Beaufort’s next mayor will be Cromer or Sutton: Where do they differ on issues?
Beaufort’s special election for mayor pits two veteran local politicians with competing visions for the city of 14,000. The rare mid-term race to fill the top job comes as the city attempts to preserve its historic charm while at the same time dealing with development and traffic pressures that come with the growing pains for the more than 300 year old city.
Phil Cromer, who spent 23 years as a risk-management consultant for the Municipal Association of South Carolina, left the City Council in December after serving for eight years. Mike Sutton, a historic restoration contractor, preceded Cromer on the council, serving two terms that ended in 2014.
The long-time Beaufort pols are running in a Dec. 12 special election that will decide who completes the final year of former Mayor Stephen Murray’s term.
Both men say they like each other. Each says the other would do a good job. Each has ties to historic preservation. Both agree that spurring tax growth to help the city manage the pressures of growth around the city in places such as Lady’s Island and Port Royal are key.
Politeness aside, there are key differences between the two candidates.
The differences may be the most stark when it comes to their views on two important groups in the city, the city’s Historic District Review Board (HDRB), and the not-for-profit Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF).
The HDRB reviews building and development within the city’s historic district that’s filled with old homes and businesses. Some of those structures date to the Civil War era — some are even older. That district includes the city’s downtown area.
HBF is the city’s leading preservation group. The city and HBF have sparred in court and at City Hall in recent years over the approval by city panels including the HDRB of construction of large projects including apartments, a parking garage and a hotel.
That division culminated in a Sept. 12 vote in which the City Council ended the practice of accepting nominations from the HBF for one seat on the 5-member HDRB, arguing it wasn’t fair to give an interest group an advantage over other groups. That prompted push back from preservation interests. Murray resigned shortly after, prompting the need for this special election.
Here’s where Sutton and Cromer stand on the issues and why they say are running:
HBF Nominations
Cromer
Cromer, president of the Beaufort County Historical Society, was disappointed that the city ended the practice of accepting nominations from HBF for one of the seats on the HDRB.
“Because you’ve got a preservation board, you should have preservationists on it,” Cromer says. “Just like if you have a medical board, you want doctors on it. That’s my thinking on it.”
If elected, Cromer says he will not bring up the issue. But if another member of the council did raise restoring HBF nominations to city code, he would probably vote in favor of it. Cromer says he just wants the best qualified people serving on the board. He notes that the City Council has turned down nominations from the HBF in the past.
“I want the best and the brightest,” says Cromer, “who know what they are doing to be on these boards.”
Cromer is proposing that the qualifications of all the people who apply for city boards and commissions be publicly posted. Some of the city’s boards and panels, he notes, are quasi-judicial, noting that appeals of decisions do not go to the City Council but to the courts.
Sutton
Sutton says no not-for-profit group should have a direct right to have a “permanently assigned seat” on the HDRB. There is a need for citizen input and having members with different qualifications and expertise but he views setting aside one seat for one group as lobbying.
Downtown projects
Cromer
Cromer says he has some uncertainty about the projects by 303 Associates to build a hotel, apartments and parking garage downtown. Creating the uncertainty for him is whether 303 Associates is vested under an old city code that was replaced by a new code in 2017 that specifically addressed mass and scale. For example, Cromer says the hotel project got larger after the old code was replaced by the new code.
The cases are still tied up in court. Cromer says he believes in the rule of law and will follow the law until it’s changed.
“I’m not going to fight it,” Cromer says.
Sutton
As for the legal cases on the downtown projects, Sutton says the HDRB went through an arduous process and voted and approved the projects and did not break any rules. The lawsuits undermine the ability of any government to function, he says. The HBF, he noted, had a seat on the HDRB at the time. Sutton was not on the HDRB when the projects were approved.
“It’s totally inappropriate for a nonprofit group that partners with the city, holds its hand out when it needs it for city benefit and for its own benefit, to turn around and try to find a legal technical reason why, and sue, and cause all the bad blood that’s happened,” Sutton said. “It’s just totally inappropriate. That organization truly lost their way in my mind.”
Why he’s running
Cromer
Cromer, a Charleston native, was a history major at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and earned a master’s in public administration from USC and the College of Charleston.
When he left office late last year, he said, he had no intention of returning to politics. But with the mayor resigning and the lawsuits and the loss of the HBF seat on the HDRB, Cromer said, “I felt like it was time to step in and maybe lower the temperature a little bit. A lot of people thought I was sort of a calming voice when I served on council so they urged me to get back into this race.”
Cromer says he can lower the temperature because he gets along with varying interests, from HBF to the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce to 303 Associates. “I think I’m able to bring them together and try to resolve these differences,” Cromer says. “I’m a listener.”
Sutton
Sutton, who served for 21 years in the Coast Guard and retired in 1998 with a background in marine engineering and environmental emergency response, says he doesn’t think there’s as much discord in the city as some make it out. In his view, the discord involves a small group of people who are upset with the HBF seat coming off the HDRB. The average Beaufortonian, he says, is not concerned about that issue.
“It’s a conversation in one circle, Sutton says. “We call it the vocal minority when you’re in politics.”
He chose to run, he said, because he doesn’t want the HBF’s loss of a seat on the HDRB to be the reason for electing a mayor.
“There was a group that wants to get their seat back and they put somebody up to run for mayor to try to do that,” Sutton says. “Now that person is a friend of mine and has good credentials to be a mayor. I have no problem with that. But I don’t think that’s a reason to jump into an arena simply to appease one entity in a city our size.”
Cromer says he’s not endorsed by anybody – except his wife.
Sutton also says he wants to rebuild bridges. HBF can do whole lot more to help the city and “I can help them.” He wants “to do real preservation that helps the city,” he says, and not just talk about it.
Top issues
Cromer
The overarching issue Cromer wants to address is trying to manage the area’s rapid growth without negatively impacting the community’s character and charm and environment and quality of life.
Other issues he says would get priority are creating more affordable housing, diversifying the economy and investing in city infrastructure to make it more resilient against king tides, flooding and rising sea levels.
Finding ways to grow the tax base, Cromer says, is critical in protecting what makes the city special. That isn’t easy in Beaufort because a good portion of its property is non taxable structures such as churches, government buildings and schools, he says.
Sutton
Improving infrastructure related to traffic and regional growth is Sutton’s No. 1 concern.
“How do we continue to foster a quality of life that allows us to feel like a small town with growth around us,” he says.
Infrastructure isn’t at a breaking point yet, but it’s getting close, Sutton says. The symptoms range from inconveniences like traffic jams on the Woods Memorial Bridge to safety related issues like speeding and traffic infractions. There has been a huge increase in traffic violations, he notes, such as running red lights and motorists speeding through back streets through neighborhoods. The sheer number of calls is stretching police and fire departments, he says. The issue is that 85 percent of their calls for service come from people who don’t live in the city’s taxing jurisdiction.
“Out of control regional growth is the No. 1 impact on the ability to run a city our size,” Sutton said. “And we have to be strong. We have to be at the table.”
Business is so important because it creates jobs and diversifies revenue streams that keeps costs down to residential taxpayers. There are only 5,000 single family homes in the city of Beaufort, he notes, making the city just a tiny footprint in the larger community.
Executive sessions
Cromer
Cromer thinks the city holds too many executive sessions. That’s the practice of government bodies of closing doors to the public to discuss topics such as employee discipline, contracts or legal cases. Cromer thinks the city uses them too much and it’s eroding public trust “because they think, ‘OK they’re carrying on business behind closed doors.’” He says there are ways the city can reduce the number of executive sessions.
Traffic enforcement
Sutton
If elected, Sutton says, he will bring more support for law enforcement and first responders to handle traffic control differently than it’s been done in the past.
“To me that means consistent enforcement of traffic regulations,” Sutton says. “That’s the No. 1 easy fix but it comes with a price.”
Biggest differences
Cromer
Cromer says the biggest difference between he and Sutton is their outlooks on growth. Cromer says he wants to manage and balance it more so the city’s charm and character can be preserved. The city, he says, can’t lose its sense of place.
“You can have too much growth,” Cromer says. “All you have to do is look to the north of us in Charleston and see how they messed it up there and just look south of the Broad (River). Is that the kind of quality of life you want to see? Do you want to sit in traffic all day? I don’t.”
While Beaufort itself has not grown that much in population, the area around it “has just blown up since COVID,” Cromer says, which is putting pressure on the city to grow the tax base. The rub with growth and expanding the tax base, Crome says, is doing it “without messing up the things we like.”
Cromer also says he has more experience in public sector while Sutton has more experience in the private sector. During his career, Cromer was town administrator for the towns of Port Royal and Ridgeland, besides his job with the Municipal Association of South Carolina, which he says are good skills sets to be mayor.
Sutton
Sutton says he would be a “brick and mortar” mayor “whose hands” would not be afraid to get into the “minutia” of governing.
His diversity of life experiences, compared to Cromer, makes his candidacy stand out, he says.
Besides being a licensed historic restoration contractor, Sutton has served in the military, in law enforcement, on the City Council and on boards and commissions. He can do any trade including welding, electrical, plumbing and carpentry.
“Those are important when you are making decisions about infrastructure,” Sutton says. “The difference is I have my eye on the ball.”
Sutton says he has a major institutional knowledge of Beaufort as well.
“We don’t have to keep re-visioning Beaufort,” Sutton said. “Let’s leave it alone. Let’s protect it. Let’s make it stronger.”
Woods Memorial Bridge
Cromer
The bridge between Beaufort and Lady’s Island has experienced several malfunctions in recent months causing significant traffic congestion.
Cromer supported getting the bridge placed on the National Register of Historic Places. That happened in January.
One idea he would support is having digital signs put up on locations on Sea Island Parkway that alert motorists when it is about to close due to boat traffic giving them time to take an alternate route. That would be one way to avoid traffic jams, he says. He also wants to make sure that the operators of the swing bridge stick to their schedule.
Sutton
The city can’t keep its head buried in the sand hope the problems associated with the bridge go away, Sutton says.
“That bridge has a timeline on it,” Sutton says. “It can’t be maintained forever the way it is.”
Old zoning rules, poor planning and lack of attention have lead to overpopulation in the region. One result is 20,000 people now live on Lady’s Island and Woods Memorial Bridge is one of just two connectors. Sutton compares it to an hourglass. “We’re going to have to discuss a third crossing at some point,” Sutton said.
Ribaut Road
Beaufort County commissioned a plan for improving Ribaut Road that included reducing the number of lanes between Duke Street and Reynolds Streets. That caused an outcry and now alternatives are in the works. Both Sutton and Cromer said narrowing Ribaut at that location could create safety issues for emergency vehicles getting to accidents or to the hospital. It’s been the hottest topic in the city, says Sutton, adding he hasn’t encountered one person who supports the change. “What they’ve done is aggravate an entire community,” he says.
What’s next
Candidates forum for Beaufort mayoral race, 6-8 p.m., Nov. 30, United Church, 1801 Duke St., sponsored by Old Commons Neighborhood Association.
Candidates forum for Beaufort mayoral race, 6-7 p.m., Dec. 4, USCB Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., sponsored by Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce.
