At the October 8 Beaufort City Council work session, the gloves came off. Accusations and downright insults were flying about the city’s response to Hurricane Helene.
About an hour into the meeting, abject former city mayor Stephen Murray entered the room with his family. Since his resignation from the Mayor seat just over a year ago, Murray has not had much of a public presence. His social media posts in support of Josh Scallate’s challenge of Phil Cromer for the mayor’s seat are the first the public has heard from him in quite a while. But, his public comments at the work session make it clear he intends to have his voice heard.
City Manager Scott Marshall gave a brief, comprehensive report about the city’s aftermath from Hurricane Helene. When the presentation was done, Mayor Cromer opened the floor to public comments and invited former Mayor Murray to have the floor. (Murray’s comments at 1:29) Mayor Cromer may not have been so gracious had he known what was coming.
Stephen Murray proceeded to blame the city’s lack of preparation, and his perceived deficiencies in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene squarely on Mayor Cromer. It would not be an overstatement to say that Murray verbally attacked the mayor. Cromer has described the effects of Helene as a “sucker punch” and a “surprise”. Murray told Cromer that a better word than “surprised would be complacent”. Continuing to address Mayor Cromer directly, Murray accused the mayor of not communicating with community officials, being more concerned with cleaning up than life safety concerns, as well as having a lack of leadership.
While Murray read all of his prepared statements aimed unabashedly at disgracing the mayor, Cromer listened professionally and politely. When Murray was done, Cromer responded, refuting some of Murray’s claims and defending his actions after the storm stating that he was advocating for Beaufort with the governor, Dominion, and all the county and city services: “If you think I didn’t care about the community, that’s not true.” Murray did not give Cromer the same courtesy he was afforded. Instead he got his two children and his wife and walked out of the room while Mayor Cromer was still responding.
After Murray left the room, Councilman and candidate for mayor Josh Scallate picked up where Murray left off criticizing the city’s response to Hurricane Helene. Scallate was elected to his first term on council in 2022. He criticized the city for not activating an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and went further to criticize the city’s Public Works Department for not prioritizing issues around the city the way he thought they should have. The Director of Public Works Nate Farrow spoke in response to some of Scallate’s criticisms explaining that the public works employees worked around the clock on 12 to 14 hour shifts in the days after the storm. Farrow also explained that there were certain issues where power lines were involved that Public Works could not address until Dominion deemed the area safe. Scallate’s jabs were ended when Cromer adjourned the meeting so that council members could move upstairs for the regular council meeting.
It appears that the current race for mayor is going to involve a current mayor on one side, and a former mayor and current councilman on the other. Former Mayor Murray and Councilman Scallate brought the campaign to the October 8 work session. The next few weeks are likely to bring more rounds in the fight for the mayor seat.
Thanks for providing coverage of government meetings.
However, it’s disappointing to read in your earlier post that the public’s right to hear from the city through a legitimate online news organization is being denied. Sounds like a freedom of information issue to me.
How in the world was it the Mayor’s fault that Dominion was overwhelmed with all the power
Outages. If Scallote was so concerned why didn’t he lead and fix what he thought was broken. Too easy to throw stones and stir pots.
Very unprofessional. Cromer wasn’t seeking attention through his leadership.