It’s been two years since Charleston voters narrowly picked a new path for the city. And frankly, what’s happened so far is, to put it mildly, disturbing.
First, a culture of secrecy in city government has developed among the administration of freshman Mayor William Cogswell and members of city council, who too often follow him like lemmings into non-required private sessions to do the city’s business.
Evidence of this culture came last year with a redesigned city brand that suddenly appeared with no input from council. Then the mayor and his merry band of underlings reorganized the way that government works from a strong-mayor form in which city department heads reported to the mayor to what is essentially a hands-off weak mayor style in which department heads report to an unelected chief of staff who earns more than the mayor.
But beyond these structural anomalies comes something even more concerning: the rapid departure of several key staff members with vital institutional memories that have made the city hum for decades under the Riley and Tecklenburg administrations.
One former city employee told us, “I really enjoyed working for [John] Tecklenburg and [Joe] Riley because they let their department heads serve as experts. They listened to them for guidance, instead of the mayor pretending he knew everything about every department.”
Sure, some of these administrators were getting close to retirement age, but what about the nationally-recognized planner who fled to Baltimore after reportedly getting a lot of administration interference. Or the late Dale Morris who resigned not once, but twice, after his role as the city’s water guru was greatly minimized. Others who left for one reason or another included administrators in charge of human resources, cultural affairs, information technology, emergency management, neighborhood services and public services. Also gone is the abrasive Logan McVey, who served as Cogswell’s campaign manager before being named chief policy officer for the city despite reportedly having little municipal government experience.
All of this turbulence and interference in Charleston’s government came from a mayor’s office that seems to want to be more of a developer-in-chief than a leader for all Charlestonians.
Unfortunately, Cogswell’s brand of leadership is having a bigger, darker impact, too. Today after less than two years of Cogswell being in office, the morale of Charleston’s municipal employees is so low that even more workers are said to be thinking about flying the coop.
Another former employee told us, “Cogswell and company remind me of that [The Great] Gatsby line about careless people: ‘They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.’”
What’s happening too often now in Charleston government is not good for taxpayers who are used to a city that has worked pretty smoothly in the past.
So as you go to the polls in the days ahead to participate in city elections, you might want to look at council candidates based on whether they wear the mayor’s “bro hat” and go along with just about anything and everything. Or whether they will be likely to stand up when they see people and departments being wrongly treated.
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