City shoots down $1.6 million expansion
Folly Beach Public Safety Chief Terry Boatwright begged the City Council to approve $1.6 million for a Public Safety/City Hall expansion at their regular meeting on October 27. But despite his pleading, the Council voted 4-3 against the measure prompting Mayor Carl Beckmann to go on a tirade criticizing the four Council members who voted against the ordinance.
“What Council has done proves this Council has no regard for staff, workspace or otherwise,” Beckmann scorned. “This is the 11th-hour, do-nothing Council. I’m looking out for residents of this City and you, my friends, are not.”
His comments conjured a small roar of disapproval from those who voted against the $1.6 million expansion which included Dave Stormer, Tim Goodwin, Tom Scruggs and Eddie Ellis.
“I take offense to that,” Ellis tried to say. However, his comments were diluted by Mayor Beckmann’s gavel who ended the meeting immediately after his comments, preventing any official rebuttal.
There has been no disagreement that City staff is in desperate need of more room among Council members. Instead, they have spent their debates arguing over how the City should go about providing that space and the proper use of PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) money. However, passion for individual ideas created a schism based on a false premise that those who are not in favor of the $1.6 million expansion are playing politics. For example, public comment from Chief Boatwright may have emboldened the nay vote. At the very least, his words were offensive to Council member Tom Scruggs who voted against the project.
Replicating his speech to the City Council from a previous meeting, Boatwright begged for help before criticizing those who were hesitant to the pull trigger on the expansion. He explained that the Public Safety Department was severely lacking, saying that “officers don’t have a place to hang their hat” and that the Victims Advocate Officer who counsels and converses with victims of violent crimes does not even have an office in which to have those private conversations. He then suggested that those City Council members who questioned the project were playing politics.
“It blows my mind,” he exclaimed while addressing the Council. “You can’t look me in the eye and tell me you care a flipping thing about the employees and not provide them with the tools they need.”
This comment came before the vote.
Of course, that accusation did not go over well with everyone. Eddie Ellis assured Chief Boatwright that there was no politicking going. However, it was Tom Scruggs who was obviously offended. As Chief Boatwright stood at the podium, Scruggs pointed out that Boatwright has a “pretty nice job” with a good salary, and a free car to drive among other benefits. He also pointed out that the Public Safety Chief is not a resident who will be financially impacted by the $1.6 million expansion and that he [Scruggs] is trying to ensure the residents are not being taxed beyond necessity.
“You don’t live here. You don’t pay taxes here,” he said plainly to the Chief.
The meeting ended abruptly with flared tempers. Ironically, five minutes had not passed when the siren of a Folly Beach Fire Truck could be heard and the lights could be seen as it left the station located right behind City Hall.
(We will update this story and provide more details in the November 13 edition of The Folly Current)
