longer a sleepy, Southern town. When I’ve been traveling across the country or even internationally, when people ask me where I’m from and I say Beaufort, S.C., I’m always ready to explain where it is, but before I can, they say, “It’s beautiful there.” We are not a secret anymore.
Our task is to protect the unique quality of our city’s culture that has made us so popular. Growth management is a good problem to have, but it encompasses so many issues; affordable housing, historic preservation, stormwater management, sea level rise, municipal planning, gentrification, traffic … and on and on. It affects every aspect of our lives and the people who need to be making these decisions are the people who know Beaufort the best. I think my half a century of experience here makes me that person.
What are your top issues in the campaign?
Serving citizens. The purpose of any government is to serve its citizens. That can mean providing support for someone who wants to invest millions of dollars in a business, or it can mean something as small and simple as a resident who just wants to get a permit to build a fence on their own back yard. It also means long-term planning and public safety. But the service part of it is where we can improve. City Hall should be a place where the citizens go to find solutions, not just obstacles.
Development and maintaining Beaufort’s historic areas can collide at times. What is your position on development vs. historic preservation?
Historic preservation is absolutely critical to maintaining what makes Beaufort so special. It is the perfect compliment to our natural beauty that makes this such a special city. We cannot lose the framework of our success. The culture is so rich and so deep that we have to approach it conservatively so that we don’t lose such a fundamental resource.
At the same time, real people live in these historical structures and they have real day-to-day problems that need to be fast-tracked through the preservation process. I have neighbors right now who are in the middle of a four-month process to get permission to paint their house. That is unacceptable. The city staff should be empowered and supported to make timely decisions to support the citizens, especially when they need help trying to comply with the unique restrictions of living within the historic district.
Affordable housing is an issue throughout Beaufort County. What should the city do in response, if anything?
This is a challenge that has multiple layers of solutions. At the end of the day, any affordable housing discussion is a discussion about subsidized housing. We have made a good step by joining the region-wide affordable housing trust. The key is to get all of the partners to buy in. We, as a city need to look at how we compensate our employees and set a leadership example for the local businesses.
The developers will need to bear some of this burden, and then the businesses will have to contribute as well. If all of us work together we can make progress here, but it is going to take an “all hands on deck” effort to improve it. The answer doesn’t just come from municipal government, federal subsidies or private investment. It takes teamwork of all of us pulling the same direction.
What do you think of Safe Harbor Marinas’ plans to expand and improve the Beaufort marina?
Safe Harbor is a good partner for the city to work with, but the marina expansions are inappropriate for the city and the integrity of the park. Investment in the marina’s infrastructure is absolutely necessary, but expanding it has consequences that have negative impacts on the city’s infrastructure. Increased size means an increase in bridge openings, which means more traffic problems. It also means that we’re going to lose dozens of parking spaces that will have to be dedicated to the marina customers. So that means less parking for the downtown businesses. The footprint of the marina is integral to how the park was designed and respecting the design of the park is critical to continuing it as a success that drives our culture and economy. The marina can be a great economic engine for the city without selling out the integrity and beauty of our public spaces.
Several incidents in which gunshots have been fired in Beaufort have occurred in the past year, raising neighborhood concerns. Is there anything more that the city can do in response to these incidents or crime in general?
Investing in technology to add more cameras in areas of violent crime will act as a deterrent and aid in the investigations. Violent crimes are always our highest priority. I’ve had two neighbors get their car windows shot out in drive by shootings in the heart of the historic district. We’re lucky that no innocent bystanders have been shot in these incidents, but good luck is not a plan.
The single most important purpose of any government is to protect its citizens and that is where we should be focusing our resources. I’ve had multiple conversations with police officers where they tell me that they know who the perpetrator is but they can’t get witnesses to testify. Adding more cameras is not a “magic wand” solution that would solve everything, but it adds a layer to the resources the police have to investigate and the prosecutors have to get convictions.
Keeping the police department fully staffed has become a challenge. What more can the city do to keep these positions filled, if anything?
I had a discussion with Chief McDormand last week about just this issue. The police are faced with all of the same economic pressures that affect the rest of our economy. Other departments are poaching our officers and they’re making decisions to live in other places because of several reasons: affordable housing, compensation and employment opportunities for their spouses and partners. It is difficult for a single person, on a civil servant’s salary, to live in Beaufort.
There are no easy ways to solve this. We can increase pay. We can provide subsidized, affordable housing. Another option is letting the officers take their cruisers home, even if they’re not living in Beaufort County. The department has a policy against that, but if it helps keep us fully staffed, while we solve the long term problems of being understaffed, we should consider its as a short term solution.
What can the city do to diversify its economy and bring more jobs to Beaufort?
Adding diversity to our economy is one of the success stories that the city has had recently. Investments in the Beaufort Commerce Park and the Digital Corridor are paying off, but it is a long journey to build economic diversity. Once you get more businesses buying into Beaufort, it will build a momentum that sustains itself with other businesses being built to service those companies as they expand. We also need provide more clarity from the planning department for people who want to invest in the city.
Currently, it is exceptionally difficult to permit a building project in Beaufort. It is far too expensive and takes way too long. We need to speed up that process and make it more friendly for business willing to invest her and even more importantly, the Beaufortonians who are already here. There are local people who want to invest, and they deserve our support.
Web site or social media pages
https://www.facebook.com/goforgibson
This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
