Here’s a fun fact for Sunshine Week, the time each year in March when newspapers across the country shine bright lights on the importance of government transparency and public records: We’ve got a secrecy problem in Charleston.
Charleston Mayor William Cogswell, now well into his second year in office, still hasn’t sat down for an interview with the Charleston City Paper — despite repeated requests. His spokesperson, Deja McMillan, told us in November 2023 that the City Paper just wasn’t a priority for the mayor.
And lately, McMillan hasn’t answered any of our questions, again despite repeated requests. And consider this: She gets paid $125,000 a year by Charleston taxpayers to — wait for it — answer media questions.
So only the City Paper is getting the cold shoulder, right?
Nope. This past January, Cogswell also refused to sit down with The Post and Courier to answer questions about his first year in City Hall. Instead, the newspaper was told to submit written questions by email to his public relations team. After all, who wants to sit down for a probing interview on the toughest issues residents are dealing with — flooding, traffic, affordable housing, public safety — when you can just serve up the occasional fluffy TV sound bite?
Of course, it’s not just pesky reporters who are being kept in the dark.
By longstanding tradition, Charleston’s mayor is supposed to stand up every January and deliver a report to city council and residents on the state of the city. But for the past two Januaries, Cogswell has delivered silence instead.
Well, not complete silence — if you count the glossy social media videos starring Cogswell that his former campaign media team now churns out at taxpayer expense. Of course, controlling the message is a lot easier than actually holding yourself accountable by answering tough questions and delivering progress reports to residents.
So this brings us back to Sunshine Week, and why government transparency is worth fighting for — this week and every week.
Spoiler alert: It’s all about accountability. Because citizens don’t just have a right, but a need to know what their government is up to.
And using information gleaned from the public record and through incisive media reporting has forced enough accountability for people to kill any number of truly awful government ideas over the past few years — from the S.C. Port Authority’s original plan to wildly overdevelop Union Pier to Charleston County’s destructive and bank-breaking I-526 extension.
And you can bet people will kill the next bad idea, too — but only if they know about it in time.
That’s why the city of Charleston’s recent turn to secrecy is so troubling — and why we’re highlighting it this Sunshine Week.
Cogswell will make mistakes — not because he’s a bad man or even a bad mayor, but because he’s human. The question is whether Charleston City Council and city residents will hear about those inevitable missteps in time to protect everyone — including Cogswell — from the consequences.
So during this Sunshine Week, we’ll close with a plea we’ve made before: Please, Mr. Mayor, give transparency a try. Let your citizens see more Prince William — and less Backroom Billy.
Because the old saying is true: Sunshine really is the best disinfectant.
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