Mayoral candidates take final stand

JAMES ISLAND -- The five candidates for town mayor honed their messages Tuesday in their final side-by-side appearance before Tuesday's election.

An estimated 300 people filed into James Island Baptist Church to hear the quintet respond to questions about town services, recreation facilities, public safety, traffic and more. Many of the questions were asked and answered at three earlier forums, but some questions were new or uniquely related to the Riverland Terrace community in which the church is located.

Candidates were asked to identify their financial backers, to say which of the 10 Town Council candidates they support, to say whether they support a livability court for the town, to reveal their political party affiliations and to spell out their "vision" for the town.

WTMA radio personality Richard Todd posed prepared questions for Mayor Mary Clark and Brett "Skibo" Johnson, Bill Woolsey, Warren Sloane and Jonathan Brown.

Brown declared that he has the best vision for the town, and maintained the other candidates lack any vision "beyond the first 90 days" after taking office. He insisted that problems with "core services" like ditch and dirt-road maintenance can be worked out in just a few months, permitting the town to then move on to more sophisticated efforts at bettering quality of life.

Brown said his long-term vision for the town is one with more sidewalks and bike paths, which he said would interconnect neighborhoods and take many motor vehicles off roads. Riverland Terrace is an example to follow, he said. He rejected using eminent domain to acquire property for paths and sidewalks.

Humorously invoking Martin Luther King Jr., Brown expressed longings for a unified island by stating he looks forward "to the time when people are judged not by the color of their trash can but by the content of their character."

Clark, who attended three of the four forums, said her vision is the entire island "under one government again, not divided as it is now. That would be heaven." Noting that part of the island is in the city of Charleston, part in the town of James Island (and part in the unincorporated areas of Charleston County), she noted that a huge impediment to unification is in place.

"For that to happen, the city would have to vote to let you out," she said.

Clark said the town has "built a solid foundation." She said that she just wants one more term so she can be in office when the S.C. Supreme Court, as she predicts, rules that the town's third incorporation was legal.

Woolsey cited his previous service on an earlier incarnation of the town and said he's the only challenger "who understands how council works." He said he favors "hiring a professional town administrator" to work full time for the town.

"We've got to work to get our services back to when we had the county" providing services, Woolsey said. He said the town must work with the city to provide recreation facilities the two entities could share use of, "and have all the children of James Island playing together."

Noting that because the town does not require election runoffs, except for ties at the top, "the new mayor is likely to be elected with 30 percent of the vote. One of my first goals is to change that," he said, adding a mayor should have to gather a majority of the voters' support.

Sloane, who like other candidates has made an issue of Clark's responses to residents critical of her, and her ongoing feuds with other area governments, said more than 1,000 people have come to the four forums, "and everyone seems to know that something is wrong with the town and we need a change."

Sloane said that among the candidates only he has the type of job, as a property manager, that will give him the latitude to work full time at Town Hall.

"My vision is a for a respectful town and a respected one," Sloane said. He said the town has serious budget issues that "took four years to get to this point," but which will be worked out. "The town is broken and I am the one to fix it," Sloane said, adding that core services he said are now lacking will be provided.

Johnson said the town must repair its bad image, which he said will require it "to make friends with other municipalities." Getting "back in the good graces" with the county could get the town the road and ditch services the county cancelled when the town was formed, and get better policing from the Sheriff's Office, Johnson said.

But he added, "I don't think we'll ever live without friction with the city of Charleston."

Johnson said he'd regularly attend neighborhood association meetings to become more familiar with what residents want.

Covering the politics of the Lowcountry, South Carolina and the nation.

When asked about party affiliation, candidates answered but noted this is a non-partisan election.

"If I had to say any affiliation, I'd say libertarian," Woolsey said.

Sloane said, "I am in the GOP."

Clark said she's not party affiliated but has "attended Republican groups."

Johnson said that if he must declare affiliation, "I guess it would be Republican."

Brown didn't name a political party but indicated he splits his ticket. "I voted for the president and the governor," he said, adding "I've got bad taste in every election."

Reach Edward C. Fennell at 937-5560 or efennell@postandcourier.com.