Lucky Dog Publishing Owner, Rom Reddy (pictured to the right) and his family
“Reddy or Not” is a periodic column that will appear representing the opinion of Lucky Dog Publishing owner Mr. Reddy but not necessarily the opinion of the paper. In keeping with the paper’s philosophy of publishing all opinions, the publisher welcomes responses to Reddy or Not. Responses must be limited to 300 words and will be published on a space available basis.
Isle of Palms Council can enhance its credibility and build trust by adopting transparency and ethics covenants that better represent the interests of its constituents. Public governing bodies like Isle of Palms Council represent taxpayers, allocate and spend taxpayer dollars exclusively, and are therefore fully accountable to taxpayers. Council's poorly defined use of executive sessions and confidentiality clauses that limit transparency should be severely restricted and clearly defined. Discussing a personnel issue in executive session to protect the privacy of an employee, for example, should be acceptable. Any commercial issue that subjects a taxpayer to current or future liability should be open to the public, or the minutes of any non-public meeting should be available to the public. Any barriers to full transparency must be eliminated. Council should also consider adopting strong ethics and conflict of interest covenants. Council members are there to represent the wishes of the citizens. If their personal interests’ conflict with the wishes of their constituents, they should recuse themselves from such votes or resign from office if the conflict is systemic and ongoing. Several recent actions by the IOP Council are troubling in this regard. Mayor Pounds chose to initiate disciplinary action against Council Member Miars for writing a column in this paper expressing her views on a commercial matter which allegedly conflicted with recently adopted code of conduct covenants approved by Council. Ms. Miars has a right to her opinion and the right to freely express her views to taxpayers. Code of conduct rules that get in the way of transparency should be amended to provide full transparency and not used to muzzle an elected official expressing her views to her constituents. Public bodies should not be subject to rigorous confidentiality clauses that private entities have where private entities represent the interests of a small body of shareholders as opposed to the interests of a large body of taxpayers. On the conflict-of-interest front, Council member Hahn formed a separate private, unelected “Republic" that claims to represent the same citizens represented by the elected city Council. Council member Hahn, in his capacity as a member of the unelected Republic, has filed suit against the State, claiming the interests of Island citizens were violated by the State. We agree with Council member Hahn that anyone can legally challenge any statute. We also agree with Mr. Hahn that after one year in office, no measurable results have been achieved by Council on the issue of parking and the connector.
However, by also being a member of City Council, there can be the appearance that Mr. Hahn’s suit is a back doorway for the City Council to file suit against the State. This does not appear to be the case, but the litigation has the potential to significantly impede any strategies the city may be pursuing. Council rules of conduct should recognize obvious conflicts like this and force Council member Hahn to step down from his elected office on City Council or his unelected office in the Republic. A similar conflict exists with Council member Popson, who voted against the Wild Dunes zoning bill, saying he is personally opposed to any restrictions on property rights due to his poor experience in his personal business with Mount Pleasant. It is Council member Popson's right to have an opinion, but when an overwhelming majority of his constituents feel different, he must represent his constituents or recuse himself from the vote.
Establishing trust and always representing the interests of constituents over personal interests is the founding principle of a vibrant democracy. It is our hope that IOP Council can make some much needed reforms.
