New Beaufort mayor wants warring sides to unite and fewer meetings closed to the public

Phil Cromer, who had served eight years on the City Council, said a tearful goodbye to city politics in December 2022. But the 73-year-old was back Tuesday, almost a year to the day after his swan song. This time, he was being sworn in as Beaufort’s next mayor.

What a difference a year makes. To Cromer, it was like somebody hit him in the head with a bat and he just woke up and “Here I am.”

Now that reality is setting in for Cromer, it’s time to get to work living up to his campaign pledges to the residents of a city he described as one of the best and most beautiful small communities in the country.

“As mayor, I pledge to have an accessible, responsive and open government that represents all of our citizens,” said Cromer, reading from a statement following an oath of office that took all of 6 minutes.

Afterward, Cromer said his priorities would include trying to soften the city’s hardball politics over development in recent months, reducing the number of closed meetings by the City Council, which he says breeds mistrust by the public, and addressing substandard housing.

“This is the literal shift of power,” Acting Mike McFee said when Cromer took the gavel and his seat.

Cromer left the City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. He was sworn in as mayor on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.

He decided to end his year-long retirement from local politics after Mayor Stephen Murray resigned in September with a year left in his term, citing the toll the job and fighting over development issues in the historic city of 14,000 was taking on his life.

In the special election to fill the year left in Murray’s term, the low-key Cromer ran on a pledge to lower the temperature of the city’s increasingly bruising political scene. He outdistanced former Councilman Mike Sutton 1,218-627 in the Dec. 12 election.

“I want to bring the sides together over the development issues,” Cromer said.

The city is tied up in a legal battle with the not-for-profit Historic Beaufort Foundation and Graham Trask, a property owner in the city, over approval of hotel and parking garage plans by 303 Associates in the city’s downtown. The city and 303, which has won the early rounds of the lawsuits, say the projects meet all of the city’s regulations and underwent an exhaustive review process. HBF and Trask argue the projects are too big and threaten the character of the city’s historic downtown.

Promises of more open government

During the campaign, Cromer also called for a reduction in the number of executive sessions by the City Council.

In 2023, the city had 24 regularly-scheduled work sessions. It voted to go into executive sessions, which are closed to the public, during parts of 17 of those meetings to discuss issues such as appointments to boards and commissions and lawsuits against the city.

“That’s way too many for me,” Cromer said Tuesday.

Meetings of public bodies must be open unless they cite one of several exemptions. Examples of those exemptions are discussions involving personnel, such as appointments to boards or commissions or disciplining an employee; selling or buying property; investigative proceedings; or getting legal advice.

The exemptions the Beaufort City Council cited for its executive sessions in 2023 were getting legal advice, discussions of appointments to boards, selling/buying land and pending contracts.

Cromer says he only wants executive sessions used if they are absolutely necessary. “Because I think you lose public trust when you go into executive session,” Cromer said.

One reason the city held executive sessions during 70 percent of its work sessions in 2023 is because of the lawsuits regarding development, Cromer noted.

Fixing the lingering disrepair

Another priority for Cromer is improving housing in the city’s core residential areas including the Northwest Quadrant neighborhood. An increasing number of homes, Cromer says, are falling into disrepair. The Northwest Quadrant was settled almost entirely by African Americans during and following the Civil War. At the time, it was referred to as a “freedman’s village.”

Dick Stewart, the owner of 303 Associates, the developer proposing the downtown developments at the center of the lawsuits, has launched an effort to revitalize those properties by providing financial assistance to property owners.

Cromer says he will try to bring the Historic Beaufort Foundation and other city partners together to see if more can be done to make improvements to these properties and prevent them from being torn down. “We’re losing a lot of buildings to neglect,” he says.

To address parking problems, Cromer also wants to have a discussion about a trolley system in which residents and tourists can be transported from areas where they park to downtown locations, particularly during festivals that draw thousands to the city.

The next Beaufort city council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 9.