Auto MechanicNear Isle of Palms, SC

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCBD) – Three candidates vying for an open seat on Isle of Palms City Council gave voters an opportunity Monday night to hear what they want to accomplish if elected to council.

The candidates were asked about three main issues for this election: beach erosion, short-term rentals, and residents’ quality of life.

The special election comes after former city councilwoman Elizabeth Campsen resigned from her position because she was moving off the island. Former council members Susan Smith and Rusty Streetman announced their candidacies shortly after, followed by newcomer Joshua Hooser.

Voters sent in questions asking about the plan for the future of the beaches. Candidate Susan Smith helped create the environmental advisory committee. She told the potential voters that if elected she wants to get to work on flooding resiliency and beach erosion.

“It’s only going to get more urgent as we see sea level rise and more storm intensity more flooding, and bigger king tides those are significant to have viable livable communities in the coming decades but at the same, there are lots of opportunities to do quality of life initiative and make sure everybody here is enjoying the natural resources,” said Smith.

Rusty Streetman said during the forum his top priority was stormwater drainage. He cited his experience on council working on drainage projects as why voters should re-elect him.

“We continue to have very significant drainage issues on the island we finished some outfall work which has really helped us down on the coastal waterway but we still have a lot of stormwater issues on Palms Blvd. and the interior of the isle where we have the drainage issues that need to be cleaned out, so they flow better,” said Streetman.

Candidates were asked their stance on short-term rentals which, Hooser says is a top priority.

“There a lot of short-term rentals and a decline of residents and houses that are getting bought are being bought by out-of-town investors and they’re either bulldozing or renovating them and pricing people out of the neighborhood and I want to have a city where my kids can grow up and can stay and afford a house to live and I’m hoping to be a new generation and a voice for the future,” said Hooser.

The forum was hosted at the Isle of Palms Exchange Club and sponsored by Lucky Dog Publishing.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.

COLUMBIA — The court case involving a controversial sea wall will continue into next year after attorneys for the state's environmental regulatory body argued information regarding the construction of the wall was withheld during the initial discovery process.

The S.C. Department of Environmental Services is seeking a court-ordered removal of the wall that comprises 92 linear feet behind a beachfront home on the Isle of Palms.

At a hearing Sept. 23, attorneys for the agency argued the discovery portion of the case was delayed by former attorneys from Finkel Law Firm who represented homeowners Rom and Renee Reddy.

DES attorneys claimed the lawyers withheld information about who the couple hired to work on the wall and other documents, including emails and text messages.

Sallie Phalen, attorney for the DES Bureau of Coastal Management, told Chief Administrative Law Judge Ralph Anderson, III that Rom Reddy’s attorneys named construction company CNT Foundations and ProGreen, an artificial turf manufacturer, as the only companies that performed work on the wall, and that attorneys did not know the names of the subcontractors employed by CNT Foundations.

News

Phalen presented a text message exchange between Reddy and an employee of Blutide Maritime Construction, a local contracting company that builds docks and seawalls.

"We should try and finish up clay and move sand back behind critical line today, if we can, as the haters will be out in full force this weekend. I also have a call with my attorney at 3 p.m. in case I have to deal with OCRM (Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management)," the text from Reddy read.

Phalen said the message contradicts what Reddy’s attorneys said to know about contractors. Not providing the message disregarded an order from Anderson in June that required the attorneys to provide any estimates or invoices from contractors the Reddys communicated with or spoke to, she said.

DES counsel also said Finkel Law Firm failed to provide emails and texts from Reddy’s wife Renne, email attachments, videos of the wall and photos of the work site while the wall was being constructed.

Rachel Ferguson Bailey, a representative for Finkel Law Firm, said the firm was dropped by the Reddys' as counsel in early July. The Isle of Palms residents are now represented by Williams Mullen, a law firm with offices in North and South Carolina and Virginia.

The state agency is asking that the firm pay a penalty in the form of attorney's fees.

Bailey said the law firm did not hide or conceal information from DES during the discovery process, asking Anderson to deny the department's request that the Finkel Law Firm pay financial penalties, including attorney's fees.

"We were informed that CNT (Foundations) was the contractor, and they then reached out to all the subcontractors," Bailey said. "We were never given any direct information further beyond that."

Bailey said there was little to no communication between the firm and DES to remedy the discrepancies in requested information before the agency filed a motion to compel on July 15.

"We did our best in terms of what we attempted and what we asked for," Bailey said.

DES said the access for related documents improved after the Reddys parted ways with Finkel Law Firm. The new attorneys have introduced recordings of meetings with DES employees and text messages, Phalen said.

Bailey maintained that the discrepancies in information comes down to what the client provided.

"We asked our client for the material. We pressed for the material that we asked for. Our client gave us an answer. We can only ask so many times. We produced what we had," Bailey said.

Anderson will deliver an order in the coming days, his clerk said, on whether to place sanctions on Finkel Law Firm based on the arguments presented.

Meanwhile, discovery for the overarching case between DES, the Coastal Conservation League and the owners of the wall is ongoing.

Williams Mullen attorney John Tamasitis told the court that more than 1,000 additional pages of documents have been provided by his clients since taking over the case in July.

DES filed suit against the Reddys in February over what they considered to be an unauthorized seawall be stopped. The office says the structure was built in the critical area of the beach and no permits were approved for the work.

The final verdict on whether the barrier behind the Reddy home can stay, or if DES will be granted orders for its removal, will be decided early 2025.