Dorchester County, S.C. - At Thursday night’s Dorchester GOP Executive Committee meeting tempers flared and the gavel was smacked several times as members of the EC disagreed over hot topics in the community. Early on in the meeting one member of the EC requested to amend the meeting’s agenda to include a new resolution focusing on last week’s SCGOP convention, but the motion was ruled out of order due to the EC not receiving 5 days notice prior. Some members vocally objected to this ruling from DCRP Chairman Steven Wright, and one woman was so visibly angry after being ruled out of order that she promptly left immediately following the ruling.
Chairman Steven Wright updated members on some of the business upcoming in the party such as the upcoming Faith, Family, and Freedom fundraiser that he hinted would likely attract a top tier Republican Presidential candidate. Chairman Wright attempted to shift focus from the party infighting to remind the Committee that the focus of the DCRP should be to organize, raise money, and build the party to defeat Democrats.
A separate resolution regarding the Freedom Caucus passed the EC without much discussion. Read the resolution in full below.
Shortly after came the real fireworks of the evening when the discussion of the proposed resolution on the 500 N Main St project came up. You can read the full resolution below. Both County Councilman David Chinnis and Todd Friddle spoke against the resolution at length. Chinnis pointed out what he called factual inaccuracies and misinformation in the resolution regarding the date and price of the sale of the 500 N Main St property to the County in 1937.
“Everyone is wigging out over a conceptual idea” argued Councilman Todd Friddle who also spoke against the resolution stressing that nothing with the developer is set in stone. He pointed out that Town Councilman Bill McIntosh who was in attendance (and is widely expected to announce his campaign for Mayor officially) had stated in the Post and Courier recently that he doesn’t object to removing the 500 N Main St building from the Midtown TIF district, to which Mcintosh confirmed from the back of the room.
Peter Gorman spoke after the County Councilman in favor of the resolution stating “What you heard from Council is a sugar coating scheme to grow tax revenue with high density housing and big government..”
Gorman went on to claim the 500 N Main St project was “An attempt to bully citizens who want to preserve southern town charm” and referred to the project as a “get rich quick scheme with big government infringing on your quality of life”.
During discussion over the amendment Councilman Chinnis claimed there were 5 items stated as fact in the resolution that needed to be amended. Hunter Jackson motioned to amend the resolution which later passed the Committee. Shortly after a vote was taken to table the 500 N Main resolution until Committee members could further study the subject. The vote to table passed with 26 for tabling, 23 against tabling, and one member of the EC abstaining.
The night concluded with another tense moment as Chairman Wright revealed that someone on the EC had shared the internal party email list against party rules in an effort to share opinions about an upcoming vote. This sparked comments from County Councilman David Chinnis who motioned (he later withdrew) to censure Joe Cali and anyone else who sends unsolicited opinion emails to the entire DCRP list. Cali responded by saying he will “remove people from his list if they dont want his emails and didn’t intend to offend anyone.” Chairman Wright noted that when people disclose their email addresses with the DCRP they are only looking for relevant party updates and not personal opinions. Wright concluded his remarks by saying “I'll continue only sharing relevant information (when sending out emails) rather than sharing my opinions”.
Read all of our coverage on 500 N Main:
Dorchester County Council Seeks Removal of 500 N Main from Midtown TIF; Points to More Bond Capacity