ReconsiderMt. Pleasantpower shift

There has been recent discussion taking place in the Town of Mount Pleasant regarding the form of government and whether or not it was time to change from a council-manager form of government to a mayor-council form. Last Tuesday night, Mayor Billy Swails announced at the Town Council meeting that he was going to drop the issue for now because he did not have council support for moving forward.

We would like to encourage Mount Pleasant Town Council and Mayor Swails to not completely abandon the issue. Instead, perhaps a small group could be assembled to study the issue.

In 2009, the Trident CEO Council commissioned a study on this topic -- not specific to the Town of Mount Pleasant, but rather one that looked at the compensation and duties and responsibilities of mayors and councils in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia entitled "A Compensation Comparison of Mayors and City Councils among Communities in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia." You can read the report in its entirety at www.tridentceocouncil.com.

We wanted to conduct the study because the Trident CEO Council strongly believes that if communities are going to attract quality pools of candidates to seek office for a position that requires essentially full-time work, the compensation should be realigned to more closely match the experience needed and the time requirements of the elected position.

The purpose of the study is to compare the salary of mayors, council members and administrators/managers (if applicable) as well as to determine the number of hours mayors work in each community as a gauge of comparison of overall duties and responsibilities.

In many ways, the reasons Mayor Swails even brought the issue of changing the form of government align with what we found in our study.

Many mayors interviewed pointed out that their communities' needs or expectations have grown over time so that their time spent on mayoral duties has also increased. Some commented that they have had to reduce the number of event attendances that are more ceremonial in nature in order to fulfill the increasing official responsibilities and critical needs of their communities.

As the study found, a part-time mayor requires an average of 30-50 hours per week.

As a result, most candidates are not in the workforce (i.e. retired) or have jobs that allow them to serve without impacting operations and revenues of their firm.

If communities are going to attract a quality pool of candidates to seek office for a position that requires essentially full-time work, the compensation should be realigned to more closely match the requirements of the office. Perhaps what is really needed first in Mount Pleasant is to look at the demands and requirements placed on the Mayor and how that has changed as the town has grown.

In addition to a full-time administrator, Mayor Swails works many more hours than the current part-time position is supposed to and he is compensated at a much lower rate than a full-time job. If the responsibilities now require more than part-time hours, perhaps the job description and the salary ranges need to be readjusted as well.

Mount Pleasant is strategic to our region with over 65,000 residents, a $60 million budget, major port facility, significant highway system, the largest high school in the state and many successful businesses. It is time to adjust and adapt to the growth of the town.

Don't abandon the whole idea in Mount Pleasant just yet.

The Trident CEO Council urges the town to take the time to really study the issue and find the solution that works best for the future.

John C.L. Darby is chairman of the Trident CEO Council.