Hilton Head mayor out of bounds in $3M police deal with Beaufort County | Editorial

Hilton Head Island Town Council has a lot of explaining to do.

Mayor John McCann has proposed vast changes that would impact the daily lives and taxes of islanders with no public discussion, no cost analysis, no public input and no vote by Town Council.

In fact, the proposal blindsided at least one Town Council member. And citizens had no clue about it until The Island Packet got hold of a letter sent last month from McCann to Beaufort County Council.

Only Town Council should make decisions McCann outlined in the letter.

He says the town will:

▪ No longer pay the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office $3 million for police protection on Hilton Head.

▪ Accept ownership and responsibility of the 76 county-owned roads on the island.

▪ Take over responsibility for six county-maintained parks on the island: Barker Field and Barker Field extension, Crossings Park, Bristol Sports Arena, Chaplin Community Park and Old Schoolhouse Park.

▪ And relieve the county of around $300,000 in subsidies to the Island Recreation Association.

With a single letter, and with no public input, decades of public policy would be turned upside down.

The issue is governance. Did the public elect a mayor, or a czar? Is Town Council simply not paying attention? Or are secretive deals being cut outside the purview of publicly posted meetings?

Any of those possibilities is disastrous to local government.

The mayor’s deal has no logic. He says the money the town pays the Sheriff’s Office for police protection is “offensive” because it is double taxation. That is, town residents already pay the Sheriff’s Office in their county taxes, so McCann is going to quash the double taxation. However, at the same time McCann proposes that the town turn down millions of county tax dollars now devoted to the island. He claims it’s an even swap, but the public has seen no proof of that.

So what’s the deal? It would be nice to know.

If, as McCann says, Hilton Head is getting no more service from the Sheriff’s Office than unincorporated Beaufort County, every mayor and every Town Council since the original contract was signed in 1984 have been bamboozled. The deals with the Sheriff’s Office have been quite detailed over those years, including extra money being paid for specific types of enforcement Town Council wanted, and town ownership of a fleet police cruisers.

It has been the public’s understanding from the time the island was incorporated in 1983 that instead of paying for a town police department, the “limited-services” town government would pay the Sheriff’s Office extra for extra services. That cost has risen from $1.1 million in the first year to $3.6 million today, and there have been legitimate debates along the way over whether the town was getting its money’s worth, and whether the town should create its own police department. But the public understanding has been that the town was getting more service from the sheriff than the rest of Beaufort County because it pays more.

McCann’s proposal also goes against conventional wisdom in seeking to take over 76 county roads. For good reason, the state of South Carolina is desperately trying to turn roads over to local governments. That good reason is money. Road ownership is a bottomless pothole for tax dollars, and it is the gift that keeps on giving. Yet, McCann’s offer to the county lacks any analysis, or discussion, of what this cost will be to the town. That is unacceptable.

And if McCann has decided the town will get whole hog into the parks-and-recreation business, what other services are next? Social services? Housing? The arts?

All of this needs citizen input, and public discussion by Town Council, followed by a public Town Council vote.

Beaufort County should ignore McCann’s letter, unless he wants to undertake these expenses on his own. His letter does not represent the residents of Hilton Head, or the democratic process, which gives the Town Council a lot of explaining to do.