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Me . . . Editorials Editorial . . . A shortsighted decision Who should suffer for Town’s mismanagement?
County
Council leadership Inter-County competition By Stan Welch In the time that I have been living in Anderson County, I have noticed a tendency among its leaders and some of its people to measure themselves and their achievements against those of Greenville County. For example, I have often heard Greenville County’s budgets and tax figures used to compare to Anderson County’s. It is clear that the two Counties are in competition with one another for jobs and economic development. It is equally clear that Greenville tends to lead that competition in many ways. I have discovered one example of Anderson’s clear lead over her neighbor, however. I read, or at least scan, two or three newspapers a day. I do so for several reasons. One is that I am a truly curious person, and I like to keep track of what’s going on in the world. Another reason is that despite some reports, I don’t think I’m the only good newspaper reporter in the world, or even the Upstate area. I happen to appreciate the craft of good journalism, and those who pursue it. So I like to see what other reporters are doing. It was during just such an expedition that I came across this stunning instance in which Anderson County is so clearly ahead of her friendly rival. It was right there on the front page of the January 27 edition of The Greenville News, the dominant daily newspaper of the Upstate. The story, by staff writer Paul Alongi, went like this. Tom Inman, a member of the Board of Directors for the Phoenix Center asked for a briefing on several legal settlements and the costs incurred by the Center during those suits. The Phoenix Center provides substance abuse counseling to both adolescents and adults. It receives its funding largely from the federal and state governments, while local taxpayers provide two per cent. Clients of the center and grant monies provide the balance. Such a funding scheme clearly makes the center and its board subject to the Freedom of Information Act. His motion to require the agency’s attorney to provide such a briefing failed for a lack of a second. Sound familiar? “But wait!” as they say on the late night commercials. “There’s more!” Inman was then censured by the Board for being disruptive. Disruptive, they say. How dare he? And what was the basis for this heinous charge against Inman? According to the resolution, which someone on the board had just happened to have prepared, he acted without board authority, and had made “unsubstantiated accusations” against Phoenix Center executive director Kat Rice. (Allow me to digress a moment. I don’t know the woman, but anyone named after an animal and a cereal would make me suspicious too. But back to the story.) Inman had also placed an undue burden on the center’s staff by demanding reports and other information. Now, I don’t know about you folks, but I’m just a little tired of these people who get appointed to some board, or elected to some city or county council and immediately begin snooping around in that organization’s business. I mean, who do these people think they are? Still, the fact remains that Greenville County lags behind Anderson in this area. The Anderson County Council approved a resolution in 2001 which declared Councilwoman Cindy Wilson, one of its own members, an adversary of the County, beating Greenville by five years. Take that, Greenville. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. When it comes to childish attempts to intimidate and control public officials and board members, you folks can’t carry Anderson County’s water. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that those folks used the Anderson County Council blueprint. I mean, let’s look at it more closely. The issue was over the board’s legal strategy and the costs of that strategy. Wilson was officially chastised over essentially the same issue. Inman, who is a retired editor from the Greenville News (what were those people thinking putting this guy on the Board?), is a vocal critic of both the center and its director; Wilson’s well known for her problems with county administrator Preston and his performance. Inman saw his request for a briefing die for a lack of a second to his motion; Wilson has seen more motions die from a lack of a second than the Russians lost cosmonauts in the space race. Conveniently, someone had prepared a two page resolution just in case the board wanted to censure Inman. The resolution naming Wilson an adversary was similarly, and most likely, illegally available as well. I say most likely illegally because either the administrator had it prepared on his own authority, or an illegally polled or convened Council ordered him to prepare it. Intimidation is what both these events were about, and intimidation has no place at any level of government in a supposedly free country. Seems to me it hasn’t worked on Wilson; it seems unlikely to work on Inman. But, hey, isn’t it nice to be first sometime?
Seems
to Me . . . By Stan Welch There sure is a lot going on in our little corner of the county, isn’t there? Williamston’s financial woes are the talk of the upstate, judging by the people who approached me at the County Delegation meeting Monday. State Representatives and Senators were all asking how things were going and what was going to happen. All wished the Town well in their efforts to right the boat. I told them things were tough and probably going to get tougher. It is my personal opinion that both the Mayor and the Council are responsible for the situation, and responsible for doing what needs to be done to get squared away; no matter how much it hurts or how long it takes. Clearly, for too long, the members of the Town Council have shirked their duties: they have left the running of the town to a mayor who clearly has not demonstrated the kind of fiscal responsibility expected by the voting public. Given the prior fiscal history of the Town and its previous administration, one would have anticipated an actively involved, if not downright snoopy, Town Council. Instead, they have allowed an eloquent and loquacious chief administrator to beguile them, allowing him leeway to make decisions that are now coming home to roost. Mayor Clardy has said more than once that he hasn’t done anything that the Council didn’t let him do. That is true: it is also a shame. That the Mayor used the Council’s failure to perform its duties as an excuse for his own irresponsible behavior, and the Council’s failure to exercise its minimal fiduciary responsibility to the Town is a poor combination of factors. Both the Mayor and the Council should be called to account for the truth of that statement. It speaks of a shunning of responsibility by both which, frankly, is the only sensible explanation for the Town being in the fix it’s in. Former Mayor Marion Middleton has spoken out recently about his role in the Town’s finances during his administration; that role and its results have been well covered in the media and in the corner coffee shop. But whatever Marion Middleton did to the Town of Williamston, one fact is indisputable. He quit doing it five years ago. Whether you are one of his supporters or harshest critics, it doesn’t really matter. Whatever he did, he quit doing it five years ago. Mayor Clardy, who ran against that previous administration and its record, must realize that he can no longer use Middleton as an excuse for the Town’s continuing troubles. If you can’t clean up a mess in five years, it’s only fair for people to wonder if you know how to use a mop at all. Mayor, it’s time to grab a mop and get to work. But folks, let’s not kid ourselves. The people of Williamston, and for that matter, the surrounding towns and area, have to take a good look at themselves, too. Williamston has not raised taxes in ten years. Tell me one thing, one item, one service, that still costs what it did in 1995. Is gas still the same price, or health insurance, or a carton of milk or a box of cereal? Does PVC pipe cost the same, or office supplies, or any of the hundreds of things used in running a town? Can anyone who’s really in touch with the real world expect a town to run on the same revenues it generated ten years ago? The growth rate in Williamston is certainly inadequate to generate sufficient revenues based on a decade old tax rate. Folks simply cannot reasonably expect such complete insistence on the lowest possible tax rate to work. What they can, and should, expect is that their tax money be spent as wisely and carefully as possible. They have every right to demand responsible stewardship from their elected officials. But they must also understand that, whether their conservative political hearts like it or not, the only way for a small town to meet its needs these days is to leverage money from the state and federal governments, in the form of grants and loans. The conditions that come with such funds are an annoying but necessary part of life. It’s plain to see that tax dollars can do far more when collectively applied than the same amount could ever accomplish when returned on an individual basis to each taxpayer. In other words, a thousand taxpayers who each receive a fifty dollar rollback, rebate, refund, whatever you call it, can do very little with that money. They certainly can’t fix the sidewalk in front of their house or patch the potholes in the street. But $50,000 used by the Town for the general benefit can do those things. It is simply economy of force. Financial analysts at the Appalachian Council of Government have seen these problems before. They know what has to be done, and how to do it. They can help the Town out from under their troubles, but it will be unpleasant and tough; and it will take some time. But it will be easier and faster if the process is freed from maintaining unrealistic expectations, finger pointing, and refusing to see the reality of the situation. Seems to me, there’s enough work to be done without doing all that extra stuff, too. 2005 Seems to Me columns Responsibility By Stan Welch As many of you may have read in this column before, my son and I moved to this area a little more than a year ago. I enrolled my son at Wren Middle School. This year, he moved on to high school. He likes the school and has settled in nicely, I think. As part of my duties at The Journal, I review the police reports generated by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, and write up those from our readership area for each week’s paper. This is not my favorite job; but it’s better than obituaries, and it can be interesting. For example, I’ve learned that there is someone in the Piedmont area who is passing counterfeit money on a consistent, if not predictable, basis. I’ve learned that there are some punks riding around the Piedmont and Pelzer areas shooting up homes and cars with paintballs and marbles, doing a fair amount of damage. My guess is it’s Daddy’s car they’re riding around in. If they owned one, they wouldn’t ride around shooting up other peoples’. I’ve also learned some things about Wren High School, and quite frankly, they’re troubling. A number of incident reports have passed through my hands in recent weeks that deal with some pretty serious, and some not so serious, occurrences at the school. Two in particular disturb me, especially as the parent of a student there. One occurred a couple of weeks ago and was written up in last week’s paper. A freshman confronted and assaulted another freshman. According to several students I spoke to, the assailant challenged the other boy to a fight over some things that had been said about the first boy. When the second boy refused to fight, he was sucker punched and knocked to the floor, where the other boy punched him several more times in the face. The boy who was attacked suffered several significant cuts and lost at least one tooth, according to the heavily redacted police report. I say redacted, or blacked out, because every reference to either boy’s name was blotted out. We must protect those precious little juveniles from the embarrassment of having their names printed, mustn’t we? Actually my personal opinion is if you’re big enough to knock teeth out of another person’s head with your fists, you’re big enough to make the local newspaper. If you’re tough enough to do that, you’re tough enough to stand a little embarrassment. But state law is state law, and we observe that at The Journal. Another, even more serious, situation occurred at last Friday night’s Wren – Palmetto High School basketball game. Again, according to eyewitnesses I spoke to, a student was seen to be carrying a handgun at the game, which occurred at Wren’s gym. That’s right, a handgun. The student was inside the building when he was observed to have a gun under his jacket. There is a news item on this incident elsewhere in this issue of The Journal. Here’s my point. First of all, I do not automatically fault anyone for this boy bringing a gun to the game, except for his parents. Those parents should be held accountable in some way for allowing their son to leave home with a handgun in his possession. If he’s a juvenile, he cannot legally own a handgun, so where did it come from? Dad’s dresser? Mother’s purse? Don’t get me wrong. I am not an anti-gun type by any means. I believe in the Second Amendment, as far as it goes. Actually, I don’t think my right to the most efficient means of self defense available is dependent on the Constitution; I think it is a natural and inalienable right. You know, like a bear having teeth. My son is trained in gun safety and responsible gun handling. He would no more take a gun anywhere, even a deer stand, without my permission than he would steal; and for the same reason. He knows the price he would pay would be far too high for the fun he would have. While I do not automatically fault the school for allowing a gun to be brought there, I do object to the way they handle this and the other incidents, in terms of providing parents with vital information. If my son misses a day of school, I get an e-mail telling me. If he gets a lunch detention for running his mouth in class, or not turning in an assignment, I get an e-mail telling me. If a classmate of his suffers a criminal assault that would have an adult facing jail time if they had committed it, I hear about it from the students and the police reports before I hear about it from the school. If an arrest is made for possession of drugs or firearms at a school function, like a basketball game, there’s no point in me checking my e-mail about that. There won’t be anything there. I’ll have to wait for the police reports or the grapevine to get the news.
That is a flawed policy, and
one that needs to be changed. Maybe I’d like to warn my son to
stay away from certain students, or keep him home from certain ball
games, where rivalries and tensions might run a little too hot.
Parents have a right to know what is going on at their kids’
schools. Seems to me those schools have a responsibility to tell us. Honoring "Dolly Cooper" By Stan Welch I’ve had some comments about last week’s column. That’s a good thing. Newspaper columnists are kind of like aging movie stars. We don’t care what you say about us, just don’t ignore us. That column was critical at times of the county administrator and his actions in reference to Councilwoman Cindy Wilson’s efforts to obtain public information, and the administrator’s extraordinary efforts to prevent that. The article was at times, sardonic, because I thought his actions warranted sarcasm. I still do. Read on. A couple people asked me what I have against Joey Preston. Let me say clearly that I have nothing personal against Joey Preston. He is a man of some intelligence and considerable charisma. He can be very charming; he can also be quite childish when his feelings are hurt. But let me make something else quite clear: Joey Preston , for all his power and all his authority over Council, cannot vote on a single issue before the Council. He cannot vote to name a park after a local politician, he cannot vote to paint the County’s cars red. In my opinion, he can and does lead several council members to water; furthermore, in my opinion, he has a fair success rate at getting them to drink. Now, there are two ways to take that statement. One interpretation might be that there is some nefarious plan afoot by the administrator to manipulate the Council to his own or others’ ends. Such a claim would, of course, need evidence and proof to support it. I am making no such claim at this time. Right now, I lean towards the interpretation that far too many Council members, dazzled or confused by Home Rule, have surrendered their responsibilities to the professional bureaucrats who currently run Anderson County’s government. This claim also requires evidence and proof to support it; I believe the council’s record itself provides that evidence. I have covered government bodies in two states and about 6 different counties during my time in the newspaper business. I have sat in wooden chairs until my fanny was numb; I’ve taken notes until my hands cramped. I have seen elected representatives rise to great heights of wisdom and compassion, and I have seen them do some of the greediest and self-serving things you could imagine. But in all those years, in all those counties, I have never seen anything to compare to this battle for public information that has been going on between the Anderson county administrator and a sitting member of the County Council. This is a legal battle that has gone on for years, at significant expense to the taxpayers. In the course of this battle, two different state Attorneys General have supported Wilson’s claim that the routine financial records are public information; a ruling that anyone who has ever read the FOIA, or the Home Rule Act, could have made. When I first arrived in Anderson County more than a year ago, I was told about that situation, and I laughed. I just knew it was a joke. Now, a year later, I’m convinced that the real joke is a County Council that could cast a simple 4-3 vote and put an end to this embarrassing spectacle, yet which refuses repeatedly to do so. Let me put this simply. If you were on the board of directors of a business, and the company bookkeeper refused to show you the week’s disbursements, how long would they have their job? Mr. Preston’s position, stated under deposition, that he considers himself Anderson County government’s CEO is overblown and insupportable. He is the head administrative officer; and if he is confused about the difference between an executive officer and an administrative officer, quite frankly, he’s unsuited for either job. Still, he is not responsible for his confusion. The Council is responsible. They have allowed him to write his own job description, and have gradually allowed him to expand his authority at the expense of theirs. Another example of that occurred recently, when a piece of property was purchased in Powdersville, without a formal vote of Council. Preston’s explanation that the property was included in a 2004 general obligations bond issue is less than solid; but the majority of Council would rather accept whatever he says at face value than to ask any serious questions. That property was cleverly, and appropriately, named after Dolly Cooper, local politician and civic leader who is fully deserving of the honor. However, there is no record of any vote taken by council to bestow that honor. In fact, several council members have confirmed that no such vote was taken. One member, Larry Greer, on a recent morning talk radio show, went so far as to confirm that he was polled by telephone as to his support of the park’s naming. For the record, polling is strictly prohibited by the Freedom of Information Act. Polling constitutes an illegal action. Mr. Preston, after 18 years as a county administrator, should certainly know that. Every member of County Council should certainly know that. Mr. Preston acted improperly in polling the Council members; and, additionally, apparently polled only those whose vote he could presume. Councilwoman Cindy Wilson wasn’t contacted. Councilman Bill McAbee says Mr. Preston simply told him the park would be named after Cooper. Herein lies the difference between blame and responsibility. You can blame Mr. Preston for that action, but it is the County Council’s responsibility. When contacted, each Council member should have pointed out the illegality of the vote, and required that it be done in the proper setting; that of a legally convened meeting of the Anderson County Council. Seems to me, they should still do it that way, if they want to truly honor Mr. Cooper.
Preston deposition - better than football? By Stan Welch I hope you all had a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday. I did, and so did my family. The only danger we were in was the danger of death by calorie, or possible blindness from staring ceaselessly at football games. Personally, I found something even more entertaining than football. I spent a few hours reading a copy of the latest in a series of Joey Preston depositions. This one was taken in connection with the current writ of mandamus suit brought by Councilwoman Cindy Wilson in her efforts to achieve access to otherwise ordinarily accessible public records. There is an article related to this elsewhere in this issue of The Journal. The history of this bitter and absurdly expensive struggle between Wilson and Preston has been covered by this paper before, so I won’t belabor it again. I must say, however, that for sheer entertainment, a Joey Preston deposition is hard to beat. I have been in Anderson County for a little over a year now; I have been a working journalist covering county government for most of that time. It took far less time than that to realize that Mr. Preston is a very bright and shrewd person, with an extraordinary need for both the spotlight and control of virtually everything that goes on in his administration. Interestingly, those are the very attributes that make his depositions so fascinating to read. I have read four different Preston depositions so far; if I hang around for any length of time, I expect I’ll get to read others. Mr. Preston doesn’t go very long without becoming involved in one legal wrangle or another. It’s a wonder he can afford all the lawyers’ fees. As stated, Mr. Preston has an undeniable need to be the center of attention. Just check the County website. Mr. Preston jumps in front of a camera like a war hero dives on a grenade, without hesitation or thought for his own safety. As is often the case in personalities that crave attention and acclamation, the skin grows thin from trying to contain an outsized ego. It takes very little to insult Mr. Preston, and only slightly more to evoke a litigious response. If the insult can be presented as having been inflicted on Preston the public official, all the better. The billing for the lawyers becomes simple and painless. The timetable for reaching a legal conclusion becomes open ended. The most remarkable thing about the Preston depositions is the flexibility and convenience of the otherwise remarkable Preston memory. To watch Mr. Preston in Council meetings, one cannot help but be impressed by his photographic recollections of the events in any particular situation. Oh, he often prefers to have various department heads or staff members respond; but like the attorneys he spends so much time with, he knows better than to ask any question to which he doesn’t already know the answer. In anyone else, his demure deference to subordinates, such as Tom Martin, Jeff Ricketson, or Gina Humphries, would be taken as modesty, rather than subterfuge. Yet in deposition, Mr. Preston is frequently vague or unable to recall the most germane events in question. This tendency to opacity of memory first appears in the Preston deposition taken during the legal wrangling related to the sale of the Big Creek Landfill to Allied Waste Inc. His memory of that transaction and the events surrounding it, and that of Mr. Claude Graham, also under oath at the time, are noteworthy for their selective vagueness. Mr. Preston cannot recall the specifics of the host fee that reimburses Anderson County for allowing the regional landfill to locate there; the fact that he is responsible for making sure the County is fairly and fully compensated under that arrangement seems of little concern. Even more remarkably, Mr. Graham doesn’t even remember the terms of the royalty agreement under which he is paid for each ton of garbage entering the landfill. He must be a very trusting fellow. In his most recent deposition, taken after months of delaying tactics by Preston and his lawyer, Preston concedes that the main reason for the delays Wilson endures in receiving the weekly reports of the County’s expenditures is that he wants time to review them, so he can prepare for whatever Wilson “is going to throw at us next.” He goes on to say that Wilson attacks the County’s ( in other words, his) administration and that the majority of Council considers her an adversary. This consensus was apparently reached outside the aegis of a legally convened meeting, since a thorough review of Council minutes reveals no such official position. It is apparently based on Wilson’s obvious distrust and disapproval of Preston’s administration of the County government. Apparently, anything less than lockstep approval constitutes open rebellion, and justifies open resistance to what is a duly constituted authority. That Preston considers Wilson an adversary is clear to anyone who attends more than three Council meetings a year. In more than two decades of covering government bodies, I have never seen such an unrelenting animosity between a hired employee and elected official. Given this relentless personal acrimony, perhaps Preston’s statements admitting that he has purposely delayed the release of public records to an elected public official lose some of their impact. They shouldn’t. For a county employee to admit purposefully interfering with an elected official in the performance of their duties is a serious matter; in the private sector, it would cost Preston his job in short order. It seems to me that an elected Council which would condone such behavior should answer a few questions itself. I swear it does. Except for Preston’s constant efforts to keep the Council placated, it surely would have acted to end this senseless standoff by now. Wouldn’t they? Thanksgiving By Stan Welch Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times, as it is for many people. For one thing, I love the fall, with its crisp cold days and its northerly breezes that warn us all of things to come. I love it because it’s hunting season, and because college football and basketball overlap, doubling my pleasure. I love it because I like to eat, and drink and make merry. I like a good time and I like good friends, and the holidays provide plenty of both. The list of things for which I give thanks extends both forward from the present, and back into my past. First, I am thankful for my son, and the man he is becoming. I am thankful that he will carry the family name forward for at least one more generation. I am thankful for a family that has been ever supportive, taking that gift to new levels in recent times. Even though I am the prettiest, they still stand by me, and that’s pretty special. I am thankful for my latest birthday, and while I will not go into details, I will say I never expected to live this long. As my dear old Dad said to me on my 35th birthday, “Son, every day you live from here on out is a day stolen.” Believe it or not, I used to be a pretty adventurous and reckless guy. I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that I saw the Grand Canyon when I was young enough to hike it. Ditto for the Arcadian Seaside and Nova Scotia and the Petrified Forest and the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Outer Banks and the Rockies and the Oregon coast. I’m grateful for my adventures in California, and Texas, and Maine and Florida. I’m thankful for friends in Virginia, and Georgia and Kentucky and North Carolina. I’m thankful for the snowplow driver who found me along I-40 in Nebraska after a blue norther stranded me in a culvert for two days. I’ve never been so cold before or since. I’ve never worn so many clothes at once either. I’m thankful for the miles I’ve covered and the people I’ve met as I’ve traveled through all 48 contiguous states, and a couple of nearby countries. I’m thankful for the tolerance it taught me and for the perspective it gave me. I’m thankful I survived it all; despite being beaten and robbed a couple of times, and cursed and shot at just for looking like I did. I’m thankful some people can’t hit a barn with a twelve gauge, and thankful that I can. I’m thankful for the friends I’ve made and for the enemies, as well. A man should be known by both. I’m especially thankful for the four or five true friends I have been lucky enough to accumulate in the last thirty five years, and for a couple of new ones who show real potential. I’m thankful for the beautiful women I’ve known, and for the others who made me appreciate them all the more. I know how what sounds and I’m thankful I live in a country where I can still say something that isn’t all sweet and soft. I’m thankful that I have experienced reality and not reality TV. I’m thankful that I’m Southern, with all that means. I just can’t imagine being from or in any other part of the country. Even when I was always traveling, I always knew my way home. I’m thankful for the folks who are serving overseas so that we and other people can be free. I wish them all well and a safe holiday. Remember what Edward R. Murrow said in his famous broadcast that ended Joe McCarthy’s reign of terror. “We cannot defend liberty abroad by abandoning it at home.” Hold tight to your sincere beliefs, but allow others to do the same without being demonized or ridiculed. That way, seems to me we can all have something to be thankful for next year. Have a safe holiday.
Political apathy By Stan Welch It seems to me that an awful lot of folks reacted to my little seminar on management in last week’s column. Actually, I wrote it as an allegory directed specifically at certain unspecified alleged behavior by certain public officials and employees. All last week, however, people from all over the county and its various municipalities assumed I was talking about their public officials. “Man, you really put it on Mayor So and So” or “I bet the administrator hated to see that” or “Boy, Councilperson Whatsis must be mad at you.” I mention this to point out that a great many people in this county seem to have a natural distrust of their elected and hired officials, at every level of government. Americans have always been distrustful of their representatives: it’s a major reason why we have a Constitution designed to keep governmental at arm’s length as much as possible. It’s why we have a redress of grievances and recalls and referendums and all those other ways for the public to be involved in and influence their government. Americans have always trusted those who trust us; those who live lives similar enough to ours so that we can assume some level of shared experience. Poll numbers reflect nothing of reality. They reflect only what people are willing to say when asked a question by a perfect stranger. Yet these are the numbers by which today’s talk show conjurers, our political website necromancers, choose the direction of the nation’s future. Special interests consistently take precedence over our interests. Lobbyists work the halls of the State House and The U.S. Congress like hookers work the street corners in DC. Is there any wonder that more and more Americans feel increasingly disconnected from their own government; more distrustful of not just the government’s intentions, but its ability to effectively serve its citizens, even assuming that it has good intentions? The American political system is the finest in the world, the model to which millions aspire. It provides freedom for its citizens, freedom to speak their minds and criticize their government; freedom to worship or not to worship as they please; the freedom from oppression by military dictators who usurp the military to enforce their own wills. Five years ago, when Al Gore challenged the results of Florida’s presidential ballots, he didn’t mount that challenge from the turret of a tank. He mounted his challenge in the courts, and when the courts spoke, he accepted that decision and retreated from the field of battle. The greatest position of power on earth was surrendered peacefully because for two hundred years that is how we have transferred power; not at gunpoint, but with the winner taking an oath to protect and defend the very document that defined his victory, even if it should one day define his defeat. These freedoms and protections were brilliantly woven into the fabric of this nation more than two hundred years ago. But there is a catch. None of it is worth a bucket of warm spit by itself. Fine words and brilliant concepts are useless as theories; their value exists only in their consistent and enthusiastic application. How has this country come to the point where the most creative and dynamic blueprint for freedom ever devised has become so boring, so unworthy of interest, that less than 50% of eligible voters routinely participate in elections? Last week’s column, couched in the most general terms, served to make people of all walks and at all levels of political involvement think that it was their local officials who were being targeted. Clearly, there is a general discontent with the local political scene; yet when elections roll around again, the turnout will again represent less than one half of those eligible to vote. In Iraq recently, people stood in line to vote despite the crash of bombs and the rattle of small arms fire. They dipped their thumbs in purple ink, voted, and proudly showed their stained thumbs to the world. For the first time in over a quarter century, their votes counted; they were real and they made a difference. No matter how you may feel about the current situation in Iraq, those pictures had to stir the soul of anyone who loves freedom. The Iraqi and American blood spilt to bring those elections about, at the very least, was not squandered. Meanwhile, here in America, apathy continues to politely hold the door for incompetence and corruption to enter the halls of government; and again and again the genius of our founders is squandered by those who have so quickly become spoiled by the freedoms they enjoy. It is nothing less than a national shame.
Seems to me .
. . By Stan Welch In the world of business management, there are many theories as to what makes a successful manager. Some theories stress the level of the manager’s education and training; some stress business acumen, and some stress what is known as people skills. You can argue and opine and pontificate about what makes a good manager, but in the end it comes down to this: a good manager makes it possible for those he supervises to succeed. Now, that simple statement can mean a lot of different things. It could mean obtaining the most up to date equipment needed by those the manager oversees. It might mean providing the very latest and most complete training to master the skills needed by those the manager oversees. It could, and often does, mean both in today’s modern era of management by program. But it can mean other things as well. For example, it can mean keeping a department head or supervisor’s duties and responsibilities clear and easy to fulfill. It can mean offering plain and simple guidance that allows the subordinate to succeed by understanding what is required of him or her. If a department head’s duties are to make sure that every person in his department can run a copier, that should be stated plainly; if half the department should also be able to use a calculator, that needs to be made clear as well. If that is not stated, how can anyone be held responsible when the requirements aren’t met? They can’t. But such clear cut statements of responsibility aren’t always about simple technical aspects of the job. There are other standards that are just as important; standards of personal and professional behavior that must be established and met if the subordinates are to have a chance to succeed at their jobs. These standards must begin at the top of the management chain and exist at every level, or else the chain of responsibility is broken and ceases to function. Soon, no standards exist at all. So it is one of the most essential skills of the successful manager to set and maintain a sense of accountability among his subordinates, and they among theirs. This essential skill becomes even more important as the size of the business or organization increases, and the distance between subordinate and superior naturally increases as layers of management are added. How important is this chain of accountability? Let’s see. In most situations, the rules of the workplace state that taking office supplies home is grounds for reprimand, and possibly even dismissal. Those rules make sense; to have a thief in your department can’t possibly cause anything but trouble. But what if the department head habitually takes a handful of pens, or a ream of copy paper home for his or her own use? How can that rule be enforced against subordinates if the superior authority breaks the rule without remorse or consequence? The simple answer is that it can’t. What if several subordinates routinely steal office supplies, doing so openly and indiscreetly? This almost certainly will lead to friction with other, more principled employees, who will object to the theft because it is wrong; and because human nature makes us resent seeing someone else get away with something we would be punished for. Now, suppose that those stealing have higher positions of authority than those who choose to report the misconduct? Suppose further that the honest employees report the thefts, and are punished by the thieves for their conduct? At this point, morale and professionalism are headed south at a high rate of speed. Who will investigate the complaints, the department head who thinks nothing of taking a few legal pads or a toner cartridge home for himself? How can such an investigation be seen as anything but a joke and a sham? Morale and professionalism just crossed the border, and they may not be coming back. This manager, regardless of how cool the equipment is, or how well trained its operators are, has failed his department and his superior, by allowing not only improper conduct, but the existence of a double standard within his area of responsibility. Few things are as certain to poison a working environment as the venoms of lack of accountability and double standards. Seems to me the first thing that will be necessary to repair the damage done is the removal of the manager. Even then, recovery will be slow and difficult. This ends our seminar on management techniques 101.
Soccer fields and sewer lines By Stan Welch There are various angles and aspects of life that catch the eye, like light and shadow in a photograph or painting; aspects that illuminate and define the events that make up our day to day lives. Contrasts do not occur only in terms of shadow and light; they occur in many areas, both subtle and flagrant. They can occur in ways artistic and mundane; sacred and secular. Sometimes their various facets occur simultaneously. These, to a reporter, are often the most fascinating of all. This past Monday, for the second time in two weeks, County Administrator Joey Preston assembled not just a dozen staff members, but the members of a long established, prominent family in Powdersville, to announce yet another major project in the area. Last week, it was the announcement of a new library, EMS facility, magistrate’s court, building and codes office, and treasurer’s office for the northeastern part of Anderson County. The Cely family was rightfully honored for not just this particular contribution to the Powdersville area, but for generations of service to and participation in the area’s life. This week, it was the announcement that 47+ acres purchased in April, without specific approval by the County Council, had been designated as the Dolly Cooper Park. Again, the contributions of Mr. Cooper and his family to the area are well documented, just as the honor is well deserved. The park, located on a parcel of land which cost in excess of $525,000, will reportedly include a recycling and education center, ball fields, and soccer fields, as well as a creative and innovative storm water plan. That plan will be sorely needed, since the land in question sits right alongside the Saluda River and currently drains vertically into it. Among several interesting aspects of this particular project is the fact that the park was named for the father of the state representative who procured a $250,000 state PRT grant to aid in developing the park. Dan Cooper, son of Dolly Cooper, chairs the ways and means committee for the state House of Representatives. He promises that additional funding will be made available for the park’s future development. Perhaps most interesting about the announcements over the last two weeks is the fact that they represent the allocation of millions of dollars to the Powdersville area to construct a library and a magistrate’s court and soccer fields and a recycling center. These are all valid projects; a couple may be a little less than urgently needed, but not blatantly so. I personally consider a convenient library to be a vital asset to any community. Of course, if I had a choice between potable water or a sewer line that worked, and a handy soccer field, the choice becomes a little more clouded. The point I’m trying to make is this. Bill Dees’s district just received a commitment for millions of dollars of state and county money for the projects mentioned above. In the years since she was elected, Cindy Wilson’s District 7, on the other hand, has had to beg and scratch, and too often do without. In recent months, observers of County Council and county government, have watched as Wilson has asked for such wildly extravagant items as matching funds for a federal grant that would upgrade West Pelzer’s water system, possibly to the point that people at the end of the existing lines could take a reasonable shower. To obtain those funds, Wilson was forced to spend paving funds that should have gone elsewhere. Other Council members routinely obtain those funds from other sources. Wilson, because of her long standing challenges to and criticisms of, Preston’s administration of county business, is denied access to those sources. Preston cannot be held solely accountable for Wilson’s woes, however. To begin with, her questioning of Preston’s performance and behavior is relentless and inevitably irritating to its object. A drum banged relentlessly eventually offends even those who have no other reason to dread its sound. Human nature being what it is, it cannot be a surprise that Wilson’s requests are often lost in the echoes of her attacks on Preston. Still, the struggle between Wilson and Preston continues to occupy center stage, and to prevent the citizens of southern Anderson County from receiving a fair return on their taxes, for one reason above all others. Seems to me, that reason is the failure of the majority of County Council to resolve issues instead of placating Preston and frustrating Wilson. I’m not just talking about a lack of leadership; I’m talking about a lack of courage to address the issues that matter to the people of Anderson County. Wilson, in recent weeks, also sought to obtain a measly $10,000 in county funds to pay for a feasibility study for a proposed sewer line that would significantly benefit practically every town in the southern end of the county. Three times she tried to bring the question to the floor; three times she couldn’t even get a second for her motion, to allow for discussion of the request. Let me repeat that. A motion to discuss a proposal for a waste water treatment alternative that would benefit thousands of Anderson C ounty citizens was denied an open hearing by a majority of the County Council elected to represent and assist those people. Now, if you need more contrast between public duty and political inertia than that to understand how things are going in Anderson County right now, call Joey Preston, Dan Cooper, or any County Councilman and ask them. Tropical storm Stan By Stan Welch Let me say right up front that I’m probably the only person in America, except for the Home Depot management team, who is hoping for just one more hurricane this year. Like the Home Depot team, my reasons are purely selfish, although my motivation is not greed. My motivation is to have a once in a lifetime experience; that of having a hurricane named after me. Okay, so it won’t be named after me, but it will be named the same as me. As tropical storm Rita (at least at the time this column is being written) moves towards the Florida Keys, my attention is on the several other tropical disturbances that are lined up across the Atlantic basin. One of those little darlings just may have my name on it. Now, let’s be clear. I just want Stan to become a minimal hurricane and then wander around out in the open seas for a day or two before falling apart and disappearing from the radar screens. I don’t even care if it gets anyone else’s attention but mine. In fact, I don’t want any more storms to make landfall this year, and certainly not in the U.S. We have all we can say grace over right now. I just want, after spending a fair part of my life living in hurricane country, to have one share my name. I have always been fascinated and attracted by storms, even summertime thunder boomers. The anticipation, the excitement, the thrill of seeing nature at her wildest; these things have always struck a chord in me. Nevertheless, I never really approved of the decision to include men’s names in the list for potential storms each year. I personally think storms should be named after women; but that may just be an overreaction to my own life experiences. Still, as long as the decision has been made, Stan is as good a name as any. To have a storm named Stan would add to a list of special experiences in my life. I am a fairly serious sports fan, except for my unflinching belief that playing hockey in any state where ponds don’t naturally freeze ever is a crime against nature. So a number of my lifetime highlights have involved sports. By the way, son, your birth will always be at the top of that highlight list, even if Stan makes the grade. I have attended a World Series game, although the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Braves that night. I was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics two days after the bomb went off in the park. In fact, I was in that same park, listening to Ray Charles sing ‘Georgia’ and ‘America’ live. If another bomb had gone off, it would have been worth it. Ray Charles was the man. By the way, son, this was the only highlight that even challenged for the top spot. I was at the 1991 ACC basketball tournament, when Duke, with Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner, demolished UNC in the finals. I still have attending a Final Four, a Super Bowl and the Masters on my list of things to do, but having a hurricane named Stan is an even slimmer chance than getting tickets to those events. For starters, if it happens, Stan will be named storm number 19 this year, an extraordinary number. Just getting to this point in the alphabet is tough enough. But this is the first time that Stan has been the assigned name since men’s names were included. Who knows how long it will be before this noble, but scarce name is chosen again? By the way, to all you hard heads who just refuse to believe that man’s actions can affect the planet’s ecology and climate, you might want to just consider the fact that you are wrong, wrong, wrong! According to all the science conducted by real scientists and not those funded by big business, we are in fact changing the planet’s climate, and the recent spike in the number of named storms, as well as the increase in the power of the storms, is just beginning. It seems to me that it is pretty short sighted and borderline ignorant to refuse to acknowledge that the tripling of the human population over the last 75 years may be changing the equation that has existed between the planet’s ability to adapt to man and man’s ability to alter the planet. It seems to me that it’s pretty obvious that our continued frenzied use of fossil fuels, with their resulting increase in greenhouse gases, is causing global temperatures to rise. It also seems to me that it’s time that the nations of this planet, including super consumer, the United States, do something about this problem. But could we hold off for just a few days, until Stan gets his act together? Accountabililty in government By Stan Welch I don’t know how many of you remember former U.S. Congressman John Jenrette. He was the Congressman who was caught in the huge FBI sting known as Operation Lost Trust back in the early ‘90’s. Old John, as they still call him down on the coast, where he was from, was filmed accepting a bribe from an undercover federal agent. To make it worse, old John was heard to say on the tap, “I’ve got larceny in my heart.” Of course, the folks back home already knew that. It didn’t bother them much. John had a few other problems, as well as a low standard of professional and personal behavior. He also had a wife name Rita who eventually posed for Playboy and told the world that she and John had once made love on the Capitol Building steps. But back home, old John could have laid low a few years, and mended a few fences, and probably been gotten back into politics, at least at the state level. The saying heard most often down around Florence and Myrtle Beach and Georgetown was, “Well, he’s a crook, but he’s our crook.” And to tell the truth, old John, like so many Lowcountry boys before him, really brought home the bacon. And isn’t that what we elect politicians for? Isn’t that why Strom Thurmond was returned to the Senate more often than a bad steak is returned to the kitchen? But old John was into the single malt scotch pretty good by then, and he still believed he was basically bulletproof. One day, he was in a K Mart and saw a pair of shoes that he apparently just had to have, so he shoplifted them. Well, once again, he got caught with larceny in his heart. This time, the folks back home had had enough. This time, old John had let his standards fall too far. I mean, shoplifting from K Mart? This time, he had embarrassed the home folks, and he was no longer even a fairy tail figure in state politics. One of the true good old boys in South Carolina politics had bitten the dust. South Carolina was once famous for its good old boy politics; some people say it still is. But the truth is that good old boys have been replaced by professional managers and administrators, as a result of home rule which was supposedly intended to remove undue political influence and mutual back scratching from the governmental process. In many ways, it has accomplished that goal; in many ways it has not. It sometimes seems that elected officials use home rule as an excuse to perform their duties as nonchalantly and conveniently as possible, while letting their top bureaucrat assume the real responsibility for the daily operations of the town, city, county or whatever political division might be involved. The rationale behind home rule is essentially that the elected authority should provide guidance and vision, while the bureaucracy handles the nuts and bolts operations of government. In other words, government can theoretically be performed in a professional manner. Theories are really cool things, but they are a lot like cultures grown under lab conditions; they don’t survive long in the real world. The problem is that it is very difficult to separate day to day achievement from the implementation of the political and social vision. It is critical that elected officials maintain control of the bureaucracy, in order that progress towards the vision is both sustained and sustainable. The problem, it seems to me, arises when the governing council begins to depend too much on the bureaucracy, when they surrender too much of their authority, when they begin to see their responsibilities in a different light. Most councils meet twice a month, at the most. In small towns and rural counties, they often meet just once. So by the calendar, they are exercising their authority 1/15th to 1/30th as often as their head bureaucrat. Whose vision is more likely to become reality? Home rule was established because local politicians had too much influence, were too easily corrupted, were too frequently found stashed comfortably in the pockets of special interests, and too seldom labored in the service of the people who elected them. But the key was the fact that they were elected; they were in fact accountable. It was obviously possible to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters, but it was a lot harder to fool all them than to fool a simple majority of a given governing body, many of whose members consider their continued reelection as a perfectly valid primary pursuit. It seems to me, as so often happens in government, and especially in efforts to reform government, the pendulum has swung a little too far. Public accountability must apply to the implementers of the vision, as well as to those who allegedly provide that vision. Home rule is a methodology of elected government, not a substitute for it As we have seen in recent weeks, along the Gulf Coast, the people expect certain things from those they elect to represent them, as well as those they hire to serve them. High on that list of expectations is that their officials will be actively engaged in the process of government that they will seek to serve their constituents. Elected officials cannot abrogate their responsibilities to paid employees without facing certain political consequences. Not all those consequences result from one’s behavior in the local K Mart. Hurricane Katrina By Stan Welch What a lovely name – Katrina. It conjures images of a yellow haired young girl on a porch swing, or a dark haired beauty in a ball gown. Now, it will forever be associated with horror and chaos on a scale that was only imagined before Katrina visited the Gulf Coast. Are you tired of the images yet, the endless stream of terrible scenes, with crying children, floating corpses, ruined homes? Of course you are. The human mind doesn’t enjoy constant exposure to proof of our own frailty. But indulge me for just a few minutes more, as I offer a few thoughts about this whole tragic and disastrous time. I first present my credentials to offer these opinions. I have lived along one of the Carolina coasts or the other for ¾ of my life, both as adult and child. I have seen Gracie and Donna and Hugo and Floyd, and you name it. I have ridden out storms in houses on Folly Beach and hosted hurricane parties in Garden City. Once I got a little older and wiser, I learned when to run for higher ground. I was in Charleston two days after Hugo, and I saw incredible scenes of destruction that had been unrivaled until this week. I have cooked a thousand meals over sterno or on a Coleman stove. I’ve bought ice and frozen bottles of water and used enough batteries to fill a cargo container. Accept these credentials or not. To those many people who I hear saying, “Well, they should have gotten out”, I’d like to say, if you have never faced that choice, then shut up. To leave one’s home and all that is in it, even if you are financially and physically able to, is a wrenching and difficult decision. Clearly, thousands of those who were trapped in New Orleans were neither financially nor physically able to retreat from Katrina’s threat. To those, like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who are always looking for some evidence that blacks are still systematically victimized by America, again, I’d like to say shut up. Let one of your tax free organizations write a big old fat relief check and send it to the Red Cross. See if you can live two weeks without being on television. This is in no way intended to restrict the right of anyone to express their opinions. But Jackson and Sharpton and Kanye West, the rapper who lost it on the hurricane relief concert this week, are doing nothing but drawing attention to themselves, and dividing a nation that needs desperately to pull together for the next several months. Whether or not the poor and largely black population that was trapped in the city was trapped by a social and economic system that keeps them poor can be debated by the sociologists and other talking heads later. People of all colors and all social levels are hurting along the Gulf Coast, hurting terribly. It seems to me that now is not the time to discuss the status of social justice in America; it’s time to get some water and food and chain saws and tents to Biloxi and Pass Christian and Ward 9 in New Orleans. Mr. West, you look like a strong, healthy young man. Why don’t you spend a couple weeks down there unloading supplies and clearing debris. See first hand, if you can, the racism you claim is influencing the relief efforts. This I can say without fear of contradiction. Several members of my family and I put some money together and managed to buy a few hundred dollars worth of supplies, supplies that we all know from experience will be useful. A local businessman was sending a trailer down to deliver the supplies. All in all, I would guess that several thousand dollars worth of materials were sent, and not one item had “For Whites Only” written on it. We weren’t sending help to white Americans or even Southern Americans. We were sending help to our countrymen and to humans in need. For anyone, especially men with a pulpit as visible as Jackson and Sharpton to infer that there is any racism involved in how the situation was handled is insulting and divisive and self-serving to the point of ignorance. I didn’t notice Houston or San Antonio or Dallas saying they had plenty of shelter for white folks, but not for anyone else. One last point. Can we just drop all this talk of whether New Orleans should be rebuilt or not. New Orleans is a wonderful city, unique and dazzling, a special symbol of our history. But New Orleans is also the largest seaport in America, at the mouth of the largest river in America. The Mississippi River is still the great artery of commerce through America’s heartland. To abandon New Orleans is to abandon that artery. It will not happen. The American economy could not survive if it did happen. So let’s put the experts to work figuring put how to do the job right this time, and quit spending energy debating the point. Seems to me there’re plenty of other things to spend the energy on. Mind your own business By Stan Welch There are some things in this world that I couldn’t care less about. I really mean that. I could not care less. For example, I could not care less what church you go to. I could not care less what kind of car you drive or who you root for to win the NASCAR race on Sunday. Those just aren’t things that are any of my business; and believe it or not, when I’m not reporting, I pretty much mind my own business. As a matter of fact, I’m such a fan of people minding their own business I think it was the eleventh commandment. Maybe Moses dropped those heavy tablets on the way down the mountain and knocked the bottom off one of them. I can’t swear to it, but it sure seems to me like the world would be a lot better place if we all just minded our own business. But there is one thing that does bother me, and it’s starting to bother me more and more. That something is not new; it raised its ugly and empty head more than a decade ago. It is political correctness, or what I call the death of the American sense of humor. The sense of humor is of course the greatest gift man has; the one thing that sets him apart from all other creatures. I know, I hear a lot of you already shouting about the human spirit being the thing that sets us apart: I would not argue, because I see them as the same thing. If the soul is the divine spark within man, laughter is the reflection of that spark. The ability to laugh, and more importantly, to laugh at oneself has long been the defining trait of the American people. It pains me to see us losing that trait, to see us becoming more and more self-righteous and easily offended. To me, that inability to see the humor of our own flaws and foibles says worlds about us. First and foremost, it says that we really lack confidence in ourselves; that we are afraid the truth will come out and we will be found lacking by those whose opinions we value. Whether we should value those opinions is an entirely different question. I have often wondered why we spend so much time and energy trying to impress so many people, instead of doing what we think is right and letting the chips fall where they will. As my dear old Papa Carl used to say, “Son, don’t worry about what people think ‘cause 95% of them don’t.” I have found that to be true; if anything, Papa Carl was generous in his estimate. How else could you explain the recent fuss by the NCAA over the use of Indian (that’s feather, not red dot) mascots? That’s right, the NCAA, an organization which has no problems with the exploitation every year of thousands of semi-educated black teenagers in order to fill stadiums and arenas, is concerned that American Indians are offended by the use of nicknames such as the Warriors, the Redskins, The Indians, the Tribe, or the Seminoles; which by the way isn’t even a nickname. That’s the name of the tribe, which, also by the way, has said for years that they don’t mind the use of their name by the Florida State athletic teams. Of course, that might change if Bobby Bowden goes 8-4 a couple of years in a row. Oops, sorry. Wrong Bowden. What really puzzles me, aside from the spectacle of the NCAA trying to act as the agent for social change, with their plantation mentality, is the fact that apparently Native Americans (I knew if I kept trying I’d get the right term) have nothing better to be upset about than the use of nicknames. Let’s see. Several hundred years ago, the first white men came from Europe and landed on America’s beaches. Of course, back then it wasn’t called America. It was probably called the land of the really free. Anyway, these white folks, with their organized ways and superior airs, and, oh yeah, their firearms, immediately began trying to push the red man plumb off the planet. It was obvious a much better use could be made of the land by the Europeans than by the aborigines. And you thought the Supreme Court were the first ones to make that kind of land grab? Anyway, after suffering the Trail of Tears’, the relocation of the Cherokees from the green mountains of the South to the flat and grassy plains of the Indian Territories; the use of smallpox infected blankets by whites in an attempt to wipe out their people (germ warfare has been around longer than you might think); the repeated breaking of treaties by the white man; the massacres at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, where women, children and toothless old men were driven from their tipis and slaughtered; despite the fact that thousands of their people live in hopeless poverty on reservations even today: after all this, the noble red man is ticked off by Newberry College calling its team the Indians. Boy, nothing gets the blood flowing like some good old righteous indignation, does it? Thank goodness the NCAA has their back. That’s just the latest example of the PC epidemic. Political correctness is bad enough when it’s something stupid like Italian Americans protesting Italian stereotypes in Mafia movies. But it is at its worst when it actually tries to revise, to rewrite, to sanitize history to suit its own tender feelings. Let me give you an example. This took place several years ago, in Richmond Virginia. Ever heard of it? It used to be the Capitol of the Confederacy. By the way, what a dumb choice that was. All that did was make old Bobby Lee spend the whole war trying to keep his army between Richmond and whoever the Yankee flavor of the month was. If the Capitol had been in Raleigh or Memphis or Macon, so Bobby could turn his boys loose for about three months, we’d all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew. But I digress, though not far. Bobby Lee is the topic of this final lecture on political correctness. In Richmond, Virginia, in the historic district of the town, a large and splendid mural of Gen. Robert E. Lee once graced the wall of one of the old warehouses down there. A few years ago, the African American community decided it was offended by the image of General Lee on such a visible and prominent wall, and they began a campaign to remove it. Now this was a man who gave his entire life to the state he loved. He turned down supreme command of the Union Army to return to her defense. Washington and Lee University bears his name, and rightly so. He was its president for a number of years following the war. But never mind those facts. Never mind that the only two reasons anyone even goes to Richmond anymore is because it’s on the way to Washington DC, and to experience some historical perspective on the War Between the States. No sir, some sensitive folks had become offended and Bobby Lee had to go. If history offends us today, we feel free to simply alter or ignore it. Heaven forbid that we actually examine it, perhaps learn from it. It is much easier to erase it. But, as I said, Robert E. Lee had to go. His time was over in the city he fought so hard to defend. And, due to the cowardice of the Richmond City Council, go he did. And while I’m sure Richmond is a better place for it, all I can say to those who shamed themselves and Bobby Lee’s memory through their narrow-minded, self-centered behavior is “Mind your own business.” Small towns and sewer By Stan Welch As most of you know, I haven’t been around here for long. But I have learned a few things, and one of them is that the three small towns that lie within a mile or so of each can be pretty possessive of their territory, both geographically and politically. Yessir, if you’re going to hang around Pelzer and West Pelzer, you better know where one starts and the other stops, because if you say you’re in Pelzer when you’re not, somebody is going to explain that to you real quick. On top of that, Williamston has their own civic pride, and they aren’t shy about explaining that to you, either. That’s what made a meeting I attended Monday morning all the more remarkable. Present at that meeting were the mayors of Williamston and West Pelzer, Phillip Clardy and Peggy Paxton, along with West Pelzer Councilwoman Maida Kelly. Honea Path Mayor E.L. Meyers was on hand, along with his town administrator Rusty Burns. District 7 Councilwoman Cindy Wilson was there, also. They were all there on a common mission, to pitch a sewer plan to Congressman Gresham Barrett, who met with them to see what they had to say. Now this sewer plan is a very attractive proposition (see related story elsewhere in this issue), promising as it does to solve some very significant waste water problems for the three towns. The cost of the ten mile line has not been precisely calculated yet, but is estimated in the $11-12 million range, hardly exorbitant in this day of million dollars a mile roadways. The plan is to run lines from Pelzer and West Pelzer to Williamston, then on to Honea Path, where the new lines will hook up with Honea Path’s system. From there, the lines already run to the Ware Shoals treatment plant, which just happens to have 7 million gallons per day of additional capacity, since the large industrial plant it was built to serve has closed. The three towns all face substantial expenses in the next year or two in order to comply with DHEC regulations for wastewater treatment. The two smaller towns could face $2-3 million apiece, while Williamston could face up to $5 million in expenditures. Honea Path would benefit because its costs might come down even further if the Ware Shoals plant ran at anything approaching capacity. Let’s put it this way. The amounts involved were more than sufficient to get these neighbors talking to each other over the back fence. They chatted, then they sat down and had tea, and started really talking this thing over. It’s almost like three neighbors deciding to put all their stuff together and have one giant yard sale, instead of three little ones. Like I said, there are a lot of good points to this plan. One is that the lines can follow the road right of way almost all the way, making access to potential users much easier, and avoiding many of the environmental and regulatory troubles which have plagued the Beaverdam project. Construction of such a major utility lifeline along existing roads would allow real opportunities for economic development, regardless of who recruited it. The plan isn’t without problems, however. One of the three towns, West Pelzer, is under a consent order which is literally choking the town to death. As a result of years of indifference and inaction by previous administrations, the town is prohibited by DHEC Consent Order to build anything other than an occasional single family dwelling, due to the complete lack of additional sewer capacity. The CVS pharmacy and the KFC restaurant received special exemptions, but other residential and industrial opportunities have gone by the wayside in recent years. According to recently published reports, unfortunately, the county administration, or at least the county administrator, favors dealing with Western Carolina Regional Water and Sewer; which has West Pelzer currently under contract to soon begin receiving water from them and returning waste water to them for treatment. However, it appears that the expense to the customers will be much greater under the Western Carolina contract. In fact, a review of numbers comparing the costs which West Pelzer will face, compared to those currently faced by Honea Path, is startling as to the amount of the difference. For example, Honea Path water customers currently pay $3.51 per thousand gallons for sewer service. The town doesn’t pay that; the town charges that to individual customers. However, under the Western Carolina contract, the town of West Pelzer may pay twice that amount, or $7.00 per thousand gallons before marking it up to their customers in order to pay operating costs for the system. Those are pretty amazing numbers. But even they don’t tell the whole story. What the new plan really offers that is most attractive to all the towns involved is the chance to get out of the water and sewer business. The cost and administrative heartburn that comes with running a small town water and sewer system is enormous, and constantly growing. Regulations and testing requirements and billing headaches and all the other details are almost always more trouble than they’re worth. Cut out the politics for once, and let simple economics rule the day. For these three towns to simultaneously get the chance to rid themselves of those concerns is a rare opportunity, and one that certainly bears further investigation. It seems to me, as Congressman Barrett said, “It’s a no brainer.” Considering politics By Stan Welch I have been giving a great deal of thought to a possible political career. I look around me and see problems that we must solve, issues that we must address. And I think that perhaps I have something to offer. I realize I face a tremendous challenge, especially since I plan to make my first campaign a campaign for the Presidency of the United States. As enticing as membership on the Anderson County Council might be, that position simply won’t provide enough raw power for the goals I have in mind. While I know most people don’t consider the Presidency as an entry level job, that didn’t stop Ross Perot or Steven Forbes from running, and to tell the truth, I’m no nuttier than those two. Besides, I believe that my platform has a much broader appeal than either of theirs did. I sense a strong willingness among the American people to get behind my ideas. For example, if elected, I will immediately introduce and support legislation to require the standardization of all remote controls. That’s right, folks! Imagine a country where the mute button is in the same location on every remote you pick up. No more fumbling for the previous channel; it’ll be right where it was at your brother in law’s house when you were over watching the game last week. Business travelers! Think of it. The volume controls in the same place whether you’re staying at the Marriott or the Motel 6. Just think how much better your mood will be after an evening of effortless, stress free channel surfing. Why, the boost in national productivity and the improvement in the national mood alone will be worth the trouble of passing this bill. That is my first pledge to you as president. My next step will be to make automated telephone systems illegal for all businesses and government offices. No longer will Americans call in to report a problem and have to decide whether to proceed “para en espanol”. In fact, allow me to digress for a moment. I will make it illegal for the use of a language other than English to occur unless specifically requested by the caller. Come on folks, it’s not fascism or racism to ask that those of you coming to the greatest English speaking country in the world learn to speak English. Is there anything crazier than giving driving tests in a foreign language? What does ‘no left turn’ look like in Spanish? How do you say, “Where is the voting booth”? Anyway, back to the phone systems. If a company isn’t big enough to be able to afford one person to at least answer the phone and verify a human presence at that company, they should sell to a bigger company and get out of business. As for government offices, we, and I mean me in the near future, with your support, are already paying a bunch of federal and state employees to sit around on their keisters and do nothing. So would it kill them to pick up the phone when it rings? I don’t think so. Recently, I was trying to get in touch with the SC Department of Revenue. I called 17 times, I swear it! Not once did I reach a real person. Not only that, but the phone system didn’t even refer me to a person. It suggested I go to the website for whatever information I needed. Finally, I did. I sent an inflammatory e-mail to the DOR’s director Dewey Taxema Bunch. Apparently the references to his mother, which I admit were regrettable and ill-advised, got his attention; and he called me. He didn’t know diddly squat, but he called me. It’s a start. As a side issue to this, I would require that any time telephone, internet, cable or electrical service is interrupted to an area, the service of everyone involved in the repairs be cut off as well, until the problem is fixed. That’s right. If I’m sitting in the dark, let the power company president be sitting in the dark. That’ll get the trucks rolling. If I’m missing FSU –Miami football, let the Charter Communications folks hierarchy miss it too. Charter Communications. Hah! Communications, I’ll tell you about communications. The cable went out Sunday morning, and when I called this “communications” company, I first had to decide whether to proceed “para en espanol”, then I had to work my way through an interminable automated phone system; only to learn that my waiting time to speak to a human would be 15 minutes. I’m pretty sure they were lying about that. Yeah, we’re really talking communications here. It was while I was pondering this circumstance that my deep and sincere desire to enter public service was born. I need your vote and your financial support. I’ve got a feeling my TV ad time is going to be expensive. Maybe I’ll shoot for FCC Commissioner. See you in 2008. Public Education By Stan Welch If you’re looking for a reminder of how old you’re getting, and I know most of us aren’t, try this on for size. I just watched my 14 year old son start his freshman year in high school. Can you believe that? I couldn’t! Why, I’m still a young lad myself, except for the knees, and the traditional middle age spread. Oh, and the stiff neck and rotator cuff problem. Sure, the hills up here make me short of wind, but other than that, I’m still just a kid at heart. Talk about short of wind, the cost of getting him into a public tax-supported school took my breath away. Fees for this, fees for that, buy this T shirt and that yearbook. Here’s your list of supplies (slightly shorter than Patton needed for the march on Berlin), and by the way, your kid will need an $85 calculator for science class. Has anyone considered the idea of having the school district buy these supplies in quantity, say 10,000 one inch 3 ring binders, or 50,000 number two pencils, or maybe 2000 of those $85 calculators, and sell them to the kids at a smaller markup than retail America? Let the PTO make a few bucks and shorten the lines at Wally World at the same time. “We also recommend that you buy the novels required for his English class. That way he can underline and highlight as he reads.” Whatever happened to taking notes? But, time marches on and the educational bureaucracy grows daily. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a great believer in education as the key to the future; because quite frankly, if the human race doesn’t get smarter quickly, that future will be much shorter than you might think. I happen to think that the biggest flaw in our educational system is how we define education these days. Standardized tests are merely a symptom of a standardized definition of what an education really is. The goal of public education seems to me to be turning out a predictable and fairly standard product: a student who will follow the mainstream of American society, economically, politically, and socially. Conformity, or at least, a sturdy respect for the status quo, seems to be the point of education. I know, I know! Blasphemy! All professional educators are convinced that they are turning out inspired and creative young people who will change the world one day. Perhaps, but not nearly as much as the world will change them; or more likely in these perilous times, as much as the world will change around them. In the 80’s and 90’s, standardized tests became far too important in the educational equation. Great efforts were made to help students “test better”. Now, test scores are up, but half the kids working after school at the Burger King can’t make change. Computer use and associated skills are important, but it seems only prudent to continue to train minds to function in the possible absence of a source of electrical energy. Computers and those who understand them clearly have a place in the future; but so do those who can fix an air conditioner in August, or an automobile in less than a week. The source of my personal lukewarmth towards the public education system in general is echoed in my view of American society in general. The individual is becoming less and less valued, except for his function within the society itself. There is little room being made for the maverick or the radical in this country anymore. They are tolerated at best, and suspect a fair amount of the time. That is unlikely to change any time soon. Perhaps in these nervous days, that is inevitable; I hope not, because a society is enriched by those who offer less than complete obedience to that society’s rules and goals. It is that refusal to buy the whole kit and kaboodle of social mores and standards that moves a society along the road towards improvement. Some of the great achievements of this nation have been the result of intellectual and cultural rebellion. Without minds willing to dare, and to dare ridicule, little will be accomplished by education except the homogenization of our culture. I see no contradiction in training minds to be strong enough, informed enough and confident enough to express themselves, whether it be in agreement or disagreement, with those training them. I fear that is not the case in many schools today; or if it is, it’s as the result of extraordinary individual teachers, and not policy. I believe there is now, and has been for some time, a subtle but increasing tendency to teach students what to think, rather than how to think. I also think there is a certain sense that professional educators have, at least at some level, that perhaps they know better than we, what is needed to educate our children. I think this trickles down from a top heavy federal and state bureaucracy, which rewards administrators much more richly than it does teachers. I know my son’s mind. I know it is quick and generally clear in its perceptions of the world. I say generally clear, because, after all, he is 14. I have no doubt that his talents will allow him to live a rewarding and meaningful life. I know that the many teachers he has had and the many more that await him will help him to attain that life. I also know that a fair number of those teachers will stand in his way, either willfully or out of their own inability to direct or inspire. To those teachers, I recommend a good deal of soul searching and a career change. I understand that my son and the sons and daughters of many others will be restricted by the “teach to the lowest common denominator” philosophy that comes hand in hand with the federal dollar. To those truly dedicated teachers who resent that philosophy as much as I do, I offer alliance in that struggle. To those real teachers, who can’t imagine doing anything else for a living, and who do a job I would not have for twice the money they make, I say thank you. If my son is ever less than fully respectful, let me |
