The Senate Subcommittee hearing in Columbia went well. Senator Paul Thurmond was great. He really wants to help us reunite our Town. He asked that all of the various interest groups get together and come up with a compromise bill that will let the Town be reunited without causing anyone else in the state any problem.
JIPSD Commissioner Carter McMillan was there, and he gave very compelling testimony in support of the bill. He is a former member of Town Council who lives in Riverland Terrace. He was vice Chairman of Free James Island. He explained that he understood that when we formed the Town in 2012, he and his neighbors would have to be left out to start with, but the plan was always to work to bring us all back together.
Representative Peter McCoy also testified in favor of the bill. He strongly supported our effort to be united again. Like Commissioner McMillan, he spoke of all of his constituents who ask how they can get back into the Town. He reported that he had reached out to some opponents of the bill, asking what specific problems they had. Unfortunately, they could not come up with anything. While he didn't name anyone, I am sure he had in mind some of the James Island Public Service District Commissioners. He told me that he had offered to meet with them to talk over the bill and get suggestions, but they said they were just too busy.
There were plenty of interest groups raising concerns. Anne Peterson Hutto, who was the Representative from James Island before she was defeated by Representative McCoy, was there representing the Coastal Conservation League. I spoke to her before the meeting and she told me that they were opposed to our effort to reunite the Town. They were specifically worried that the Town might annex onto Johns Island. But more generally, they oppose piecemeal annexation. She didn't testify and appeared willing to participate in meetings to try to work out a compromise. I remain hopeful.
The South Carolina Association of Counties had raised some issues. Danny Crowe, the attorney working for the Town on the bill, had already brokered a compromise before the hearing. Their representative testified that they had come to an agreement with the Town. (That compromise will block us from annexing onto Johns Island. I can live with that. I just want our Town back.) Senator Thurmond thanked him for helping make this bill work.
Another interest group was the South Carolina Association of Special Purpose Districts. This is a statewide group of organizations similar to the James Island Public Service District. They sent two email alerts to their members describing this bill as a "threat." When Danny Crowe spoke to Trent Kernodle last Tuesday, Kernodle said that this group was responding to a request from the James Island PSD to help block the bill. Kernodle also said there would be many people at the hearing "carrying torches." And sure enough, there were representatives of sewer and fire districts from across the state. (None had torches, but I think he meant that they would be there to angrily oppose the bill.)
I spoke to nearly all of them one-on-one before and after the hearing. I was especially pleased that some were Citadel grads. "Hey Prof. Woolsey, I was in your class back in 1996. And I was in your class in 2004." I explained that we were more than willing to compromise as long as we can reunite our Town. And they were very willing to help find a way to make it happen.
When the representative of the Association of Special Service Districts testified, he said that his Association had never opposed the bill, and just had concerns. He said that they would also be glad to work with the Town's representatives to make this bill work.
Last to testify was Trent Kernodle. When Danny Crowe spoke to him on Tuesday, he said that the problem with the bill is the Mayor. (The problem with the bill is Bill.) He said that I have a secret plan to take over the JIPSD and close it down. I wasn't entirely sure whether I should share that, but Kernodle testified publicly about this imaginary plan to "pack the PSD" and close it down. He said that this bill would allow just four people to close down the JIPSD. He said that two members of the JIPSD were already involved. He didn't mention any names, but Commissioner McMillan had already testified in favor of the bill. I think the other he had in mind was Commissioner Inez Brown Crouch. Kernodle said that there was an election coming up in November, and that this bill would allow four newly-elected Commissioners to close down the District.
As I have explained before, nothing in this bill gives a municipality any new authority to take over the provision of services from a public service district. However, we do live in a democracy, and if the majority of the voters on James Island wanted to have the JIPSD turn over the provision of services to the Town, and the voters elected District Commissioners who agreed with that approach, then I guess it could happen. If that is what they wanted to do, they wouldn't need this bill to do it. What Kernodle calls "packing the PSD" is what the rest of us call a democratic election and majority rule.
However, I am pretty sure that most voters on James Island don't want to close down the James Island PSD. I know that I don't. Commissioner Inez Brown Crouch does not want to close down the JIPSD. Commissioner McMillan doesn't want to close down the JIPSD. No one on Town Council is trying to close down the JIPSD.
What we do want is to reunite our Town. I would like to see Commissioners who want to cooperate with the Town. I would like to see Commissioners who will try to work with the Town to provide a property tax credit. I would like to see Commissioners who would help us try to reunite the Town.
And I really wish we had Commissioners who wouldn't send a lawyer up to Columbia to make wild charges that really just alienate everyone, including Senator Thurmond and Representative McCoy.
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